McDonald's

Corporate logo used from 1960 until November 18, 1968

Corporate logo used from November 18, 1968 until 2003

Corporate logo used from 2003 to 2006

By 1993, McDonald's had sold more than 100 billion hamburgers. The once widespread restaurant signs that boasted the number of sales, such as this one in Harlem, were left at "99 billion" because there was space for only two digits. This McDonald's closed in late 2019. [18]

The McDonald's in Northport, Alabama commemorates U.S. President Ronald Reagan's visit

McDonald's restaurants are found in 120 countries and territories around the world and serve 68 million customers each day.[19][20] McDonald's operates 37,855 restaurants worldwide, employing more than 210,000 people as of the end of 2018.[11][12][19] There are a total of 2,770 company-owned locations and 35,085 franchised locations, which includes 21,685 locations franchised to conventional franchisees, 7,225 locations licensed to developmental licensees, and 6,175 locations licensed to foreign affiliates.[11][12]

Focusing on its core brand, McDonald's began divesting itself of other chains it had acquired during the 1990s. The company owned a majority stake in Chipotle Mexican Grill until October 2006, when McDonald's fully divested from Chipotle through a stock exchange.[21][22] Until December 2003, it owned Donatos Pizza, and it owned a small share of Aroma Café from 1999 to 2001. On August 27, 2007, McDonald's sold Boston Market to Sun Capital Partners.[23]

Notably, McDonald's has increased shareholder dividends for 25 consecutive years,[24] making it one of the S&P 500 Dividend Aristocrats.[25][26] The company is ranked 131st on the Fortune 500 of the largest United States corporations by revenue.[27] In October 2012, its monthly sales fell for the first time in nine years.[28] In 2014, its quarterly sales fell for the first time in seventeen years, when its sales dropped for the entirety of 1997.[29]

In the United States, it is reported that drive-throughs account for 70 percent of sales.[30][31] McDonald's closed down 184 restaurants in the United States in 2015, which was 59 more than what they planned to open.[32][33] This move was the first time McDonald's had a net decrease in the number of locations in the United States since 1970.[33]

The McDonalds on-demand delivery concept, which began in 2017 with a partnership with Uber Eats and added DoorDash in 2019, accounts for up to 3% of all business as of 2019.[34]

For the fiscal year 2018, McDonalds reported earnings of US$5.9 billion, with an annual revenue of US$21.0 billion, a decrease of 7.9% over the previous fiscal cycle. McDonald's shares traded at over $145 per share, and its market capitalization was valued at over US$134.5 billion in September 2018.

Ray Kroc joined the chain in 1954 and built it into a global franchise, making it the most successful fast food corporation in the world

The company owns all the land on which its restaurants are situated, which is valued at an estimated $16 to $18 billion. The company earns a significant portion of its revenue from rental payments from franchisees. These rent payments rose 26 percent between 2010 and 2015, accounting for one-fifth of the company's total revenue at the end of the period.[48] In recent times, there have been calls to spin off the company's U.S. holdings into a potential real estate investment trust, but the company announced at its investor conference on November 10, 2015, that this would not happen. CEO Steve Easterbrook discussed that pursuing the REIT option would pose too large a risk to the company's business model.[49]

The United Kingdom and Ireland business model is different from the U.S, in that fewer than 30 percent of restaurants are franchised, with the majority under the ownership of the company. McDonald's trains its franchisees and management at Hamburger University located at its Chicago headquarters.[50][51] In other countries, McDonald's restaurants are operated by joint ventures of McDonald's Corporation and other, local entities or governments.[52]

According to Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser (2001), nearly one in eight workers in the U.S. have at some time been employed by McDonald's. Employees are encouraged by McDonald's Corp. to maintain their health by singing along to their favorite songs in order to relieve stress, attending church services in order to have a lower blood pressure, and taking two vacations annually in order to reduce risk for myocardial infarction.[53] Fast Food Nation states that McDonald's is the largest private operator of playgrounds in the U.S., as well as the single largest purchaser of beef, pork, potatoes, and apples. The selection of meats McDonald's uses varies to some extent based on the culture of the host country.[54]

