McDonald’s Sustainability Case Study
The Challenge
Founded in 1940, McDonald’s is a global fast-food brand and the world’s largest restaurant chain by revenue. As part of a broader sustainability initiative, McDonald’s wanted to understand how language and terminology around climate change and sustainability were being interpreted. With increasing public discussion around environmental issues, the challenge was not awareness, but comprehension.
McDonald’s needed to assess whether the language being used was helping or hindering understanding, and how different stakeholder groups perceived sustainability messaging. The objective was to identify where jargon, complexity or ambiguity might act as a barrier to engagement and action, and how communications could be made clearer, more inclusive and more effective.
Research Objectives
The research was designed to explore how sustainability language is understood and interpreted across different audiences. The key objectives were to:
- Understand how climate change and sustainability terminology is perceived
- Identify areas of confusion caused by jargon or technical language
- Assess how different stakeholder groups interpret sustainability messaging
- Explore emotional and cognitive responses to commonly used terms
- Identify opportunities to improve clarity, relevance and engagement
Together, these objectives aimed to support more effective sustainability communication that encourages understanding rather than disengagement.
Research Approach
Vision One designed a comprehensive mixed-method research programme to capture both depth and breadth of understanding. The approach included:
- Qualitative focus groups to explore attitudes and interpretations in detail
- Individual depth interviews to capture nuanced, expert perspectives
- A quantitative online survey to validate findings at scale
- Engagement with a broad range of stakeholders, including academics, linguists and the general public
- Comparative evaluation of language, terminology and framing
This approach ensured insight reflected both expert and everyday interpretations of sustainability language.
Findings
The research revealed that sustainability and environmental language has become increasingly cluttered with jargon. Many commonly used terms were poorly understood and created confusion rather than clarity. For a significant proportion of people, this complexity acted as a barrier to engagement and action.
The findings showed that while interest in sustainability was high, unclear language reduced confidence and understanding. This highlighted a disconnect between intention and impact, reinforcing the need for simpler, more accessible communication that helps people grasp meaning, relevance and consequence more intuitively.
Action & Recommendations
The research recommended developing a clear, plain-language glossary of sustainability terms, supported by imagery and tangible examples that illustrate cause and effect. By grounding concepts in relatable, everyday contexts, McDonald’s could improve understanding, reduce confusion and make sustainability messaging more accessible, credible and actionable across stakeholder groups.
