Comparative Analysis of Csr Programs of Mcdonald's and Nando

Nando’s art initiative

Socio-economic issue: Unemployment, exposure for upcoming entrepreneurs and youth empowermentNando’s has the world’s largest collection of contemporary South African artworks, furniture and designs showcased internationally, presenting African creativity while increasing public access to art. As Nando’s expands internationally, so does the awareness and appreciation of African art. Robbie Brozin, founder of Nando’s, says, “South African art on Nando’s restaurant walls makes our chicken taste even better”. Displaying African art in Nando’s restaurants worldwide emphasizes Nando’s heritage and demonstrates their commitment to investing in the people of South Africa and nurturing local talent.

The Nando’s Art Initiative and the Nando’s Heartfelt Celebration of South African Design project are part of an ongoing business strategy that makes a sustainable contribution to the local South African creative community, as well as benefits the Nando’s brand - it promotes a truly South African story that results in many PR opportunities and improves brand loyalty.

How does this help the Socio-Economic problem? Nando’s collaboration with South Africa’s design sector fuels sustainable enterprise growth while simultaneously creating exposure for South African artists internationally, with the potential to open up new markets.

Nando’s has more than 10 000 South African artworks. The initiative supports over 300 artists on a constant basis, allowing them to become full-time artists while improving their skills through artist development programs, while integrating share equity. It enables upcoming artists to focus full time on their artistic careers, knowing that they will be able to earn a regular, decent living from their work.

Upcoming entrepreneurs and artists should be regarded as assets to be invested in, motivated and acknowledged as much as possible as they have the ability to change the way we think. Art, whether we’re aware of it or not, forms part of our daily lives. We use it for cultural appreciation, aesthetics, personal improvement, entertainment as well as social change. Nando’s has combined these two vital factors of youth empowerment and art to create programs that add to the authenticity of the Nando’s experience and demonstrate the genuine commitment that Nando’s has made to South African design. Many different people and cultures now have the opportunity to personally experience South African art and design, all thanks to Nando’s.

An improvement and alternate strategy to help the socio-economic issue:

• Nando’s can improve this strategy by adding a variety to the showcase of South African works – by using Proudly South African made fabrics, furniture and décor instead of just art and a few designed displays.
• Nando’s can use expertise of successful business men and women in the company and create an entrepreneurship program and workshop for those that are underprivileged wanting to start their own businesses.

Ronald McDonald house Charity

Socio-economic issue: Health care and lifestyle. Health is very evidently a socio-economic issue. Poor health or illness can destroy a person’s physical and mental wellbeing and hamper progress in terms of education and employment. People suffering from certain conditions such as HIV/Aids and diabetes require constant monitoring and a medication-dependent lifestyle, which can be very financially straining.

Ronald McDonald House Charity pro-actively responds to the challenge of health-care. It is a global non-profit organization that was founded more than 40 years ago and is currently in more than 64 countries. RMHC supports the critical needs of children through three core programs: Ronald McDonald House™, Ronald McDonald Family Room® and Ronald McDonald Care Mobile®. RMHC and local clinical services work together to put their expertise and community resources to use and identify gaps in health care. Together, they deliver services over and above treatment; they reduce dependence on emergency rooms, increase awareness of healthy lifestyles, and help struggling families to obtain government-assisted health insurance.

The Ronald McDonald House™ serves as a “home away from home” that allows families to stay close to their sick children that are receiving treatment at a hospital. When long distances are travelled in order to reach essential medical care, accommodation is necessary and can be unavailable or expensive. The House provides families with accommodation along with compassionate care at little (though donations by the family) or no cost – but if a family is unable to donate, they are not turned away.

The first South African Ronald McDonald House™ was launched in Johannesburg in May 2017. It is a twenty-seven-bedroomed house located at the top of the Nelson Mandela Children’s Hospital and includes a kitchen, children’s playroom, library, dining room, meditation room, kids playroom and various lounges. Families staying in the house have the chance to cope better and focus on the needs of their sick children due to the help and support they receive from staff, volunteers and other families staying with them at the House.

The Ronald McDonald family rooms offer a place to rest and recover at the hospital. They are situated in hospitals, usually only a few meters away from a pediatric or intensive care unit. Services may vary in different Ronald McDonald Family Rooms, but the following facilities would be found:

• A kitchen area
• Shower facilities
• Sleeping rooms
• Laundry facilities
• Internet access

How do the Ronald McDonald Houses and Family Rooms help the Socio-Economic problem?

• Boosts psychological wellbeing by allowing families to stay close together and providing emotional and physical comfort and support
• Improves the hospital experience for the ill/injured child and family
• Enhances the family’s coping abilities to their child’s recovery and outcomes
• Helps alleviate the financial stress of accommodation needs
• Results in improved quality of sleep for parents and families, giving them sufficient rest that is necessary in order to make critical health decisions with regards to their child.

An improvement and alternate strategy to help the socio-economic issue:

• McDonald’s can improve this strategy by introducing more of these rooms and houses across the globe.
• Another way in which McDonald’s can help the socio-economic issue of health care and hygiene (in this case for females) is a feminine-product drive, whereby pads and tampons are collected and distributing to girls in need.

