Corporate Green

We are shocked and dismayed that a McDonald’s restaurant on State Street has been certified by the Green Business Program of Santa Barbara County.

What’s next, giving an award to Monsanto for putting up a single solar panel?

While we are sure that the local owner of this McDonald’s franchise was sincere in trying to reduce his or her carbon footprint (and save a few dollars) by putting in waterless urinals, an Energy-Star ice machine, and an upgraded irrigation system, it is a bad joke to “certify” this as a green business. It makes a mockery of genuine efforts toward true sustainability.

McDonald’s Corporation is responsible for a huge amount of carbon spewed into the atmosphere as a result of the industrial farming that produces the highly processed, unhealthy food they sell. Hasn’t anyone in the Green Business Program seen the film Super Size Me? McDonald’s makes no attempt to use organic food, so it contributes to the massive amounts of pesticides and herbicides that pollute the land, rivers, and oceans of our planet, to say nothing of our bodies and the bodies of other living creatures.

In our opinion, this award is one of the most egregious cases of greenwashing we have ever seen. – Larry Saltzman and Linda Buzzell, founders, Santa Barbara Organic Garden Club