On June 13, 2016, McDonald's confirmed plans to move its global headquarters to Chicago's West Loop neighborhood in the Near West Side. The 608,000-square-foot structure was built on the former site of Harpo Productions (where the Show and several other Harpo productions taped) and opened on June 4, 2018.[5][6]

The McDonald's former headquarters complex, McDonald's Plaza, is located in Oak Brook, Illinois. It sits on the site of the former headquarters and stabling area of Paul Butler, the founder of Oak Brook.[55] McDonald's moved into the Oak Brook facility from an office within the Chicago Loop in 1971.[56]

As of January 2019, the board of directors had the following members:[57]

• Enrique Hernandez Jr., non-executive chairman; president and CEO of Inter-Con Security
• Lloyd H. Dean, president and CEO of Dignity Health
• Stephen J. Easterbrook, president and CEO of McDonald's
• Robert A. Eckert, operating partner of Friedman Fleischer & Lowe
• Margo Georgiadis, CEO of Ancestry.com
• Jeanne P. Jackson, CEO of MSP Capital
• Richard H. Lenny, non-executive of Conagra Brands
• John J. Mulligan, executive vice president and COO of Target Corporation
• Sheila A. Penrose, non-executive chairman of Jones Lang LaSalle
• John W. Rogers Jr., chairman and CEO of Ariel Investments
• Miles D. White, chairman and CEO of Abbott Laboratories
• Andrew J. McKenna, chairman emeritus. Also chairman emeritus of Schwarz Supply Source

On March 1, 2015, after being chief brand officer of McDonald's and its former head in the UK and northern Europe, Steve Easterbrook became CEO, succeeding Don Thompson, who stepped down on January 28, 2015.

Countries with McDonald's restaurants, showing their first year with its first restaurant

McDonald's has become emblematic of globalization, sometimes referred to as the "McDonaldization" of society. The Economist newspaper uses the "Big Mac Index": the comparison of the cost of a Big Mac in various world currencies can be used to informally judge these currencies' purchasing power parity. Switzerland has the most expensive Big Mac in the world as of July 2015, while the country with the least expensive Big Mac is India[58][59] (albeit for a Maharaja Mac—the next cheapest Big Mac is Hong Kong).[60]

Thomas Friedman said that no country with a McDonald's had gone to war with another;[61][62] however, the "Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention" is incorrect. Exceptions are the 1989 United States invasion of Panama, NATO's bombing of Serbia in 1999, the 2006 Lebanon War, and the 2008 South Ossetia war. McDonald's suspended operations in its corporate-owned stores in Crimea after Russia annexed the region in 2014.[63] On August 20, 2014, as tensions between the United States and Russia strained over events in Ukraine, and the resultant U.S. sanctions, the Russian government temporarily shut down four McDonald's outlets in Moscow, citing sanitary concerns. The company has operated in Russia since 1990 and at August 2014 had 438 stores across the country.[64] On August 23, 2014, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich ruled out any government move to ban McDonald's and dismissed the notion that the temporary closures had anything to do with the sanctions.[65]

Some observers have suggested that the company should be given credit for increasing the standard of service in markets that it enters. A group of anthropologists in a study entitled Golden Arches East[66] looked at the impact McDonald's had on East Asia and Hong Kong, in particular. When it opened in Hong Kong in 1975, McDonald's was the first restaurant to consistently offer clean restrooms, driving customers to demand the same of other restaurants and institutions. McDonald's has taken to partnering up with Sinopec, the second largest oil company in the People's Republic of China, as it takes advantage of the country's growing use of personal vehicles by opening numerous drive-thru restaurants.[67] McDonald's has opened a McDonald's restaurant and McCafé on the underground premises of the French fine arts museum, The Louvre.[68]

The company stated it would open vegetarian-only restaurants in India by mid-2013.[69]

On January 9, 2017, 80% of the franchise rights in the mainland China and in Hong Kong were sold for US$2.08 billion to a consortium of CITIC Limited (for 32%) and private equity funds managed by CITIC Capital (for 20%) and Carlyle (for 20%), which CITIC Limited and CITIC Capital would formed a joint venture to own the stake.[70]

