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Max restaurants in Sweden displaying carbon emissions for burgers

Canadians may be used to seeing nutritional facts on items in grocery stores and at some restaurants, but a burger eatery in Sweden is taking it a step further by showing customers more than just the affect on the body.

Max restaurant in Stockholm shows the carbon dioxide emissions associated with producing each of the burgers on the illuminated menu board.

"We are part of the problem and therefore want to be part of the solution," reads the environmental section of its website.

"The cornerstone of our work is the declaration of the carbon emissions for our entire product range, which are stated on our menus."

Max claims to be the first restaurant chain to show customers this data.

"In the long term we will have a change in customer behaviour," said chief sustainability officer Par Larshans to the Globe and Mail. "It doesn't happen overnight."

The company worked with The Natural Step to analyze products. The Natural Step, which has offices in 11 countries including Canada, works toward developing solutions to encourage sustainability.

Max found about 70 per cent of its total carbon emissions are from the production of beef.

"The easiest thing would be to take away the beef," Larshans said in the Globe story.

"Then we would be automatically more sustainable but then we wouldn't have the customer either."

Realizing that getting rid of the main source of emissions was not an option, Max decided to offset its carbon production in addition to continuing to use locally raised beef and chicken.

To offset its emissions, the business plants about 89,000 trees per year in Africa. To reduce emissions, all restaurants are powered entirely by wind energy.

While critics wonder how much of an affect having these numbers on a menu will have, Larshans is convinced it is the right thing to do.

He told the Globe and Mail, "We are taking necessary steps to change our business now because in the long run this will be a big problem."

(Flickr photo of menu from user roboppy)