“our customers have told us that packaging waste is the top environmental issue they would like us to address,” said francesca debiase, mcdonald’s sustainability officer, in a statement.”
mcdonald’s aims to get 100 percent of its packaging from recycled, renewable, or certified sources by 2025, with a preference for forest stewardship council certification, which ensures that products come from responsibly managed forests.
a 2014, company study of two restaurants, one focused on dine-in business and one centered on the drive-thru found the per-restaurant average was more than 2,200 pounds of waste a week.
mcdonald reminded us their sustainable packaging journey dates back to 25 years ago when they established a groundbreaking partnership with environmental defense fund (edf), a group not paid by the chain.
they not only phased out polystyrene sandwich boxes, but also significantly reduced their environmental impact by cutting solid waste and streamlining material choices. the initiative eliminated more than 300 million pounds of packaging, recycled 1 million tons of corrugated boxes and reduced waste by 30 percent in the decade following the partnership.
“other food companies have said for years that they want to use more recyclable material, but the mcdonald’s plan is more substantive and collaborative,” said erin simon, director of sustainability research and development for world wildlife fund.
last week, mcdonald’s said it would eliminate foam packaging from its global supply chain by the end of this year.
photos courtesy of patrick norguet
Design Democracy – From Cappellini to McDonalds – Patrick Norguet doesn’t discriminate. McDonalds hires one of Frances top creatives, Patrick Norguet to design an outdoor collection. In collaboration with the producer Alias and the fast-food giant McDonald’s, designer Patrick Norguet has designed a line of outdoor furniture as part of McDonald’s “Come” project. The furniture collection will equip terraces and outdoor spaces McDonald’s worldwide. [ patrick norguet ] [ alias ]
The design solution responds to the ‘COME’ objectives – to design, engineer, develop and install a specific turnkey modular furniture system. The collection consists of 28 pieces made of steel, hand-sanded concrete and Corian tables, chairs, benches, lamps, planters, litter bins and screen. The introduction of the collection will be in Bordeaux and northern France.
Patrick Norguet says:
“For this project, like each of my projects, I wanted to give great attention to the final use. Draw a quality space that fits into the time that meets the demands and requirements specific to McDonald’s. Not all completely outside or completely inside the terrace is experienced as an extension of the restaurant, a separate space for a different experience. It is also a major project for me because we were able to connect two worlds around the project, and thus develop products of high quality. The association with Alias, I was able to reach the level of demand that I wanted for this set consists of 28 objects. A family of tables, chairs, low chairs, lamps, planters, benches, litter bins and screen.”
“I’m lovin it.”
Fast food giants may not be redesigning their menu for the better, but some of them are trying to up the quality of their restaurants by hiring actual designers to update their interiors. Recently, McDonalds hired Patrick Norguet to redo all their French chains to appeal less to teenagers and more to families, emphasizing an “urban and adolescent tone.” Norguet, with his affinity for modular storage and corporate meets contemporary furniture, is a good choice. He designed booth where families can sit and order from instead of wrangling all their kids into line at the counter. The Mondiran-inspired white and metal storage facade looks good now, but I imagine some of Norguet’s swopping, atomic-age moves will look dated even before they get dingy with use. Apparently, there’s also some kind of plant metaphor going on, “its branching development, this root common to the brand and to the family, is transformed here into an architecture which is transversal and expansive: birch plywood takes root and branches out in the restaurant in order to create areas, functions and moods for different social requirements without compartmentalising.” Um, yeah whatever, McDonalds.
As a fitting counterpart to my post on redesigning trailer homes and bringing high design to the heretofore undesigned, here are two more fast food chains that got a make-over. The UK-based chain of Little Chefs hire London designers Ab Rogers for their interiors. Do you think it’s supposed to look this dated, or should I say, retro? They did say they were inspired by “influences from the history of roadside eating.” But isn’t red vinyl booths and white tile floors exactly what we’re trying to get away from here? There’s also an “interactive sound” that gets triggered when someone stops along the roadside just to use the bathroom to encourage them to stay for food. I find that weirdly creepy, but I do dig the photo-realistic tiled ceiling.
The best example of a real step up in the game is the redesign Ippolito Fleitz Group (personal faves of mine) did for a chicken restaurant in Germany. The wooden floor and outdoorsy wallpaper and calmer paint colors are immediately more relaxing and inviting than the bright white and red combo usually favored in fast food. Seriously, when did hospital white and ketchup-red become the standard? It reminds me more of the ballroom bathroom in Stanley Kubrick’s THE SHINING, not exactly what I want called to mind when I’m eating. But it’s not like I’m ever going to eat in a McDonalds, even if it’s a fancy new one in Paris. As a side note, check out the minimalist, logo-less McDonald’s pop-up built in Tokyo in 2009 as way to introduce the brand to Japan without berating with a sudden influx of golden arches.
[Via]
about perrin drumm
mcdonalds recently opened two of their latest tokyo outlets. to say that it surgically has removed their corporate voice — well its really closer to a lobotomy. wow.
above/below> they have done away with the golden arches, ronald mcdonald, hamburglar, happy meals, and mcmuffins in this mcdonalds. they have even done away with a (the) logo. the only thing they retained is the color red.
above/below> the only products served are the qp (quarter pounder) and the qpc (quarter pounder with cheese) simply in red, white, and black packaging. the fries come with the burger as a menu set, no option here.
above/below> the interior is very lounge-like. one can imagine what the background music is — country & western ?
above/below> quarter pounder may look low key, but there is the viral online marketing to the hired hands handing out flyers to passersby. the “quarter pounder big secret” campaign.
we see the “no logo” look for bars and clubs and fewer restaurants. the “mystique” of a somewhere making all of its patrons feel a bit exclusive and in-the-know. if it looks like a club and sounds like a club. its a club. the stores are next to h&m, etc.
what it will do for the qpc? more than a singular design theme to one product. mcd´s is attempting to make an iconic product out of the qpc by wagering an entire restaurant investment on it. feedback and crowds say good.
this is case study material for the brand police. let’s keep an eye on how it does. could you put up one of these in your town?
editor’s notes via links below > in november of 2008 quarter pounder was mcdonald’s no-brand experiment introducing a larger ‘american style’ burger not found in japan at the time and tested on adventuresome and easily bored tokyoites.
via watashi to tokyo — meta tame
