McDonald's Scores Negative on Every Single Value We Track
McDonald's is the most recognisable restaurant brand on the planet. It operates in over 100 countries. It serves 69 million customers a day.
It also scores negative on every single ethical dimension in our database.
The Full Scorecard
Average score: -29
Not one positive score. Two zeros. Nine negatives.
What Stands Out
A food company scoring -50 on Better Health for All is not subtle. The evidence includes documented links between ultra-processed food and public health outcomes, marketing to children, and nutritional transparency failures across markets.
The -60 on Planet-Friendly Business reflects the carbon footprint of a beef-heavy supply chain operating at global scale. McDonald's own reporting puts its supply chain emissions above 50 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent annually.
The -30 on Fair Pay & Worker Respect is backed by years of labour disputes, wage theft lawsuits, and franchisee worker complaints across the US, UK, and Australia.
Context
The average company in our database scores around -5 across all values. McDonald's at -29 is nearly six times worse.
For comparison, Walmart averages -9. Amazon averages -10. Even Meta, one of the lowest-scoring tech companies, averages -27.
McDonald's is in a category of its own among household names. The golden arches carry a documented record that no amount of sustainability reports can offset.