A look back at 2018

2018 was a transformative year at sweetgreen.

Our goal was to continue to make an impact in the communities we serve while investing in the future. We aimed to get stronger, not just bigger and find ways to leverage technology that enhance the human experience around real food.

Today we are grateful that Fast Company has recognized us as the 6th most innovative company, alongside many iconic companies we look up to including Disney, Stitch Fix, and Peloton. You can read more here.

Here is what we were up to last year:

• Sustainability initiatives: We introduced new packaging, eliminating the need for metal mixing bowls. Mixing food right in the bowl saves more than half a million pounds of food waste, reduces our water consumption, and speeds up lines for customers. All our packaging — bowls, cups, bags and utensils — is now 100% certified compostable, and we introduced composting and paper straws and removed plastic bottles at every location.
• Hank’s: We partnered with Hank’s Mini Market, a family-run small business based in South LA food desert to help the owner, Kelli, offer locally-sourced, fresh produce in a refurbished store, creating access to healthy foods.
• Row 7: Together with Row 7, we introduced Koginut Squash, a new vegetable bred for flavor, nutrition, and soil health. We worked with our farmers across the country, saw 23 acres of Koginut planted across the country, and proved that good flavor and changing the food system can go hand in hand.
• Blockchain: We partnered with Ripe.io to set a foundation of a blockchain to capture traceability data for our ingredients. Our hope is to champion a more transparent supply chain to verify food quality, taste and safety.

We’re incredibly grateful and humbled to be included in this list of companies and we can’t wait to share what we have in store for 2019.

-Jonathan, Nicolas and Nathaniel

Originally published at medium.com on February 20, 2019.