”What do you do when your core product is a climate villain?”
A climate conscious burger company. Sounds like a contradiction, right? Not for Richard Bergfors, CEO at the Swedish burger chain Max.
More than one person in the global audience at the WeDontHaveTime climate conference on Earth Day probably raised their eyebrows when Richard Bergfors was introduced as the next keynote speaker. Why was the CEO of a burger chain sharing the stage with experts on climate change and sustainability?
Max, founded in Sweden in 1968, is a rapidly expanding burger chain, with 6,000 employees and restaurants in Sweden, Norway Denmark, Poland, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Most of them still operated and owned by the Bergfors family.
”So what do you do when your core product is a major climate villain and needs to be reduced?” Richard Bergfors rhetorically asked during his presentation.
When Max’s signature product, or cash cow if you will, is currently incompatible with the dreams of a family company that is built to last? — Richard Bergfors, Max Burgers
For the Bergfors family, the first step was to admit that Max was actually a part of the problem. According to the company’s own calculations beef made up 65 per cent of the company’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2016. This lead them to realise they also had to be part of the solution.
Max began by switching to 100 per cent wind energy in all of their restaurants, implementing several energy efficiency programs and switching to green transportation. They upcycled their fry oil into diesel and soap, phased out all palm oil and found ways to keep food waste below 1 per cent, Bergfors said at his presentation.
The burger chain then started planting trees to compensate for both the company’s and its suppliers climate emissions.
”So far we have planted 1.4–1.5 million trees that suck down carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The area is equivalent to 4,000 soccer fields”, said Richard Bergfors.
But the biggest visible change is found on the menus.
”We have created the widest range of green burgers in the industry, and this is our most profitable product launch ever. Green burgers have 50–80 per cent lower climate impact than a red meat burger”, says Richard Bergfors.
The climate impact of each meal is put directly on the menus, to help guests to make informed decisions. The goal is that in four years time, every second meal sold should be made of non red meat.
”If we succeed in doing that, and I am very positive that we will, our total climate emissions will have reduced by 30 per cent in just over five years”, Richard Bergfors concluded.
Written by: Markus Lutteman
Facts about Max Burgers
Max is Sweden’s oldest burger chain, founded in northern Sweden in 1968.
Richard Bergfors, the son of the founders, has been the company CEO since 2002. He has received several awards for his environmental and sustainability achievements and was in 2015 listed by the business and leadership magazine Real Leaders as one of the top 100 most visionary leaders.
Max’s sustainability work is based on the principles of the Swedish environmental organisation Det naturliga steget (The Natural Step), which aims to speed up our efforts to move towards a sustainable future.
Max has been labelled ”most sustainable brand” (in the fast food/restaurant section) by Sustainable Brand Index for seven years in a row.
Web site: maxburgers.com
Max have joined forces with Mevo, the first care share service with free-floating cars in Australia an New Zealand. Together the two have launched Clipop, a website featuring climate positive products.
Both Max and Mevo are climate positive.
Facts about We Don’t Have Time
We Don’t Have Time are currently building the world’s largest social media network for climate action.
Together we can solve the climate crisis.
But we are running out of time.
Sign up for our newsletter at WeDontHaveTime.org.
Join the movement by reading our manifest, following the blog and taking action to battle climate change. Or simply just enjoy seeing our impact and reach develop here and here.
Web site: www.wedonthavetime.org
