Francesca DeBiase is Executive Vice President, Chief Supply Chain and Sustainability Officer, at McDonald's. She shares an article for World Environment Day to reflects on the decisions needed to make the food systems stronger for the future.
Uniting the global community
"At McDonald’s, our purpose is to feed communities through the partnership of our people, franchisees and suppliers around the world. Over the past few months, we’ve seen COVID 19’s unprecedented impact on the global community and particularly on food security, as it disrupts production and supply. While we need to navigate these challenging times in the short term, the crisis is an important reminder to keep a long-term mindset to ensure a more resilient and sustainable food system for the future," writes Francesca.
"That’s why I believe it’s important for the global community to unite on the urgent need to protect and restore nature."
Taking her responsibilities seriously
"In my role at McDonald’s, I take seriously our responsibility to leverage our size and scale to help transform the global food system for the better. While COVID has revealed supply chain vulnerabilities in the near-term, climate change will have even more devastating impacts on our society in the long run - from changing weather patterns to the potential collapse of ecosystems. Supporting recovery is our immediate priority; however, we cannot put climate action on hold. This is why we remain vigilant about meeting our current sustainability goals and will look to set our future goals with the same level of scale and commitment," Francesca adds.
Addressing four important questions
With the support of McDonald's franchises, suppliers and expert partners, Francesca says that the company remains firmly committed to addressing four important questions that are critical to achieving a sustainable and resilient food system:
Continuing to share learings and protect the environment
"A sustainable supply chain is part of our long-term vision every day," Francesca concludes. "And, the ongoing challenges from COVID have shown us that sustainability remains the key to safeguarding our food system. We continue to share learnings from this experience and prioritize actions that drive value for the communities in which we operate, taking our responsibility seriously by using our scale to protect and enhance the environment around us."
Read Francesca's full article.
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