Assessing the world’s 350 most influential food and agriculture companies (2024)

Sustainable development strategy
Chipotle embeds sustainable development objectives into its strategy. The company’s materiality assessment covers issues related to the environment, nutrition and social inclusion. It has also set targets for all of its priority issues and reports on its progress against them.

No leading practices were identified for the company in the environment measurement area.

No leading practices were identified for the company in the nutrition measurement area.

No leading practices were identified for the company in the social inclusion measurement area.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
Chipotle’s board of directors oversees the company’s management of and response to environmental and sustainability matters. In March of 2021, the company introduced a new environmental, social and governance (ESG) metric that ties executive compensation to ESG goals. While the metric covers environmental and social inclusion issues, the company can improve by including a nutrition metric as well.

Stakeholder engagement
Chipotle engages with a range of relevant stakeholders, such as investors, suppliers and non-governmental organisations. The company discloses the outcomes of these engagements, which cover sustainability topics related to the environment, nutrition and social inclusion. However, the company can improve by disclosing its process for identifying its stakeholders.

Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions
Chipotle has not yet set a target to reduce its GHG emissions. It has, however, set a goal to work with the Science Based Targets initiative to set science-based reduction targets for company-wide emissions by the end of 2021.

Soil health and agrobiodiversity, and fertiliser and pesticide use
Chipotle has set a target to partner with growers to convert over 400 acres of conventional farmland to organic farmland via transitional growing methods by 2025. However, it does not have a global policy on sustainable sourcing practices that improve soil health and/or increase agrobiodiversity.

Protein diversification
While Chipotle has set a target to develop and pilot at least one new plant-based protein offering by end of 2021, the company does not disclose progress against this target.

Food loss and waste
Chipotle demonstrates that it is measuring food loss and waste, such as through its Mindful Prep programme, and has set a few targets around this issue, including to baseline food waste throughout supply chain and identify key areas of impact opportunity by 2023. However, the company does not have a clear target to reduce food loss and waste across its operations, nor does it systematically report progress against its other targets.

Animal welfare
Chipotle discloses animal welfare guidelines regarding its sourcing of animal products which applies to all geographies and its relevant key species in chicken, beef, pork, and dairy. This includes providing evidence of tackling specific animal welfare issues for its relevant key species, including providing metrics and certifications on some animal welfare issues, including transportation times or pre-slaughter stunning. While the company provides evidence of third party verification and audits, the company does not provide sufficient disclosure on how it is addressing specific animal welfare issues across all species and products, notably beef cows.

Availability of healthy foods
The company does not provide evidence of improving the nutritional quality of its products and of proportionally increasing the sales of healthy and nutritious foods.

Accessibility and affordability of healthy foods
The company does not disclose a commitment to address food insecurity by improving the accessibility and affordability of healthy and nutritious foods.

Responsible marketing
Chipotle does not disclose a responsible marketing policy, stating only that, generally, it does not target advertising specifically to children.

Food safety
While Chipotle states that 100% of its restaurants are HACCP compliant, it has an opportunity to strengthen its commitment by disclosing the percentages of its operations that are certified to a food safety scheme/certification programme recognised by the Global Food Safety Initiative.

Forced labour
While Chipotle prohibits forced labour in its own operations and supply chain, [standard text] it has an opportunity to disclose a requirement that prohibits its suppliers from retaining workers’ personal documents and/or restricting workers’ freedom of movement.

Living wage
While Chipotle has announced an increase to a USD 11-18 wage for employees, [standard text] it does not specify that it pays its workers a living wage or requires its suppliers to do the same. Neither has it set targets to do so in the future.

Health and safety of vulnerable groups
Chipotle does not disclose that it specifically recognises the health and safety risks to vulnerable groups, such as migrant and temporary labourers, women and young farmers.

While Chipotle commits to respecting the human rights of its workers and provides them with a grievance mechanism to raise complaints or concerns, little evidence was found related to respect for human rights. While the company refers to freedom of association and collective bargaining, forced labour and child labour, it lacks commitment on these issues that can be enforced and monitored. For example, while the company states it upholds freedom of association and collective bargaining and prohibits forced, compulsory and child labour, the company’s commitment is brief and considered a weak. Furthermore, the company does not disclose evidence of a human rights due diligence process.

Chipotle commits to respecting the health and safety of its workers but does not disclose measurable information regarding this. While the company discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements, it does not describe how it supports its supply chain partners in doing the same. While Chipotle confirms that 33% of its board is made of up women, no further policies regarding decent work were found, including around workforce diversity, paying a living wage and working hours.

Chipotle commits to protecting personal data and has a global approach to data privacy as well as to prohibiting bribery and corruption in its own operations and supply chain. However, it does not disclose its process for identifying bribery and corruption risks in its operations. The company has a policy statement specifying that it does not contribute to any political or religious organisations but does not describe its approach to lobbying and political engagement. Finally, Chipotle does not disclose its global tax approach, nor does it disclose the amount of income tax paid outside its US operations.