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Chipotle achieves 51% waste-diversion rate
April 15, 2021
Chipotle Mexican Grill achieved a 51% waste-diversion rate this year through recycling, composting and waste-to-energy programs, reaching a key goal outlined in its 2018 Sustainability Report.
The work isn't done, however, according to CEO Brian Niccol, who said in a press release that the company was expanding waste-reduction programs, including its Glove to Bags program, an initiative that transforms used plastic gloves into trash bags in partnership with Revolution Bag, and the Chipotle Goods Avocado Dye Line, an open-looped collection of Chipotle apparel dyed with upcycled avocado pits from Chipotle restaurants.
"Sustainability is and always will be a strategic priority for Chipotle," Niccol said in the release. "I, along with the rest of the organization, strongly believe that how we grow our food is how we grow our future."
Chipotle's 2020 Sustainability Report broke out the brand's efforts in the following categories:
Food and animals
- Purchased more than 28.1 million pounds of organic and transitional ingredients
- Purchased more than 31 million pounds of local produce, an investment of more than $23.3 million into local food systems
- Committed $5 million to young farmers over five years
Going forward, Chipotle will partner withgrowers to convert more than 400 acres of conventional farmland to organic farmland via transitional growing methods by 2025. It also plans to purchase more than 37 million pounds of produce from local farmers through its Local Growers Program in 2021
People
- Donated more than $5 million to local community organizations through 26,000 fundraisers in its restaurants
- Promoted 13,689 employees at all levels
- Offered debt-free degrees in business for employees and recently expanded the program to include Culinary, Hospitality and Agriculture majors.
By year's end, Chipotle will launch leader and mentoring programs to help it hire diverse talent as well as develop a minority-supplier development program. It's also working toward a method to measure what it pays annually to minority-owned businesses.
Environment
- Achieved a 51% landfill diversion rate at its restaurants through recycling, composting and waste-to-energy programs
- 100% of restaurant openings participated in Chipotle's Harvest Program, which donates excess food to local food banks
- Saved an estimated 65,582,000 kWh of energy, the emissions equivalent of 10,000 passenger vehicles driven for one year or 5,300 homes powered for one year
- Launched Real Foodprint, a sustainability educational tool that compares average impact values for each of Chipotle's real ingredients to their conventional counterparts
- Upcycled more than 60,000 avocado pits into natural clothing dye as part of the Chipotle Goods line
Chipotle is on a mission to reduce overall waste by 5% by 2025, as compared to a 2020 baseline, and plans to test at least one innovative packaging design that reduces plastic in 2021, said Caitlin Leibert, head of Sustainability.
"Keeping half of all the waste we produce out of the landfill is an extraordinary achievement, particularly for an organization of our scale," she said in the report. "We are dedicated to doing the work it takes to be a leader in this space and passionate about continuously innovating solutions to some of the biggest challenges of our time."
Round Up For Sustainability
Chipotle is partnering with the non-profit Earth Force, which will launch a sustainability challenge that engages youth as environmental problem-solvers, to create innovative solutions for sustainable food and agriculture.
From now through May 5, guests can help fund the challenge by rounding up their change to the next highest dollar amount on the Chipotle app, website or at checkout.
Chipotle has over 2,750 restaurants in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France and Germany.
