By:  Sydney Leto, Green Contributor

Steve Ells, an Art History major at the Culinary Institute of America, began his culinary career in San Francisco’s Stars Restaurant. During his time in the city, Steve found himself inspired at a local burrito joint. Amazed by the size of the tortillas and the way that the ingredients were served wrapped up in a sheet of aluminum, Ells saw the potential in this economic model without ever having taken a business class. In that small California space, people proceeded down a line to design their own Mexican meal.

When he left Stars Restaurant, Ells told his family he was moving to Colorado to open up a burrito shop. Of course, everyone thought he was crazy. It was 1993 when Ells debuted Chipotle in a former Dolly Madison ice cream shop near the University of Denver campus. Steve’s plan was to open up the restaurant and let it run itself, moving on to his real dream of opening a full-scale restaurant; but, Chipotle experienced huge success and Steve continued opening more locations. By 1996, the restaurant had grown to a total of eight stores in Colorado. Outside investors noticed Chipotle’s growing popularity and in 1998 the chain was extended into Minnesota and Ohio.

Despite his success, Ells has not lost his care for Chipotle’s food quality. After reading an article and paying a visit to Niman Ranch, a coalition of family farms in Iowa specializing in naturally-raised pork, Steve decided that the meat industry’s practices of animal confinement would play no role in his restaurant’s success. Today, Chipotle strives to serve as much naturally-raised meat as possible, hoping one day to serve only that.

Ells also worked with McDonalds, who invested $330 million dollars in the company, an investment that helped Chipotle add more than 500 locations! When Chipotle went public in 2006, McDonalds sold its stakes, making a huge return. Now, after 18 years since opening the first Denver restaurant, Steve Ells’ fast-growing and simple economic model has matured into a network of 26,000 employees in 775 locations. Recently, Chipotle has even opened up international locations in Canadian and European cities. And while it did not start out as a company with an environmental mission, Ells claims Chipotle’s evident success is even more rewarding for the social responsibility it commits to with each burrito served.