Burger King’s Impossible Whopper was a roaring success. In 2019, the plant-based burger boosted the restaurant's sales by six percent. Other fast food chains quickly followed in suit: Dunkin’ Donuts offers a Beyond Sausage Sandwich, KFC features Beyond Fried Chicken and Chipotle developed an in-house vegetarian chorizo.
Clearly, plant-based meats are all the rage. And they might be the key to protecting our planet. In a new report, experts from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and sustainability-focused investing group Blue Horizon show that the industry could be one of society’s best tools for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Across the industries they looked at — including sectors like shipping, building and aviation — alternative proteins reduced emissions the most per dollar spent. It wasn't a tight race, either. Plant-based proteins were three times more cost-effective than sustainable cement and nearly 15 times more efficient than green power. “We were kind of surprised ourselves by these numbers. We double and triple checked them,” says Friederike Grosse-Holz, director of Blue Horizon. “It really does seem like this is one of the low-hanging fruit in the fight against climate change.”