• McDonald's restaurants
• 
  Orlando, Florida, United States
• 
  Markham, Ontario, Canada
• 
  Pop-up restaurant at the Olympic Park in London, United Kingdom
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  Inside McDonald's in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Poland
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  Lugano, Switzerland
• 
  Paris, France
• 
  Dubai, UAE
• 
  Busan, South Korea
• 
  Tokyo, Japan
• 
  Hong Kong
• 
  Sydney, Australia
• 
  Sargodha, Pakistan

A McDonald's Ebi Feast meal sold at branches in Singapore, November 2013. McDonald's is known for tailoring its menus in different markets to cater to local tastes

Restaurants in several countries, particularly in Asia, serve soup. This local deviation from the standard menu is a characteristic for which the chain is particularly known, and one which is employed either to abide by regional food taboos (such as the religious prohibition of beef consumption in India) or to make available foods with which the regional market is more familiar (such as the sale of McRice in Indonesia, or Ebi (prawn) Burger in Singapore and Japan).

In Germany and some other Western European countries, McDonald's sells beer. In New Zealand, McDonald's sells meat pies, after local affiliate McDonald's New Zealand partially relaunched the Georgie Pie fast food chain it bought out in 1996.[78]

In the United States and Canada, after limited trials on a regional basis, McDonald's began offering in 2015[79] and 2017,[80] respectively, a partial breakfast menu during all hours its restaurants are open.

Counter service in a McDonald's restaurant in Dukhan, Qatar

Most standalone McDonald's restaurants offer both counter service and drive-through service, with indoor and sometimes outdoor seating.[81] Drive-Thru, Auto-Mac, Pay and Drive, or "McDrive" as it is known in many countries, often has separate stations for placing, paying for, and picking up orders, though the latter two steps are frequently combined;[81] it was first introduced in Sierra Vista, Arizona in 1975,[82] following the lead of other fast-food chains. The first such restaurant in Britain opened at Fallowfield, Manchester in 1986.[83]

In some countries, McDrive locations near highways offer no counter service or seating.[84] In contrast, locations in high-density city neighborhoods often omit drive-through service.[85] There are also a few locations, mostly in downtown districts, that offer a "Walk-Thru" service in place of Drive-Thru.[86]

A Montevideo McCafé

McCafé is a café-style accompaniment to McDonald's restaurants. The concept was created by McDonald's Australia, where it is marketed as Macca's, starting with Melbourne in 1993.[87] As of 2016, most McDonald's in Australia have McCafés located within the existing McDonald's restaurant. In Tasmania, there are McCafés in every restaurant, with the rest of the states quickly following suit.[81] After upgrading to the new McCafé look and feel, some Australian restaurants have noticed up to a 60 percent increase in sales. At the end of 2003, there were over 600 McCafés worldwide.

From 2015–2016, McDonald's tried a new gourmet burger service and restaurant concept based on other gourmet restaurants such as Shake Shack and Grill'd. It was rolled out for the first time in Australia during the early months of 2015 and expanded to China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Arabia and New Zealand, with ongoing trials in the US market. In dedicated "Create Your Taste" (CYT) kiosks, customers could choose all ingredients including type of bun and meat along with optional extras. In late 2015 the Australian CYT service introduced CYT salads.

After a person had ordered, McDonald's advised that wait times were between 10–15 minutes. When the food was ready, trained crew ('hosts') brought the food to the customer's table. Instead of McDonald's usual cardboard and plastic packaging, CYT food was presented on wooden boards, fries in wire baskets and salads in china bowls with metal cutlery. A higher price applied.

In November 2016, Create Your Taste was replaced by a "Signature Crafted Recipes" program designed to be more efficient and less expensive.[88]

Some locations are connected to gas stations and convenience stores,[89] while others called McExpress have limited seating and/or menu or may be located in a shopping mall. Other McDonald's are located in Walmart stores. McStop is a location targeted at truckers and travelers which may have services found at truck stops.[90]

In Sweden, customers who order a happy meal can use the meal's container for a pair of goggles.[91] The company created a game for the goggles known as Slope Stars.[91] " McDonald's predicts happy goggles will continue in other countries.[91] In the Netherlands, McDonald's has introduced McTrax that doubles as a recording studio; it reacts to touch.[91] They can create their own beats with a synth and tweak sounds with special effects.[91]

