McDonald’s announced a series of significant changes to its social goals, including the retirement of its representation goal-setting, and ending its supply chain Mutual Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (MCDEI) pledge, which included commitments by participating suppliers such as the implementation of a DEI strategy.

In a letter to McDonald’s owners, operators, employees and suppliers, however, the company reiterated that its “commitment to inclusion is steadfast,” calling inclusion “one of our core values.”

The changes form part of a series of major adjustments being made to DEI policies by U.S. companies, following a Supreme Court ruling in 2023 that struck down Harvard’s use of race-based affirmative action criteria in college admissions, and led to increased scrutiny over the legality of key aspects of corporate DEI policies.

In the letter, McDonald’s said that the changes followed its completion of a comprehensive Civil Rights Audit (CRA), and an assessment of “the shifting legal landscape” to analyze the impact of the Supreme Court ruling on corporations. The company said that it also engaged with shareholders and benchmarked its own approach to other companies that are also re-evaluating their programs.

Key changes unveiled by the company included retiring the setting of aspirational representation goals, and retiring the supply chain Mutual Commitment to DEI pledge. McDonald’s DEI goals included targets to reach 45% women globally and 35% underrepresented groups in the U.S. in leadership roles by the end of 2025. Its MCDEI pledge, launched in 2021, asked participating suppliers to implement a DEI strategy, increase representation, participate in talent pipeline and succession planning programs, and track and report on progress.

McDonald’s said that in place of its targets, it will “instead keeping our focus on continuing to embed inclusion practices that grow our business into our everyday process and operations,” and that it will focus on “a more integrated discussion with suppliers about inclusion as it relates to business performance.”

The company also said that it will now refer to its diversity team as the Global Inclusion Team.

The letter also highlighted several of the company’s inclusion-focused achievements, including reaching 30% of U.S. leaders from underrepresented groups, achieving gender pay equity at all levels and in every market, meeting its supplier diversity U.S. spend goal of 25% of diverse-owned supplier spend, and growing the number of franchisee applicants from underrepresented groups to record levels.

The letter said:

“We are proud of the work that we do at McDonald’s. We will continue to drive business results through all three legs of the McDonald’s stool, specifically with our people practices, by fueling economic impact and innovation through our robust supply chain and by building a franchisee pipeline that thrives in the communities we serve and fuels our growth.”