McDonald’s, El Pollo Loco Face Investor Bids to Cut Food Waste

McDonald’s and El Pollo Loco are among a handful of restaurant chains facing pressure from a shareholder advocacy group to better measure and reduce food waste in a bid to limit environmental impact and save companies money.

The Accountability Board recently submitted shareholder proposals asking the restaurant chains to publish a report disclosing their types and quantities of food waste, as well as setting measurable and time-bound reduction targets. The group also filed similar proposals at BJ’s Restaurants, Dollar General, and MTY Group, which owns chains including Wetzel’s Pretzels.

The bids, seen by Bloomberg Law, follow an earlier food waste proposal that the Accountability Board put forward at Coca-Cola Co., the owner of the Costa Coffee chain. The board—a two-year-old group that invests in more than 100 large publicly traded companies and secured a rare feat with early success on climate-related bids last spring—says it plans to file more food waste-related bids at other companies.

None of the five newly targeted companies disclose measurements of their overall food waste or reduction targets, the proposals say. The bids are intended to go up for investor votes at the companies’ annual meetings, all of which are typically held in the spring and summer.

McDonald’s Corp., El Pollo Loco, BJ’s Restaurants Inc., Dollar General Corp., and MTY Group didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Reducing waste keeps food out of landfills, where it decomposes and generates greenhouse gases, the proposals say. The shareholder group also cited a report from Champions 12.3—a coalition of executives and government officials—that said for every $1 that hotel kitchens invested to cut back on food waste, they saved about $7 in operating costs over a three-year period.

“The evidence is clear that reducing food waste is an opportunity to further important environmental and social goals while also saving money,” said Matthew Prescott, co-founder and president of the Accountability Board. “We believe it’s simply commonsense that major companies should measure and disclose their food waste and establish targets for reducing it.”

Corporate Efforts

The Accountability Board pointed to voluntary actions already put in place by other companies in the restaurant industry such as Starbucks Corp. and Yum! Brands Inc., which have both committed to halving their food waste by 2030.

Some of the companies targeted with food waste bids address the issue on their websites or in public reports, but the Accountability Board says the efforts don’t go far enough.

McDonald’s says on its website that it has developed guidelines to reduce its food waste using a hierarchy adapted from the US Environmental Protection Agency. The fast food giant also highlighted its policy to curb food waste in restaurants and supply chain facilities while encouraging “markets to develop solutions and approaches based on local needs and priorities.”

MTY Group has an initiative to divert food waste from landfills through composting or anaerobic digestion, a process that breaks down biodegradable materials, according to its 2023 sustainability report.

Dollar General said in a similar 2023 report that its food donations, composting, and “product recovery programs” have reduced food waste at more than 3,800 stores.

BJ’s Restaurants, meanwhile, has implemented “training and reinforcement of other steps to reduce food waste, including focus on proper forecasting, ordering, inventory and usage” techniques, its most recent proxy statement says.