A kosher Express McDonald's outlet in the Malha Mall in Jerusalem

The first kosher McDonald's was established in 1997 at the Abasto de Buenos Aires mall in Buenos Aires, Argentina. There are many kosher branches in Israel.[92][93]

A McDonald's in Panorama City, Los Angeles, California with a Playplace designed to promote a family-friendly image

McDonald's playgrounds are called McDonald's PlayPlace. Some McDonald's in suburban areas and certain cities feature large indoor or outdoor playgrounds. The first PlayPlace with the familiar crawl-tube design with ball pits and slides was introduced in 1987 in the US, with many more being constructed soon after.

McDonald's Next use open-concept design and offer "Create Your Taste" digital ordering. The concept store also offers free mobile device charging and table service after 6:00 pm. The first store opened in Hong Kong in December 2015.[94]

An American McDonald's in Mount Pleasant, Iowa in June 2008; this is an example of the "new" look of American McDonald's restaurants

In 2006, McDonald's introduced its "Forever Young" brand by redesigning all of its restaurants, the first major redesign since the 1970s.[95][96]

The goal of the redesign is to be more like a coffee shop, similar to Starbucks. The design includes wooden tables, faux-leather chairs, and muted colors; the red was muted to terracotta, the yellow was shifted to golden for a more "sunny" look, and olive and sage green were also added.

To create a warmer look, the restaurants have less plastic and more brick and wood, with modern hanging lights to produce a softer glow. Many restaurants feature free Wi-Fi and flat-screen TVs. Other upgrades include double drive-thrus, flat roofs instead of the angled red roofs, and replacing fiber glass with wood. Instead of the familiar golden arches, the restaurants feature "semi-swooshes" (half of a golden arch), similar to the Nike swoosh.[97]

McDonald's began banning smoking in 1994 when it restricted customers from smoking within its 1,400 wholly owned restaurants.[98]

Since the late 1990s, McDonald's has attempted to replace employees with electronic kiosks which would perform actions such as taking orders and accepting money. In 1999, McDonald's first tested "E-Clerks" in suburban Chicago, Illinois, and Wyoming, Michigan, with the devices being able to "save money on live staffers" and attracting larger purchase amounts than average employees.[99]

In 2013, the University of Oxford estimated that in the succeeding decades, there was a 92% probability of food preparation and serving to become automated in fast food establishments.[100] By 2016, McDonald's "Create Your Taste" electronic kiosks were seen in some restaurants internationally where customers could custom order meals. As employees pushed for higher wages in the late-2010s, some believed that fast food companies such as McDonald's would use the devices to cut costs for employing individuals.[101]

In September 2019, McDonald's purchased an AI-based start-up Apprente for replacing human servers with voice-based technology in its US drive-throughs.[102]

On August 5, 2013, The Guardian revealed that 90 percent of McDonald's UK workforce are on zero hour contracts, making it possibly the largest such private sector employer in the country.[103] In April 2017, due to employee strikes, they gave all employees the option of fixed contracts instead.[104] A study released by Fast Food Forward conducted by Anzalone Liszt Grove Research showed that approximately 84 percent of all fast food employees working in New York City in April 2013 had been paid less than their legal wages by their employers.[105]

From 2007 to 2011, fast food workers in the U.S. drew an average of $7 billion of public assistance annually resulting from receiving low wages.[106] The McResource website advised employees to break their food into smaller pieces to feel fuller, seek refunds for unopened holiday purchases, sell possessions online for quick cash, and to "quit complaining" as "stress hormone levels rise by 15 percent after ten minutes of complaining."[107] In December 2013, McDonald's shut down the McResource website amidst negative publicity and criticism. McDonald's plans to continue an internal telephone help line through which its employees can obtain advice on work and life problems.[108]

Liberal think tank the Roosevelt Institute accuses some McDonald's restaurants of actually paying less than the minimum wage to entry positions due to 'rampant' wage theft.[109] In South Korea, McDonald's pays part-time employees $5.50 an hour and is accused of paying less with arbitrary schedules adjustments and pay delays.[110] In late 2015, Anonymous aggregated data collected by Glassdoor suggests that McDonald's in the United States pays entry-level employees between $7.25 an hour and $11 an hour, with an average of $8.69 an hour. Shift managers get paid an average of $10.34 an hour. Assistant managers get paid an average of $11.57 an hour.[111] McDonald's CEO, Steve Easterbrook, earns an annual salary of $1,100,000.[112] His total compensation for 2017 was $21,761,052.[113]

