Environment Minister Mark H Durkan MLA has announced that McDonald’s 26 restaurants across Northern Ireland have received awards for their positive environmental impact following an independent assessment by TIDY NI, the organisation working towards the vision of a cleaner, greener Northern Ireland.

The Minister announced the results of the McDonald’s TIDY NI Green and Growing Awards, a programme that assessed individual restaurants across 10 key environmental categories including Waste Management, General Cleanliness, Exterior Maintenance and Litter and Graffiti Awareness.

Of the 26 McDonald’s restaurants in Northern Ireland, 17 restaurants won Gold awards, with five winning Silver and four restaurants achieving Bronze.Speaking at the announcement of the results of the TIDY NI assessment, Environment Minister Mark H Durkan said: “One of my key goals is to ensure we have a well-protected environment in Northern Ireland which contributes to the social and economic wellbeing of the whole community.

“Businesses play a pivotal role in supporting the sustainability of our environment and the TIDY NI Green and Growing Awards provides a great platform for organisations like McDonald’s to showcase its positive impact on the environment. 

“I welcome the results of the Awards and commend McDonald’s franchisees for their on-going commitment to running sustainable businesses that can positively impact their local environments.”

Joanne Jones, McDonald’s Director of Franchising added: “At McDonald’s we believe it is important for everyone to help protect and preserve the environment for future generations and we're committed to finding ways to reduce, reuse and recycle in our restaurants and across our business. Working within their communities our restaurants and franchisees are proactively involved in initiatives to make a positive difference within the areas they serve.“As part of this commitment, we’ve launched the Green and Growing Awards programme to help maintain the high environmental standards for our restaurants across Northern Ireland. We’re delighted with the results of the first assessment and look forward to working closely with TIDY NI to further improve our environmental credentials in the years ahead.”

TIDY NI Chief Executive Dr Ian Humphreys comments: “The franchisees and staff at McDonald’s restaurants in Northern Ireland deserve great credit for their on-going environmental commitments and I’d like to join the Minister in congratulating them on their awards.”

The Green and Growing Awards is an independent assessment of the impact of McDonald’s restaurants on their local communities, carried out by TIDY NI.The initiative supports McDonald’s staff in developing a culture of continuous environmental improvement with the aim of improving the experience of its customers, its communities and its environment.

The Green and Growing Awards is one of a number of joint initiatives between McDonald’s and TIDY NI, which includes restaurant support for the annual BIG Spring Clean event. At the 2013 BIG Spring Clean, McDonald’s staff across Northern Ireland took part in 26 events, collecting over 2 tonnes of discarded waste by cleaning rivers, forests, beaches and housing estates.

As well as the larger-scale Big Spring Clean events, staff at every McDonald’s restaurant also patrol the streets regularly to collect all litter that has been discarded, regardless of its origin.

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