Mitigating climate change, one hamburger at a time : a discourse analysis of how MAX Burgers AB communicates their carbon offsetting — and how customers perceive it
(2020) In Master Thesis Series in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science MESM02 20201LUCSUS (Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies)
- Abstract
- Carbon offsetting through forest sequestration in the Global South has become an increasingly common way for companies to mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions and thereby sell products and services with net zero emissions. In Sweden, fast food company MAX Burgers AB goes even further. They offset 10 % more than what they emit through carbon dioxide removal (CDR), thus claiming to have a “climate-positive” menu and that “every bite is good for the climate”.
In this thesis I analyse how Max narrates their carbon offsetting online and in advertisements, as well as how a sample of 92 of their customers perceive this narrative, through short interviews. I also conduct a discourse analysis and discuss how these narratives draw on the... (More) - Carbon offsetting through forest sequestration in the Global South has become an increasingly common way for companies to mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions and thereby sell products and services with net zero emissions. In Sweden, fast food company MAX Burgers AB goes even further. They offset 10 % more than what they emit through carbon dioxide removal (CDR), thus claiming to have a “climate-positive” menu and that “every bite is good for the climate”.
In this thesis I analyse how Max narrates their carbon offsetting online and in advertisements, as well as how a sample of 92 of their customers perceive this narrative, through short interviews. I also conduct a discourse analysis and discuss how these narratives draw on the ecological modernisation, green governmentality and civic environmentalism discourses, and how Max and the interviewed customers relate to each other in terms of governmentality, i.e. the conduct of (carbon) conduct.
The major findings of the thesis are three: firstly, despite a lingering confusion around Max’s concept of “climate positivity”, the message of consuming burgers to solve climate change seems to have stuck. Indeed, most of the interviewed customers were positive towards Max’s carbon offsetting, but very few understood what it actually means and that Max is doing CDR. Secondly, Max places a lot of responsibility on the individual customer to consume sustainably, which together with the first major finding ultimately allows them to escape their own responsibility of producing sustainably. Thirdly, despite that Max constructs the individual customer as responsible for climate change mitigation, self-disciplining into conscious and responsible consumers is not very pronounced among the interviewees. This might indicate that Max is not conducting their customers’ (carbon) conduct to as great an extent as the governmentality literature suggests.
The contribution of this thesis is to shed light on a previously quite unexplored area, namely how companies communicate their carbon offsetting, and how their customers in the Global North perceive, reason and act in relation to those carbon offset products. The findings indicate that one has to be mindful in jumping to conclusions about the conduct of (carbon) conduct in terms of consumers’ behaviour, but also call for more research in the topic as no generalisations can be made to any customers other than those interviewed. (Less) - Abstract (Swedish)
- Klimatkompensation genom skogsplantering i Globala Syd har blivit ett allt mer vanligt sätt för företag att åtgärda sina växthusgasutsläpp, och därigenom sälja produkter och tjänster med netto noll utsläpp. I Sverige går snabbmatsrestaurangen MAX Burgers AB ett steg längre. De kompenserar 10 % mer än vad de släpper ut genom carbon dioxide removal (CDR), och hävdar därför att de har en "klimatpositiv" meny och att "varje tugga är bra för klimatet".
I den här masteruppsatsen analyserar jag hur Max skildrar sin klimatkompensation online och i reklam, samt hur ett urval av 92 av deras kunder tolkar det här narrativet genom korta intervjuer. Jag genomför också en diskursanalys and diskuterar hur dessa narrativ speglar diskurserna ekologisk... (More) - Klimatkompensation genom skogsplantering i Globala Syd har blivit ett allt mer vanligt sätt för företag att åtgärda sina växthusgasutsläpp, och därigenom sälja produkter och tjänster med netto noll utsläpp. I Sverige går snabbmatsrestaurangen MAX Burgers AB ett steg längre. De kompenserar 10 % mer än vad de släpper ut genom carbon dioxide removal (CDR), och hävdar därför att de har en "klimatpositiv" meny och att "varje tugga är bra för klimatet".
I den här masteruppsatsen analyserar jag hur Max skildrar sin klimatkompensation online och i reklam, samt hur ett urval av 92 av deras kunder tolkar det här narrativet genom korta intervjuer. Jag genomför också en diskursanalys and diskuterar hur dessa narrativ speglar diskurserna ekologisk modernisering, grön govermentality och civic environmentalism, samt hur Max och de intervjuade kunderna relaterar till varandra avseende governmentality.