Fast food workers on strike outside of a McDonald's in St. Paul, Minnesota

McDonald's workers have on occasions decided to strike over pay, with most of the employees on strike seeking to be paid $15.00.[114] When interviewed about the strikes occurring, former McDonald's CEO Ed Rensi stated: "It's cheaper to buy a $35,000 robotic arm than it is to hire an employee who's inefficient making $15 an hour bagging french fries" with Rensi explaining that increasing employee wages could possibly take away from entry-level jobs.[115] However, according to Easterbrook, increasing wages and benefits for workers saw a 6% increase in customer satisfaction when comparing 2015's first quarter data to the first quarter of 2016, with greater returns seen as a result.[115]

In September 2017, two British McDonald's stores agreed to a strike over zero-hours contracts for staff. Picket lines were formed around the two stores in Crayford and Cambridge. The strike was supported by the Leader of the Opposition Jeremy Corbyn.[116][117]

Workers at the McDonald's franchise at Saint-Barthelemy, Marseille, occupied the restaurant, in protest against its planned closure. Employing 77 people the restaurant is the second-biggest private sector employer in Saint-Barthélémy, which has an unemployment rate of 30 per cent.[118] Lawyers for Kamel Guemari, a shop steward at the franchise, claimed an attempt was made to kill him when a car drove at him in the restaurant car park.[119][120]

In March 2015, McDonald's workers in 19 U.S. cities filed 28 health and safety complaints with the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration which allege that low staffing, lack of protective gear, poor training and pressure to work fast has resulted in injuries. The complaints allege that, because of a lack of first aid supplies, workers were told by management to treat burn injuries with condiments such as mayonnaise and mustard.[121] The Fight for $15 labor organization aided the workers in filing the complaints.[122]

McDonald's and NASA explored an advertising agreement for a planned mission to the asteroid 449 Hamburga; however, the spacecraft was eventually cancelled.[131]

McDonald's entered the NASCAR Cup series in 1977, sponsoring Richard Childress for one race. Between the years 1977 and 1986, McDonald's would only sponsor a handful of races in a season. In 1993, McDonald's would become the full-time sponsor for the No. 27 Junior Johnson & Associates Ford, driven by Hut Stricklin. In 1994, Stricklin would be replaced in the car by Jimmy Spencer, who would go on and win twice that season. The following season McDonald's would move over to the No. 94 Bill Elliott Racing Ford, driven by team-owner Bill Elliott. McDonald's would stay will Elliott until the 2001 season when they moved again, this time to the No. 96 PPI Motorsports Ford, driven by rookie Andy Houston. However, when the team failed to field a car for the entire season, McDonald's became absent from NASCAR until 2004, when it joined Evernham Motorsports, becoming a part-time sponsor for drivers Bill Elliott, Kasey Kahne, Elliott Sadler, A.J. Allmendinger, and Reed Sorenson all the way until 2010. During the 2010 season, McDonald's would enter its longest partnership with a team. Sponsoring select races with Chip Gannasi Racing's No. 1 Chevrolet, driven by Jamie McMurray, McDonald's would go and sponsor McMurray until his retirement in the 2019 Daytona 500. In 2019, McDonald's would stay with Chip Ganassi Racing, switching to the No. 42 car, driven by Kyle Larson. McDonald's would also sponsor Richard Petty Motorsports No. 43 Chevrolet, driven by Darrell Wallace Jr., for a single race. As of November 2019, McDonald's still sponsors the No. 42 Chevrolet driven by Kyle Larson.

McDonald's is the title sponsor of the McDonald's All-American Game, all-star basketball games played each year for American and Canadian boys' and girls' high school basketball graduates.

A Ronald McDonald House collection box in Framingham, Massachusetts

McHappy Day is an annual event at McDonald's, during which a percentage of the day's sales go to charity. It is the signature fundraising event for Ronald McDonald House Charities.[132]

In 2007, it was celebrated in 17 countries: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, England, Finland, France, Guatemala, Hungary, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United States, and Uruguay.

