Andrew Chaffe is McDonald's Planet Champion

A local McDonald’s employee from the New George Street restaurant in Plymouth has picked up a finalist prize at the company’s UK-wide Planet Champion Awards in recognition of the positive impact they have made on the environment and to their local community.

Planet Champion Andrew Chaffe from Plymouth reached the finals for the Planet Champion Awards for his positive and proactive attitude towards helping the local environment. He has led the way in educating staff around ways they can be more environmentally conscious and motivating them to play their part in reducing the restaurant’s energy consumption. He has an infectious enthusiasm towards recycling which rubs off on staff and customers and has helped McDonald’s lead the way for Plymouth’s ‘Zero Waste’ initiative, a zero waste to landfill policy introduced last month.

Andrew has also demonstrated a huge amount of commitment to keeping the local community litter-free. He’s set up a regular litter patrol in the city centre and works closely with the local Council to organise several large-scale litter pick events as part of Keep Britain Tidy’s ‘Love Where You Live’ initiative.

As one of 1,200 McDonald’s Planet Champions from across the UK, Andrew helps raise awareness of ways to be more environmentally friendly in his local area. The annual McDonald’s Planet Champion Awards celebrate the hard work and commitment these employees have made to tackling environmental issues and engaging with their local communities.

Commenting on his success, Andrew said: “It’s extremely rewarding to be recognised for my efforts and contribution to the Plymouth environment. I’ve always been environmentally conscious and the Planet Champion programme has provided me with the platform and opportunity to make a real difference to my local community and create a positive impact locally. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the work I’ve done so far and look forward to embarking on further projects in the future.”

McDonald’s franchisees and regional staff nominate Planet Champions for their innovation and creativity within one or more of the four key areas: energy, recycling, litter and community engagement. From there, entries are critiqued and eight finalists chosen to proceed to the finals where two overall winners are selected.

Local McDonald’s franchisee Dave Wynne added: “I’m extremely proud of Andrew’s success and the work he has done to positively impact our local community and environment. Recognising McDonald’s Planet Champions for their hard work is a brilliant way of encouraging others to work with local community members to find ways to continually evoke positive environmental change.”

For more information about the work of McDonald’s Planet Champions, please visit
http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/ukhome/whatmakesmcdonalds/articles/planet-cha....