Maspeth, NY 718-416-1656
Back in 2008, a mother in Sweden wrote a letter to Max
Burgers, a burger chain, complaining to do away with the kids’ meal boxes. The
company responded by taking away all of the boxes for their kids meals in all
75 restaurants. They told customers it reduced waste, and there was not one
complaint. In fact, the sales of the kids’ meals rose.
This same burger chain also reassessed its whole enterprise
and looked for ways to cut costs and save money through being
environmentally-friendly. It had energy-efficient grass roofs installed on 12
new restaurants and the energy consumption was cut by 20 percent. The chain
buys only wind power and offsets all of its carbon emissions by planting trees
in Uganda. And in 2008, it started putting CO2 labels in its menus, quantifying
exactly how much carbon dioxide, from field to fryer, is emitted in making each
dish (time.com).
“One of the problems being a burger business is, of course,
the beef,” says Max’s Burgers Chief Sustainability Officer Par Larshans, noting
that the meat industry is responsible for about 18% of global greenhouse-gas
emissions. It shows that its famous cheese and bacon beef burger produced five
times more carbon dioxide than its vegetarian burger and six more times than
its fish sandwich. They hope it would help customers make a better choice. And
it worked.
Customers started eating more non-beef burgers and helped
push Max’s to open 45 new restaurants from 2005-2011. The green initiatives
taken by the burger joint seemed to boost customer loyalty and it drew in new
customers. And it isn’t just Max’s that is showing positive sales results.
There are others restaurants that have dramatically increased their businesses.
Some of the restaurants in the US include Chipotle, Naked Pizza and Otarian.
To summarize, it
seems as though customers are all about being environmentally-friendly and
eating healthy. If fast-food chains can continue to produce what the customer
wants, business should continue to improve.