According to the Australian McHappy Day website, McHappy Day raised $20.4 million in 2009. The goal for 2010 was $20.8 million.[133]

In 1995, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital received an anonymous letter postmarked in Dallas, Texas, containing a $1 million winning McDonald's Monopoly game piece. McDonald's officials came to the hospital, accompanied by a representative from the accounting firm Arthur Andersen, who examined the card under a jeweler's eyepiece, handled it with plastic gloves, and verified it as a winner.[134] Although game rules prohibited the transfer of prizes, McDonald's waived the rule and made the annual $50,000 annuity payments for the full 20-year period through 2014, even after learning that the piece was sent by an individual involved in an embezzlement scheme intended to defraud McDonald's.

McRefugees are poor people in Hong Kong, Japan, and China who use McDonald's 24-hour restaurants as a temporary hostel. One in five of Hong Kong's population lives below the poverty line. The rise of McRefugees was first documented by photographer Suraj Katra in 2013.[135]

Discreet shopfront in historic Stratford-upon-Avon

In response to public pressure, McDonald's has sought to include more healthy choices in its menu and has introduced a new slogan to its recruitment posters: "Not bad for a McJob".[143] The word McJob, first attested in the mid-1980s[139] and later popularized by Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland in his book Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, has become a buzzword for low-paid, unskilled work with few prospects or benefits and little security. McDonald's disputes this definition of McJob. In 2007, the company launched an advertising campaign with the slogan "Would you like a career with that?" on Irish television, asserting that its jobs have good prospects.

In an effort to respond to growing consumer awareness of food provenance, the fast-food chain changed its supplier of both coffee beans and milk. UK chief executive Steve Easterbrook said: "British consumers are increasingly interested in the quality, sourcing, and ethics of the food and drink they buy".[144] In a bid to tap into the ethical consumer market,[145] McDonald's switched to using coffee beans taken from stocks that are certified by the Rainforest Alliance, a conservation group. Additionally, in response to pressure, McDonald's UK started using organic milk supplies for its bottled milk and hot drinks, although it still uses conventional milk in its milkshakes, and in all of its dairy products in the United States.[146] According to a report published by Farmers Weekly in 2007, the quantity of milk used by McDonald's could have accounted for as much as 5 percent of the UK's organic milk output.[147]

McDonald's announced on May 22, 2008, that, in the United States and Canada, it would switch to using cooking oil that contains no trans fats for its french fries, and canola-based oil with corn and soy oils, for its baked items, pies and cookies, by year's end.[148][149]

With regard to acquiring chickens from suppliers who use CAK/CAS methods of slaughter, McDonald's says that it needs to see more research "to help determine whether any CAS system in current use is optimal from an animal welfare perspective."[150]

Stagnant water in a discarded McDonald's plastic cup.

Since McDonald's began receiving criticism for its environmental practices in the 1970s, it has significantly reduced its use of materials.[151] For instance, an "average meal" in the 1970s—a Big Mac, fries, and a drink—required 46 grams (1.6 oz) of packaging; today, it requires 25 grams (0.88 oz), a 46 percent reduction.[152] In addition, McDonald's eliminated the need for intermediate containers for cola by using a delivery system that pumps syrup directly from the delivery truck into storage containers, saving two million pounds (910 tonnes) of packaging annually.[153] Weight reductions in packaging and products, as well as increased usage of bulk packaging, ultimately decreased packaging by twenty-four million pounds (11,000 tonnes) annually.[154] McDonald's efforts to reduce solid waste by using less packaging and by promoting the use of recycled materials were recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.[155]

In 1990, McDonald's worked with the Environmental Defense Fund to stop using "clam shell"-shaped styrofoam food containers to store its food products.[156]

In April 2008, McDonald's announced that 11 of its restaurants in Sheffield, England, were engaged in a biomass trial program that cut its waste and carbon footprint by half in the area. In this trial, waste from the restaurants was collected by Veolia Environmental Services and used to produce energy at a power plant. McDonald's announced plans to expand this project, although the lack of biomass power plants in the United States would prevent adoption of this plan as a national standard there anytime soon.[157] In addition, in Europe, McDonald's has been recycling vegetable grease by converting it to fuel for its diesel trucks.[158]

