Steve Ells was interviewed by Oprah to discuss his revolutionary ideas about fast food. Ells shared his story which illustrates how Chipotle Mexican Grill is a great example of corporate social responsibility (CSR), “in 1993, [he] opened the very first Chipotle Mexican restaurant. “I think fast food to most people means cheap, highly processed,” he says. “At Chipotle, it’s just the opposite. Everything at Chipotle is fresh, never frozen, with the exception of corn.”

Ells says 45 percent of Chipotle’s beans are organic, and restaurants buy produce from local family farmers in the months it’s available. Chipotle also serves more naturally raised meat than any other restaurant company in the country. In 2010, the chain expects to serve about 70 million pounds of meat. One hundred percent of its chicken and pork are naturally raised, with beef at 60 percent. “These make for better tasting meats and better for the environment,” Steve says. Steve’s dedication to fresh food is paying off. Chipotle serves 700,000 people a day and saw more than $1 billion in sales in 2009. “Access to sustainably raised food shouldn’t be a luxury,” he says. “It should be an everyday occurrence.””

Ells’ Chipotle Mexican Grill is an excellent example of corporate social responsibility because he believes in Food With Integrity™, but this is more than a mere slogan. According to the Chipotle website “the hallmarks of Food With Integrity™ includes things like unprocessed, seasonal, family-farmed, sustainable, nutritious, naturally raised, added hormone free, organic, and artisanal. And, since embracing this philosophy, it’s had tremendous impact on how we run our restaurants and our business.”

Beyond just the food, their commitment to the environment has even affected how they design and build the restaurants. On top of everything else Chipotle’s sense of corporate social responsibility includes an honest and transparent approach to every aspect of their business, when speaking about the food, which “contain[s] zero trans fats. Although by law [they] can say that [their] large burrito tortillas and our small soft taco tortillas contain zero trans fatty acids, they actually contain a negligible amount. Since a serving of our large burrito tortillas and our small soft taco tortillas contains less than 0.5 gram of TFAs, [they] are required by the FDA to declare the content of these tortillas as “zero” grams. The rest of our foods do not contain any trans fats at all.” They take into account the many allergies, which have become more prevalent in society as they do not use “peanuts, tree nuts or any other kind of nuts in [their] foods. Only [their] cheese and sour cream contain any dairy. And there are no eggs in our foods.”

To top it all off they have something for everyone as they have “a number of vegetarian and vegan dining choices.”  All the choices they made have been carefully weighted to reduce their impact on the environment and do what is best for their customers.  This is a new approach to fast food and it demonstrates that they truly are the perfect example of corporate social responsibility that other restaurateurs should follow.