Hamburgers are consumed all over the world at the rate of 150 million a day. Since they are popular and consumed frequently, the wrapping paper for Japan alone fills up 9000 football fields in a year, with a major impact on the environment, especially on forests where wild animals live. But very few are aware of this. So WWF Japan developed a solution toward large hamburger chains that would promote awareness of environmental issues to everyone using hamburgers.

In order to utilize hamburgers with iconic design wrapping that make them look like the Earth as design symbols, sustainable hamburgers called EARTH BURGERS were developed with beef, buns and wrapping paper that have cleared environmental standards.They were made into donation burgers, where 100 JPY would be donated to environmental protection activities for every hamburger sold. This was connected to the human appetite, one of the 3 main desires, and 25 hamburger shops throughout Japan showed support for the cause and offered EARTH BURGERS.

Wrapping paper with iconic design that will turn the hamburger into the Earth was created with FSC-approved paper for the first time in Japan. At 25 hamburger shops which agreed to the partnerships across Japan as the touchpoint, awareness of environmental issues and call-to-action were promoted. In the shops, the hamburgers had picks with leaves (made from FSC approved paper) where people could write messages. These message leaves could be placed on tree branches of the posters on the hamburger shop wall, increasing greenery as more people participated in the cause. Various promotional items like this visualized the people’s will to protect the Earth. On the website, a support generator was installed so that people could recommend EARTH BURGERS to large hamburger chains.

Hamburgers with iconic design wrapping that make them look like the Earth when wrapped, were in just 3 weeks, featured on TV, radio, newspaper and web in more than 140 articles/programs, with 21 million impressions, reaching 18 million.Throughout Japan, 25 hamburger shops provided EARTH BURGERS, selling 2,100 burgers. Signatures showing support numbered 2,139 and 210,000 JPY was donated to environmental protection. Even McDonald’s Japan decided to join the project and provided procurement information that met EARTH BURGER standards on the WEB and on tray-paper at stores in Japan, leading to a more valuable result than purely numbers. As “a delicious and eco-friendly future-standard burger” that tackles the next food issue following food-loss or plastic wastes, EARTH BURGERS are continuing to spread.