Aug 20 2008
Chipotle Goes Green
Chipotle Mexican Grill is set to open four LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified restaurants by year end. All four will have recycled drywall and nontoxic paint, as well as energy-saving windows, water heaters and lighting systems.
Already, every Chipotle uses naturally-raised pork and chicken, hormone-free dairy products, bowls made from recycled paper, unbleached basket liners and napkins, and bio-plastic gift cards.
In May, Chipotle became the first national restaurant company to serve exclusively naturally raised chicken.
Chipotle began serving naturally raised chicken at its restaurants in Washington, DC, in 2002 and has since been working with its suppliers and identifying other like-minded farms to constantly add to its supply until completing the goal of serving 100 percent naturally raised chicken.
All of Chipotle’s naturally raised chicken, pork and beef comes from animals that are humanely raised, never given antibiotics or added growth hormones (or drugs that act like hormones), and fed a pure vegetarian diet with no animal by-products.
Chipotle already serves more naturally raised meat than any other restaurant company in the world. In all, Chipotle will serve more than 52 million pounds of naturally raised meat this year. In addition to the chicken, all of the pork Chipotle serves is naturally raised, and nearly 60 percent of its restaurants serve naturally raised beef. Those 52 million pounds amount to more than 200 million meals made with naturally raised meat.
In December 2007, Chipotle became the first national restaurant company to serve only dairy products (cheese and sour cream) made with milk from cows that are not treated with the synthetic hormone rBGH (recombinant bovine growth hormone). And this year, 30 percent of all of the beans it serves will come from organic farms.
Chipotle opened its first restaurant in 1993 and currently operates more than 730 restaurants. For more information, visit www.chipotle.com.
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Kidney Beans (pictured above)
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Navy [...]
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I’ve never heard of this restaurant, but I checked out the map and there are two locations nearby (in Madison, WI). Yes!! We will definitely be checking this place out soon.