Spartan Story: Greening the Golden Arches
Kendra Levine, North American sustainability manager at McDonald’s, in front of the “green wall” in the company’s Chicagoland headquarters, symbolizing her dedication to sustainability.
As an eighth-grader in Orlando, Florida, Kendra Levine penned an essay defending climate change as a naturally occurring event.
When her teacher read the young scribe’s treatise in front of the class, Levine’s stomach turned and her heart sank.
“I didn’t want to feel we could be causing [climate change], so I argued we weren’t responsible even though the evidence pointed to human impact,” Levine said.
That day served as a turning point for Levine, spurring a heightened attentiveness to environmental responsibility that now fuels her professional pursuits. Today, as North American sustainability manager at McDonald’s, Levine works to drive continuous improvement in the environmental and social impacts of McDonald’s U.S. supply chain, which covers about 14,000 restaurants.
After earning an undergraduate degree in food and resource economics from the University of Florida in 2008, Levine spent three years in Kenya as a program manager with One Acre Fund, an international nonprofit that finances and trains smallholder farmers in Africa. As she monitored and evaluated the organization’s efforts, Levine began to contemplate different paths to impact and professional purpose.
Later, while pursuing her master’s degree in agricultural, food, and resource economics at MSU, Levine found her answer. If she could work for a large food or agriculture company demanding sustainable practices within its supply chain, she could help power market-driven environmental and social improvements.
“Then, I could help people and the environment simultaneously,” said Levine, who earned a master’s degree in the MSU College of Agriculture and Natural Resources in 2015. Once clutching thoughts of a career in environmental law or international development, Levine shifted her academic focus to agribusiness, took classes at the Eli Broad College of Business, and interned in MSU’s purchasing department as a sustainable sourcing coordinator, where she learned how to present information in a way that influences perception and action.
Levine said:
Sustainability very much remains about education and the power we have as purchasers to affect those upstream.
A few short weeks after graduation, Levine landed at McDonald’s.
Initially charged to work with all plant-based products, Levine traveled to farms to investigate innovative practices that could be applied across the supply chain, specifically seeking initiatives that were economically, environmentally, and socially sound. She also developed an internal web-based platform housing all of McDonald’s sustainable sourcing expectations and policies, an endeavor for which she received McDonald’s coveted President’s Award.
Today, Levine leads development of McDonald’s North American climate strategy, a science-based initiative that aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at McDonald’s restaurants and within its supply chain by more than 30 percent by 2030. She is also fleshing out guidelines for McCafé Sustainability Improvement Platform, an effort to help the company sustainably source 100 percent of its coffee by 2020.
Flipping the narrative that “big is bad” and addressing swelling consumer interest in sustainability and environmental stewardship, Levine is committed to ensuring the credibility of McDonald’s programs and achieving ambitious goals related to minimizing waste, protecting water resources, improving animal welfare, and more.
I’m thrilled to be working for a company that has wrapped itself in sustainability, has ownership of this work, and shares my values for a better world.
Surely, the eighth-grade version of Levine would be proud.
Contributing Writer(s): Daniel P. Smith
