Environmental Messages Promote Plant-Based Food Choices: An Online Restaurant Menu Study

Abstract

Food production accounts for a quarter of all greenhouse gases, making shifting people’s diets toward lower carbon foods a critical strategy for reducing emissions. This study finds that displaying thoughtfully framed environmental messages on restaurant menus can significantly increase customers' uptake of lower carbon, plant-rich dishes. WRI finds that the two most effective descriptive messages doubled the chance that a consumer would order a vegetarian menu item. These themes are “small changes can make a big difference” and “join a movement of people choosing foods with less impact on the climate.” ​ Restaurants and food businesses should use these findings to increase sales of lower carbon menu items while helping consumers choose foods that fit a climate-friendly lifestyle. While the WRI study was done online with more than 6,000 participants, the findings can be adapted and tailored to a wide variety of retail and food service contexts. ​ More research and real-world learnings will further our base of knowledge. This study, however, shows that adding environmental messaging can be an easy, cost-effective and promising way for companies to see impact and shift consumer choices toward more climate-friendly options.​

Promoting sustainable diets using eco-labelling and social nudges: a randomised online experiment

“…In fact, in 2022, the World Resources Institute conducted a multi-stage online experiment which tested sustainability-themed messaging on menus. These results suggested that displaying thoughtfully framed environmental messages on restaurant menus could help to nudge diners to order more vegetarian meals (Blondin et al, 2022).…”

Вплив Поведінкового Підштовхування (Наджингу) На Культуру Споживання Для Сталого Розвитку

“…Дослідження показують (Blondin S., 2022), що навіть проста зміна представлення страв меню в закладі харчування здатне змінити споживчий вибір. Такий інструмент підштовхування є м'яким, оскільки не вводить жодних заборон, не накладає додаткових витрат і залишає право вибору за споживачем.…”

“…Проаналізуємо результати 2 масштабних досліджень, які були проведені в США (Blondin at al., 2022), щоб визначити, чи кліматичні повідомлення впливають на вибір споживачів -і якщо так, то який тип повідомлень працює найкраще ̶ WRI перевірив різні повідомлення щодо сталого розвитку за участю понад 6000 учасників дослідження в США.…”

Pursuing higher environmental goals for agriculture in an interconnected world

“…Reports in the literature note that the uneven distribution of trade losses associated with BCAs could induce competitiveness losses in specific geographical regions (Zhong and Pei, 2022 [134]). Developing countries may be most affected by this, considering their high exposure to trade and potential higher emission intensities (Blandford and Hassapoyannes, 2018 [136]; Eicke et al, 2021 [125]). To take account of the development priorities of these countries and in line with the principle of common but differentiated responsibility and respective capabilities (CBDR-RC), governments implementing BCAs may adopt exemptions for least developed and/or other developing countries (Carbon Market Watch, 2021 [137]; OECD, 2020 [50]).…”