McDonald’s North America Sustainability Manager Kendra Levine has received the McDonald’s President’s Award, which celebrates high achieving individuals who inspire and enable those around them to deliver better results.
This prestigious award is presented to the top 1% of employees globally, and was given to Kendra for her tireless work on a global sustainability sourcing guide.
“I’m thrilled to have received this,” says Kendra, who oversees McDonald’s climate action strategy in North America. “It's a huge honor personally and it demonstrates how much the company values our progress in sustainability.”
Kendra has a history of creating change around the world; from leading One Acre Fund projects in Kenya to working with smallholder farmers in Guatemala. She enjoyed success in international development, before deciding to obtain her MS degree from the department of AFRE.
“I thought I wanted to get my degree and then go directly back into international development,” adds Levine. “But once at AFRE, I had space to think about other ways I could have an impact.”
After Kendra realized that working for a large food company could create a significant impact on the environment and people, she changed her focus to agribusiness, took classes in Michigan State University’s business school, and interned in MSU’s purchasing department before joining McDonald’s.
Kendra says: “In my role now, we’re trying to flip the popular narrative that ‘big is bad.’ Because we’re large, when we make a change, we can catalyze a huge impact.”
Scale For Good is forging a sustainable future
McDonald’s sustainability platform, Scale for Good, is focusing on five major areas where the company believes it can have the most impact – including beef sustainability, packaging and recycling, youth employability, families and children’s nutrition, and climate action.
Key to Kendra’s role is meeting the company’s science-based climate target. Her team is committed to a reduction in greenhouse gases, which amounts to a 36% greenhouse gases reduction in McDonald’s restaurants and 31% in their supply chain by 2030.
Kendra is also fleshing out the guidelines and metrics to measure the impacts of the McCafe Sustainability Improvement Platform (SIP), an initiative that supports McDonald’s aims to source 100% of their coffee sustainably by 2020.
“My work is an extension of what I’m passionate about,” says Kendra. “And the things I do outside of work continue to reflect that through involvement with national and local environmental and social organizations.”
Kendra is a mentor through Big Brothers Big Sisters, is on the Associate Board of Allow Good, and is engaged in her neighborhood environmental justice organization, PERRO.
With the potential to make huge strides in corporate stewardship, Kendra is “excited to be at the helm of these new initiatives.”
“Climate change was the first sustainability issue I was passionate about as a child,” she adds, “and now, I’m leading a climate strategy at one of the largest restaurant companies in the world.”
Join talented women like Kendra at McDonald’s
McDonald’s is committed to its sustainability initiatives. There are so many opportunities for women like Kendra looking to make a difference on a global scale. Search and apply to start a new career journey today.
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