A csr initiative for McDonalds

A steaming cup of coffee is the one of the first things that millions of people across the world get their hands every morning, it becoming an integral part of their daily lives. According to McDonald’s expanded their menu and target market by introducing McCafe – a section of McDonalds that offers a range of coffees, desserts and fine pastries. According to McDonald’s, McCafe sells 1 billion cups of coffee every year. Plastic is a material that is relied on by many businesses including McDonalds, especially in packaging – and so large volumes of plastic being used and disposed make it a major environmental concern. Although McDoanld’s focuses on sourcing their coffee responsibly, the packaging of their coffee goes ignored, particularly the plastic coffee cup lid.

A CSR initiative that McDonalds can adopt is the use of bioplastic for the lids of their coffee cups. This means replacing commonly used oil-based plastic with plastic made from sugar-cane. Brazil is the world leader of the production of bio-fuel derived from sugarcane and are now taking the lead in the production of bio-based plastic from this plant. Biopolymer companies such as Braskem can be used (used by other brands such as Woolworths), whereby non-renewable fossil-based polymers are replaced with a plant-based alternative, which is chemically and structurally identical. Therefore, it provides the same quality protection and can still be mixed with a regular plastic, making it 100% recyclable.

Why is this a good idea?

• It is renewable – sugar-cane polyethylene forms part of the Earth’s natural environment. Therefore, the plastic is made from a renewable source that can be grown and replaced continuously instead of making use of a finite resource such as coal or oil.
• Irrigated completely by rain water - natural rainfall meets the crop’s water needs, therefore large amounts of water is conserved.
• Calls for a lower carbon footprint – the leaves of the sugarcane capture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere which reduces the emission of greenhouse gases helping in the fight against climate change. Each kg of Braskem’s sugarcane-based plastic that is produced absorbs 2.78 kg of CO₂ from the atmosphere.
• Sugar-cane can be produced all year therefore being a reliable and sustainable source.

I think that this initiative is one that McDonald’s would find easy to adopt as they have the means to do so. Their marketing and advertising agency, Omnicom, is one of the global leaders in advertising and is given a marketing budget of around R132 million per year, therefore advertising this new CSR program will be no problem. Also, McDonald’s main meat supplier (Marfrig Alimentos SA) is located in Brazil, and so the corporation will already have the knowledge of different tax imports and exchange rates with regards to trading with Brazil.

Which program is more sustainable?

After thoroughly researching both programs being carried out by Nando’s and McDonalds, it is evident that McDonald’s efforts prove to be more sustainable. Nando’s Art Initiative is a notable cause and is a great way to invest into upcoming, creative artists while simultaneously celebrating and spreading the unique culture of South Africa. But McDonald’s Ronald McDonald House Charity is in the lead in terms of sustainability. RMHC has been around for many years, 42 years to be exact, and have helped millions of families through emotionally difficult situations.

The system is there, it works, and it will continue to work for a very long time. The Nando’s Art Initiative was established in 2001, giving Nando’s only 17 years of experience and more loopholes in the program to improve on. Due to RMHC being around for longer, McDonald knows what works and was doesn’t – they’ve established their very own “Know-How” and can therefore use resources and employees strategically.

Secondly, the RMHC is sustainably green. With more than 360 Ronald McDonald Houses worldwide, RMHC recognizes that its commitment to support more than 8000 families every night can result in a large amount of energy, heat and water being used up. Due to this, RMHC has been very planet-conscious and strive to take care of the environment through the implementation of innovative systems and initiatives at majority of its houses globally. These initiatives include building green, reducing-reusing-recycling waste, using energy-efficient practices, conserving water and utilizing green products. Here are a few examples:

• A few of their houses, including the 30-bedroom house in Texas, has attained LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Platinum NC (New Construction) certification, which is the highest level of green building awarded by the United States Green Building Council. The house is solar-powered, has abundant natural lighting, and is built of toxin-free materials.
• The Ronald McDonald House in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, utilizes water-heating solar panels, motion sensors that control the heat and light when people are in a room, and dries laundry with the sun and wind - minimizing the use of dryers.
• Ronald McDonald Houses in Germany have an “ecological washing ball” which uses 80% less detergent. Also, nearly all employees of the RMHC House in Germany drive environmentally friendly cars.
• However, there are also small efforts that the Charity promotes, including a pull-tab program (pull-tabs off cans are recycled and weighed/exchanged for money that is then donated to participating local RMHC houses) and recycling their left-over letter heads and using them to create scratch pads for staff, volunteers and guests.

Not only do these efforts preserve the planet and promote sustainability, but they also drastically reduce operational costs – making it easier for McDonalds to open up more houses and family rooms.

And finally, the success and sustainability of the Ronald McDonald House Charities can be owed to the strong brand equity of McDonalds. Although Nando’s is well-known and successful, the strength of its brand is greatly overpowered by that of McDonalds. It’s simple – McDonalds has a stronger brand; therefore it has more customers, therefore it has a much larger revenue (Nando’s = R15,3 billion, McDonalds = R310 billion), therefore there is more money to sustain their CSR program.

Overall, the CSR program of McDonald’s is much more sustainable - and with the experience, expertise, environmental awareness, resources and capital, the Ronald McDonald House Charity will continue to flourish.