The issues of global climate change and shortage of fossil fuels have forced a lot of business tycoons to become socially responsible. A lot of corporations have decided to start mending their ways of carrying out their processes. From shifting to usage of non-plastic materials to acquiring energy from renewable energy resources, they are now trying to minimize their carbon footprint on the Earth as much as they can.
In 2019, McDonald’s signed two long term Virtual Power Purchase Agreements (VPPAs), one being an Aviator Wind project and the other a Samson Solar project with the both of them located in Texas. The total capacity of these renewable energy projects combined was 380 MW.
Now in December 2020, McDonald’s has decided to hop onto a bigger solar energy train by signing three new VPPAs that include two wind energy projects and one solar energy project. The new addition to renewable energy resources to the corporation has pushed its total renewable energy capacity past 1 GigaWatts!
A spokesperson representing McDonald’s said that the new two wind turbine farms are of 327 MegaWatts capacity combined while the solar project has the share of 423 MW capacity. These three new projects are destined to be built in Illinois, Oklahoma, North Carolina, and Ohio.
“The COVID 19 pandemic has intensified McDonald’s focus on strengthening the resilience of our communities and the planet,” said Jenny McColloch, Vice President of Sustainability at McDonald’s. She also added: “As one of the world’s largest restaurant companies, we have a unique opportunity to strengthen climate resiliency with our network of franchisees and supplier partners.” She went on to later explain that these projects are going to help the corporation in advancing towards their science goal for 2030.
McDonald’s has committed itself to renewables to a level where it becomes one of the world’s largest solar procurement. According to the 2019 Solar Means Business reports, the top corporations in terms of owning or purchasing solar capacity were Apple, Amazon, Walmart, Target and Google. While these corporations will expand their own renewable energy resources, the biggest fast food giant McDonald’s will be able to take its renewable energy projects to commercial operations.
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Credit: Corporate.McDonalds.com
Picture Credit: Pixabay