Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes Tim Stinovich from Bloomberg Radio to Bloomberg Green,
Speaker 1: reporting last month that there is some thirty five trillion
Speaker 1: dollars invested in sustainability globally, Tim, not surprising now given
Speaker 1: the movement that we've seen from investors and from companies
Speaker 1: that want to make sure, hey, this is where our
Speaker 1: clientele is going. Yeah, And speaking of companies that are
Speaker 1: focusing on sustainability, that includes McDonald's and McDonald's Corporations Chief
Speaker 1: sustainability officer Jenny McCulloch joining us on the phone in Chicago. Jenny,
Speaker 1: great to have you here with Tim and myself. How
Speaker 1: are you hi, Carol, Hi, Tim, It's great to be here.
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me on the show today. Well, tell
Speaker 1: us about your latest announcement when it comes to we've
Speaker 1: been talking a little bit about happy Meals. You guys
Speaker 1: have made um a sustainable move when it comes to them. Absolutely,
Speaker 1: we've got a lot underway here and sustainability on our
Speaker 1: food and on our restaurants and communities. But today it's
Speaker 1: all about points and the special fund that the Happy
Speaker 1: Meal experience brings to families around the world. We announced
Speaker 1: today that by the end of will be drastically reducing
Speaker 1: plastics across our Happy Maal toys around the world and
Speaker 1: transitioning to more sustainable materials. So we're really excited about
Speaker 1: this news and look forward to talking about that. So
Speaker 1: it's it's a few years off. Why does it take
Speaker 1: so long to make a transition like that, Well, when
Speaker 1: we think about the scale of McDonald's, were operating in
Speaker 1: nearly forty thousand communities and over a hundred countries around
Speaker 1: the world. So when we think about innovation, we have
Speaker 1: to you know, really lean with our suppire partners on
Speaker 1: markets that are really willing to test and lead and
Speaker 1: take those first steps, and then think about what we
Speaker 1: can learn from our customers and families and what we
Speaker 1: can scale later. So what we're doing here is building
Speaker 1: on some really great momentum that we've seen in France,
Speaker 1: the UK and Ireland where these more sustainable toys have
Speaker 1: been being rolled out since and we're working on roadmap
Speaker 1: to scale those to other markets around the world and
Speaker 1: we may even see some of those in the portfolio
Speaker 1: as soon as it's winter or the US. I think
Speaker 1: it's so cool, Jenny, I do what I love talking
Speaker 1: about companies like you, really big companies who can move
Speaker 1: the needle on things, especially when it comes to the
Speaker 1: supply chain. Is that part of the problem that it's
Speaker 1: going to Tim's point, I'm always like, why can't we
Speaker 1: just do it now? Why can't we do it in
Speaker 1: a year and a half or two years? Is it
Speaker 1: because the existing infrastructure, supply chains, what have you, they
Speaker 1: just don't quite exist yet. Well, I would say that
Speaker 1: when we think about innovation at scale, we do need
Speaker 1: to try different things and and get feedback from customers
Speaker 1: and kids about what works and what doesn't. So part
Speaker 1: of that is is just a typical sort of prototype
Speaker 1: feedback cycles that you'd expect. Um. When we also think
Speaker 1: about the happy male experience, we are so focused on
Speaker 1: the safety and sturdiness of those experiences for the toys
Speaker 1: because we know that that safety is such an important
Speaker 1: part of the happy male experience for our families. So
Speaker 1: we want to be very mindful as we make changes
Speaker 1: to the design of the toy. But that being said,
Speaker 1: you know, we have the privilege to work with some
Speaker 1: of the world class piers around the world in this
Speaker 1: area and have amazing designers, scientists, engineers, toy innovators, play experts,
Speaker 1: all thinking about where we can make changes and and
Speaker 1: we have seen some really exciting ideas that can be scaled.
Speaker 1: And so when we think about, you know, the commercial
Speaker 1: design of a toy from start to finish, it does
Speaker 1: take quite a while anyway, and so to make these
Speaker 1: changes is just part of that longer term innovation process
Speaker 1: for us. So what are what's an example of a
Speaker 1: sustainable toy or a more sustainable toy. What's it made
Speaker 1: out of and what does it look like? Sure, so
Speaker 1: the materials when we think about what we're considering more
Speaker 1: sustainable materials as part of the goal, is anything that's
Speaker 1: made from renewable, recycled, or certified materials. So that could
Speaker 1: be certified sustainable fiber, such as in a puzzle or
Speaker 1: you know, build it yourself dinosaur craft construction project um
Speaker 1: or it could be from recycled plastic or plant based
Speaker 1: plastic that you might see from sugarcane or or soybean
Speaker 1: that gets mixed and derived into more rigid, hard plastic toys.
Speaker 1: So some of the toys that our customers are enjoying
Speaker 1: today might be made from plants in the future and
Speaker 1: they may not even know the difference in the actual
Speaker 1: soy experience. Um, but we we are looking at sort
Speaker 1: of both those changes to the toy design as well
Speaker 1: as reimagining of classic favorites that just use more innovative materials.
Speaker 1: Plant based is making us think about the food that
Speaker 1: you guys sak exactly. Yeah, that's that's exactly what I
Speaker 1: think about, Jenny, when I when I hear about sustainability
Speaker 1: and think about beef and meat, my mind doesn't necessarily
Speaker 1: go to toys and plastic toys. It goes to the
Speaker 1: impact that cattle have on the environment, from methane to deforestation.
Speaker 1: And I'm wondering, as chief sustainability officer at McDonald's, how
Speaker 1: you think about those challenges. Well, we think about those
Speaker 1: challenges very much in concert with what where we have
Speaker 1: responsibilities across all of our our offerings for our customers,
Speaker 1: and we've been on a journey with our food sourcing
Speaker 1: and our packaging sourcing or over a decade looking at
Speaker 1: our sourcing regions where we can promote more sustainable practices
Speaker 1: with our supplier partners, and you touched on it with
Speaker 1: the comments around beef. We have prioritized work on the
Speaker 1: sustainability with supply chain partners and NGOs and farmers and
Speaker 1: ranchers for many, many years. We just wrapped up a
Speaker 1: series of commitments leading into where we'd really worked with
Speaker 1: the industry to articulate a vision for what more sustainable
Speaker 1: beef production could mean, how we could eliminate deforestation and
Speaker 1: high risk regions for beef sourcing and other commodities as well,
Speaker 1: and also how we can promote and support best practices
Speaker 1: among farmers who are really pioneering more innovative regenerative practices
Speaker 1: on their farms and ranches and help support scaling those
Speaker 1: practices across the industry with our supplier partners. So while
Speaker 1: the announcement today is it's very much around toys and
Speaker 1: the fun of the happy meal, we've we've been at
Speaker 1: at work for quite some time looking at the sustainability
Speaker 1: of the food and this is just, you know, one
Speaker 1: more our step in a long line of commitments that
Speaker 1: we continue to work on and we'll keep working on
Speaker 1: if we look for well, really cool to check in
Speaker 1: with you, Jenny, and I hope we can get you back.
Speaker 1: Jenny McCulloch, she's chief sustainability officer at McDonald's joining us
Speaker 1: on the phone from Chicago. I mean you've got to
Speaker 1: approach it from like a lot of different angles. Yeah. Never,
Speaker 1: I didn't even consider the happy Not really. No, I
Speaker 1: didn't either, um right, because we don't focus on it.
Speaker 1: But they sell a lot of them, and if you
Speaker 1: think about it, that makes sense. Kids will know no, no, exactly.
Speaker 1: All right, you're listening to Boomberg Radio.