Hardcastle Restaurants Pvt. Ltd. (HRPL), the master franchisee of McDonald’s in the region, McDonald’s announced the launch of its 300th McDonald’s restaurant in West and South India. The milestone outlet will open at Churchgate, in Mumbai. HRPL commemorated this milestone by reinforcing its commitment to grow the business sustainably—in a way that’s good for the people, the community and the planet. Over the last few years, HRPL has leveraged cutting-edge technology to consciously minimize its landfill, moderate its energy consumption, cut its carbon footprint and create eco-friendly processes to run restaurants. The Company has deployed an Energy Management System to minimize energy wastage, by monitoring in-store resource consumption across all restaurants. Last year, the Company also started converting used cooking oil from its restaurants to 100% bio-diesel to fuel its delivery trucks, saving diesel, a scarce and expensive national resource. As a result of these initiatives, the Company has managed to conserve 28 lakh units of electricity, 300,000 litres of water, 550,000 litres of diesel and 2,400 gas cylinders, cutting its overall carbon footprint by a whopping 4,300 tonnes. Going forward, the Company is committed to leveraging technology to accelerate its sustainability efforts to create a bigger environmental impact. Commenting on this, Smita Jatia, Managing Director, Hardcastle Restaurants Pvt. Ltd., said, “Businesses can thrive only when they create a symbiotic ecosystem that is conducive to long-term sustainable growth. We have always created benchmarks for the QSR industry by taking a lead in innovation and best practices. We believe that with a footprint of 300 stores, we are in a very strong position to take bold steps and make a significant difference to society at large.”