Dawn Meats has been awarded the McDonald’s Europe “Sustainable Supply Award” at the bi-annual McDonald’s Europe Supply Chain Symposium in Lisbon, Portugal. The symposium brought together representatives from the McDonald’s Global Team, 40 individual countries which comprise McDonald’s Europe and its 450 supplying companies.
The McDonald’s “Sustainable Supply Award” is awarded to the supplier that has shown outstanding leadership and demonstrable results in making the McDonald’s supply chain more sustainable. The winning supplier was required to:
• Have a strong track record of sustainability performance and business benefits;
• Demonstrate they proactively influence sustainability improvements in their own supply chain;
• Have developed and executed leading or innovative initiatives to address critical sustainability issues;
• Be recognized as a sustainability leader within the McDonald’s System;
• Demonstrate progress in influencing industry to improve sustainability performance.
On winning this significant award, and following on from the success in the global Best of Sustainable Supply awards in 2014, Niall Browne CEO Dawn Meats said “We are delighted and honoured to accept this Sustainable Supply Award on behalf of all the team at Dawn Meats. We have worked collaboratively across a range of sustainability challenges both internal and external and have delivered tangible benefits for our business, our customers and our suppliers. We look forward to building on this progress in the months and years ahead.”
Keith Kenny, Head of Sustainability & CSR, McDonald’s Europe commented “ Every year we encourage our suppliers to focus even more attention on sustainability, applying innovation and showing leadership with other stakeholders in making a real difference in the local communities and industries where they operate. Dawn Meats has been to the forefront in promoting sustainable practises within the McDonald’s Europe beef supply chain and this award is a clear recognition of their outstanding leadership and commitment in this area.”
A key commitment on sustainable supply for McDonald’s is to begin purchasing verified sustainable beef in 2016. Dawn Meats is supporting this initiative through active membership of the SAI Platform for sustainable beef and verified membership of Origin Green.