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This study investigates how Michelin Green Star restaurants communicate sustainability through narrative framing, drawing on a dataset of 610 establishments across 42 countries. Using a mixed-method design that combines frame analysis with mapping against the Sustainable Development Goals, the study identifies three dominant frames: culinary philosophy and place-based identity, agroecological commitment and ethical production, and operational responsibility and technical efficiency. While environmental themes appear in nearly all cases (99.7 percent), social sustainability is addressed in only 12.1 percent, with labour rights and equity largely absent. To integrate these insights, a three-stage conceptual framework is proposed: Stage 1 highlights institutional pressures and SDG discourses as contextual drivers, Stage 2 identifies narrative frames as communicative mechanisms, and Stage 3 links institutional influence and narrative capability in a two-axis model that yields four archetypes: Storytellers, Orchestrators, Invisibles, and Executors. The study advances theory by combining institutional and framing perspectives to explain how sustainability narratives function as performative acts and strategic resources, while offering practical guidance for restaurateurs, policymakers, and certification bodies.
Pinto et al. (Thu,) studied this question.