In an effort to reduce energy usage by 25 percent in its restaurants, McDonald's opened a prototype restaurant in Chicago in 2009, intending to use the model in its other restaurants throughout the world. Building on past efforts, specifically a restaurant it opened in Sweden in 2000 that was the first to incorporate green ideas, McDonald's designed the Chicago site to save energy by managing storm water, using skylights for more natural lighting, and installing partitions and tabletops made from recycled goods, among other measures.[159]

In 2012, McDonald's announced they would trial replacing styrofoam coffee cups with an alternative material.[160]

In 2019, McDonalds switched from plastic straws to paper ones in Ireland and the United Kingdom in an effort to reduce plastic pollution.[161] However, a subsequent investigation by The Sun found that the new paper straws were not recyclable.[161] Disabled activists criticized the shift away from plastic straws as ableist.[162]

McDonald's uses a corn-based bioplastic to produce containers for some products. The environmental benefits of this technology are controversial, with critics noting that biodegradation is slow and produces greenhouse gases, and that contamination of traditional plastic waste streams with bioplastics can complicate recycling efforts.[163]

Studies of litter have found that McDonald's is one of the most littered brands worldwide. In 2012, a Keep Australia Beautiful study found that McDonald's was the most littered brand in Queensland.[164][165] In 2009, Keep Britain Tidy likewise found McDonald's to be the leading producer of fast-food litter on British streets, accounting for 29% of the total. [166] An early protest against this practice was "Operation Send-It-Back", launched by London Greenpeace in 1994 in response to the company's targeting of activists in the McLibel Trial.[167] Participants in Operation Send-It-Back returned 30 sacks of McDonald's litter to the company.[167] In the 2010s, similar individual protests took in New Zealand[168] and England.[169]

McDonald's has been involved in a number of lawsuits and other legal cases, most of which involved trademark disputes. The company has threatened many food businesses with legal action unless it drops the Mc or Mac from trading names.

In April 2017, Irish fast-food chain Supermac's submitted a request to the European Union Property Office to cancel McDonald's owned trademarks within the European Union, claiming that McDonald's engaged in "trademark bullying; registering brand names... which are simply stored away in a war chest to use against future competitors", after the trademarks had prevented Supermac's from expanding out of Ireland. The EUIPO ruled in Supermac's favour, finding that McDonald's "has not proven genuine use" of many trademarks, cancelling McDonald's owned trademarks such as 'Big Mac' and certain 'Mc' related trademarks within the European Union.[170][171][172]

Burger King responded by trolling McDonald's by giving their sandwiches names like "Like a Big Mac But Juicier", "Like a Big Mac, But Actually Big" and "Big Mac-ish But Flame-Grilled of Course".[173]

On September 8, 2009, McDonald's Malaysian operations lost a lawsuit to prevent another restaurant calling itself McCurry. McDonald's lost in an appeal to Malaysia's highest court, the Federal Court.[174]

In April 2007, in Perth, Western Australia, McDonald's pleaded guilty to five charges relating to the employment of children under 15 in one of its outlets and was fined A$8,000.[175]

The longest-running legal action of all time in the UK was the McLibel case against two defendants who criticized a number of aspects of the company. The trial lasted 10 years and called 130 witnesses. The European Court of Human Rights deemed that the unequal resources of the litigants breached the defendants rights to freedom of speech and biased the trial. The result was widely seen as a "PR disaster" for McDonald's.[176]

A famous legal case in the U.S. involving McDonald's was the 1994 decision in Liebeck v. McDonald's Restaurants, where Albuquerque, New Mexico resident Stella Liebeck was initially awarded $2.86 million (equivalent to $4.49 million in 2018)[177] after 81-year-old Liebeck suffered third-degree burns after spilling a scalding cup of McDonald's coffee on herself. The award was later reduced to $640,000 (equivalent to $1 million in 2018).[178][179] In 2019, a McDonald's employee, Jenna Ries, sued the restaurant chain over allowing sexual harassment in the work place and described the working environment as "toxic".[180]