Newsweek recently released an issue profiling the ‘greenest companies’. The measures of greenness were either operational or based on the perceptions of CEOs and the business community which, as I’ll outline below, makes the article of limited value. From Newsweek’s piece, it is clear corporate America is pumping a lot of money into green initiatives. This is of course good for the environment but it may not be paying off as much as it could for the companies spending all that money.
We recently partnered with the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation to conduct a survey – called the Green Monitor – designed to reveal the green perceptions of common demographics as defined by age, income, ethnicity, etc.
The most striking realization when comparing the Newsweek article to the Green Monitor results is that companies spending a lot of money on greening their operations, like McDonald’s (#22 in Newsweek’s assessment), are not necessarily perceived in such positive light. The Green Monitor revealed McDonald’s as having the worst green perception of all fast food companies surveyed among Milennials (a core target constituency).
Worse, Milennials perceive themselves as the most environmentally aware and active, spending more time and money directly impacting the environment than do Gen Xers or Boomers. That positions them as helpful (or harmful) on two fronts as far as McDonald’s is concerned. Most obviously, Milennials represent significant revenue for McDonald’s. In addition, though, Milennials serve as environmental opinion leaders because of their higher engagement level around environmental issues.
Compound this with their media savvy, especially their adoption of social media, and McDonald’s is missing an opportunity here. While greening their operations may be reducing costs, it is doing little in terms of driving affinity among a key target group. The Green Monitor showed that Millennials primarily identify good environmental citizenship with preservation of environments and species. No wonder Milennials don’t give the company credit for green activity in a category like ‘corporate operations’ which is far outside the realm of their 20-something lives.
If McDonald’s wants to achieve full brand and revenue benefits among Milennials through green initiatives they’d be better served by including and building awareness around some conservation efforts. Or, they could demonstrate – through media appropriate to the Milennial audience – how the greening of operations is conserving environments (which, as Newsweek points out, it is).
In terms of seeing some green ($) by going green, McDonald’s heavy investment in green operational reality is undermined by a misalignment in green perception. To get perception in synch, McDonald’s should look outside its operations and into the context of its primary consumers’ lives.
