Sweetgreen Is Going to Make All Its Locations Carbon-Neutral Within 6 Years

It's an ambitious goal for any restaurant.

sweetgreen carbon neutral
Image courtesy of Sweetgreen
Image courtesy of Sweetgreen

Sweetgreen, a fast casual chain with 119 locations and seasonal menus that include locally-sourced food, has announced plans for all restaurants to be carbon neutral by 2027. The action was announced in a February 24 post on Medium by the founders that call climate change "the defining challenge of our generation."

The chain worked with Watershed, a climate company that helps other companies assess their carbon footprint, to survey its emissions "across every touchpoint of its business." That assessment was used to craft a plan to meet this ambitious goal. Companies that announce emission cuts often focus on purchasing offsets. Sweetgreen, however, says that is only coming after other meaningful actions. "The six-year plan of attack: Reducing our carbon by 50% and meaningfully offsetting where reduction isn’t yet possible," the founders wrote.

"Simply put, we believe it’s the right thing to do for our business and for the planet. With the food system driving 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions, the time for change is now," Nicolas Jammet, co-founder and Chief Concept Officer of Sweetgreen, said in a statement. "We know that real change doesn’t happen overnight -- it’s all the steps in between, the little moments that can lead to a big impact. That’s why we’re making this commitment."

Part of the plan included commissioning an assessment at select suppliers it works with, looking at the amount of feed used and how manure was handled by those suppliers. Additionally, some of the menu adjustments that will be made include looking at "soil-friendly ingredients like regenerative kelp and the cover crop sorghum," according to the company's announcement.

"Sweetgreen is working across every element of the food system - -how food is grown on farms, transported to customers, and consumed in restaurants -- to cut emissions," Taylor Francis, co-founder of Watershed, said. “Sweetgreen’s menu is already 30% less carbon-intensive than the average US diet, and their commitment to decrease their greenhouse gas intensity by 50% and become carbon neutral is setting a new bar for the industry."

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Dustin Nelson is a Senior Staff Writer at Thrillist. Follow Dustin Nelson on Twitter.