Newsletter Stories


Thursday, 13 July 2017
McDonald’s and International Paper Talk FSC at GreenBiz

McDonald’s and International Paper Talk FSC at GreenBiz (© GreenBiz)© GreenBiz

July 13, 2017


"We can have Rainforest Alliance Certified espresso, we can have great sustainability programs in our supply chain, we can have great tasting, high quality coffee, but if we try to tell them it’s high quality and put it in a foam cup, they don’t believe it," said Townsend Bailey, director of supply chain sustainability at McDonald's U.S at a recent GreenBiz event.

With that insight, a session with FSC partners McDonald’s and International Paper opened with a focus on McDonald’s work to transition all 14,000 of their US restaurants to FSC-certified hot cups. This was no simple task, given the scale of their operations, but the goal was clear due to McDonald’s fiber sourcing policy, which states a preference for FSC.

The challenge for International Paper: Figure out how to source enough FSC-certified fiber to meet McDonald’s needs.

As IP’s manager of natural capital stewardship and FSC US board member Sophie Beckham noted, the company has brought more than 500,000 acres of forestland into their FSC group certificate over the last few years to meet demand from companies like McDonald’s. One of the keys was bringing McDonald’s team members out into the forest, to introduce them to landowners and show them what FSC really means. For landowners, “it gives them a sense of pride” in the way they are managing their forests when a company like McDonald’s comes to pay a visit.

In partnership with WWF’s Global Forest and Trade Network, FSC worked with McDonalds and International Paper to develop “One Simple Action,” our recent video to engage consumers.

Watch the whole conversation.