McDonald's is going green - swapping its traditional red backdrop for a deep hunter green - to promote a more eco-friendly image in Europe.

    About 100 German McDonald's restaurants will make the change by the end of 2009, the company said in a statement Monday. Some franchises in Great Britain and France have already started using the new color scheme behind their Golden Arches.

    "This is not only a German initiative but a Europewide initiative," Martin Nowicki, McDonald's Germany spokesman, told The Associated Press.

    The Oak Brook, Illinois-based burger behemoth has more than 32,000 restaurants in 118 countries and has long been targeted by activists as being environmentally unfriendly.

    Still, in recent years the company has warmed to "greener" practices, including environmentally friendly refrigeration and converting used oil into biodiesel fuel.

    "With this new appearance we want to clarify our responsibility for the preservation of natural resources. In the future we will put an even larger focus on that," Hoger Beek, vice chairman of McDonald's Germany, said in the statement.

    In Germany, McDonald's has seen significant growth despite the global economic crisis, opening 42 new restaurants this year for a total of 1,350.

    The chain plans to open another 40 new restaurants across Germany in 2010, encouraged by a worldwide revenues of $23.5 billion.

    在歐洲，麥當(dāng)勞要變綠了--麥當(dāng)勞將改變其一貫的紅底色成為深綠色。麥當(dāng)勞公司試圖以此來(lái)宣揚(yáng)其更加環(huán)保的形象。

    該公司在周一發(fā)布的一項(xiàng)聲明中稱(chēng)，到2009年底，約100家位于德國(guó)的麥當(dāng)勞餐館將實(shí)現(xiàn)此項(xiàng)改變。一些位于英國(guó)和法國(guó)的經(jīng)銷(xiāo)點(diǎn)也業(yè)已在"M"型金拱身后換上了新的配色。

    麥當(dāng)勞德國(guó)發(fā)言人馬丁·挪威奇（Martin Nowicki）告訴聯(lián)合通訊社："此次變革并不只是在德國(guó)的首創(chuàng)，而是一次全歐洲范圍內(nèi)的動(dòng)議。"

    總部在伊利諾伊洲橡樹(shù)溪鎮(zhèn)的麥當(dāng)勞公司是一個(gè)在118個(gè)國(guó)家擁有超過(guò)32000家分店的漢堡巨亨。然而長(zhǎng)期以來(lái)，它卻也一直是環(huán)保主義者攻擊的靶子。

    近年來(lái)，麥當(dāng)勞卻也開(kāi)始熱中于"綠色"實(shí)踐。他們采用了環(huán)保的冷藏技術(shù)，使用的燃料也從石油改成了生物柴油。

    麥當(dāng)勞德國(guó)分公司副總裁霍爾格·比克（Hoger Beeck）在聲明中說(shuō)："我們要以這個(gè)新形象來(lái)表明我們對(duì)保護(hù)自然資源所負(fù)有的責(zé)任。將來(lái)，我們也會(huì)更進(jìn)一步地致力于此。"

    在德國(guó)，盡管處于全球經(jīng)濟(jì)危機(jī)之下，麥當(dāng)勞的業(yè)績(jī)?nèi)杂酗@著增長(zhǎng)。僅今年其旗下就有42家新餐廳面市，使其在德總數(shù)達(dá)到1350家。

    麥當(dāng)勞全球收入高達(dá)235億美元，這一數(shù)目，激勵(lì)其又制定了一系列計(jì)劃，要于2010年在德國(guó)再增加40家餐廳。