A new default with Burger King’s “normal or with meat” campaign

What unsustainable behavior needs to change:

Eating meat is deeply ingrained in Western culture, often seen as the default choice for protein and nutrition. But this comes at a high environmental cost. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), global livestock production contributes 14.5% of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions—equivalent to 7.1 gigatons of CO₂ per year.

Beef, in particular, is a major emitter. Producing just 1 kg of beef releases around 60 kg of CO₂ equivalents.

By comparison, the emissions per kg for other foods are significantly lower:

• Root vegetables & apples: 0.4 kg CO₂
• Peas: 1 kg CO₂
• Rice: 4 kg CO₂
• Tomatoes: 1.4 kg CO₂
• Nuts: 0.3 kg CO₂
• Bananas: 0.7 kg CO₂

Despite these environmental impacts, meat remains the default in many popular dishes—especially burgers. When customers order a burger, it’s almost always assumed to be meat-based. This default reinforces unsustainable choices.

The Green Nudge:

Burger King Austria set out to challenge this norm with its „Normal or With Meat“ campaign at its Vienna Margaretengürtel location. Instead of assuming meat, they flipped the default: customers who ordered a “burger” without specifying “with meat” received a plant-based version by default.

The results: a 40% increase in plant-based burger sales revenue. While further research is needed to assess long-term behaviour changes, this experiment suggests that default nudges can have a powerful impact on food choices.

Changing habits is extremely difficult. But establishing a new default might nudge some people to reconsider and try new – ideally more sustainable – options. If the product experience is not worse than the unsustainable option, it has the chance to become a new habit. A new normal.