De viktigaste resultaten av den här uppsatsen är tre: först och främst, trots förvirringen som råder kring Max's koncept "klimatpositivitet", verkar budskapet om att konsumera burgare för att tackla klimatförändringarna ha fastnat. De flesta av de intervjuade kunderna var positiva till Max's klimatkompensation, men väldigt få förstod vad det faktiskt betyder att Max gör CDR. För det andra, så lägger Max ett stort ansvar på den individuella konsumenten att konsumera hållbart, vilket tillsammans med det förstnämnda tillåter dem att undvika sitt eget ansvar att producera hållbart. För det tredje, trots att Max konstruerar den individuella konsumenten som ansvarig för att lösa klimatförändringarna, själv-disciplinering till medvetna och ansvarsfulla konsumenter är inte särskilt närvarande bland de intervjuade. Detta kan indikera att Max inte styr sina kunders koldioxids-agerande (conducting their customers' carbon conduct) till så stor utsträckning som governmentality-litteratur föreslår.
Den här uppsatsen bidrar genom att sätta ljus på ett tidigare ganska outforskat område, nämligen hur företag kommunicerar sin klimatkompensation, och hur deras kunder i Globala Nord förstår, resonerar och agerar i relation till dessa klimatkompenserade produkter. Resultaten indikerar att man bör vara försiktig med att dra slutsatser om governmentality avseende konsumenters beteenden, men visar också på behovet av mer forskning i ämnet eftersom inga generaliseringar kan göras till några andra kunder utöver de intervjuade. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9012355
- author
- Andrews, Alice LU
- supervisor
-
- Wim Carton LU
- organization
- course
- MESM02 20201
- year
- 2020
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Sustainability Science, climate change mitigation, carbon dioxide removal, green governmentality, ecological modernisation, civic environmentalism, conduct of conduct
- publication/series
- Master Thesis Series in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science
- report number
- 2020:035
- language
- English
- id
- 9012355
- date added to LUP
- 2020-06-08 09:50:45
- date last changed
- 2020-06-08 09:50:45
@misc{9012355,
abstract = {{Carbon offsetting through forest sequestration in the Global South has become an increasingly common way for companies to mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions and thereby sell products and services with net zero emissions. In Sweden, fast food company MAX Burgers AB goes even further. They offset 10 % more than what they emit through carbon dioxide removal (CDR), thus claiming to have a “climate-positive” menu and that “every bite is good for the climate”.
In this thesis I analyse how Max narrates their carbon offsetting online and in advertisements, as well as how a sample of 92 of their customers perceive this narrative, through short interviews. I also conduct a discourse analysis and discuss how these narratives draw on the ecological modernisation, green governmentality and civic environmentalism discourses, and how Max and the interviewed customers relate to each other in terms of governmentality, i.e. the conduct of (carbon) conduct.
The major findings of the thesis are three: firstly, despite a lingering confusion around Max’s concept of “climate positivity”, the message of consuming burgers to solve climate change seems to have stuck. Indeed, most of the interviewed customers were positive towards Max’s carbon offsetting, but very few understood what it actually means and that Max is doing CDR. Secondly, Max places a lot of responsibility on the individual customer to consume sustainably, which together with the first major finding ultimately allows them to escape their own responsibility of producing sustainably. Thirdly, despite that Max constructs the individual customer as responsible for climate change mitigation, self-disciplining into conscious and responsible consumers is not very pronounced among the interviewees. This might indicate that Max is not conducting their customers’ (carbon) conduct to as great an extent as the governmentality literature suggests.
The contribution of this thesis is to shed light on a previously quite unexplored area, namely how companies communicate their carbon offsetting, and how their customers in the Global North perceive, reason and act in relation to those carbon offset products. The findings indicate that one has to be mindful in jumping to conclusions about the conduct of (carbon) conduct in terms of consumers’ behaviour, but also call for more research in the topic as no generalisations can be made to any customers other than those interviewed.}},
author = {{Andrews, Alice}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
series = {{Master Thesis Series in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science}},
title = {{Mitigating climate change, one hamburger at a time : a discourse analysis of how MAX Burgers AB communicates their carbon offsetting — and how customers perceive it}},
year = {{2020}},
}