Can fast food be the driving force for sustainability?

• Chipotle is making a public commitment to sustainability.

It’s not a new concept for fast-food operations to have a nonprofit arm — Ronald McDonald House Charities being among the most recognizable — but a fast-food franchise using a nonprofit to promote sustainability is news.

Chipotle recently announced the creation of Chipotle Cultivate Foundation, a nonprofit designed to support sustainable food practices through education and advocacy. The scope and exact nature of the organization have not yet been published, but the idea opens the door to discuss whether the only way to change our industrial food system is courtesy of a chain with more than 1,400 locations. Call it the Walmart effect, wherein Walmart becomes the biggest customer of Stonyfield Farms, a producer of organic yogurt. But in both cases, it’s likely the consumer who determines just how serious a shop needs to be about sourcing.

Can fast food be the driving force for sustainability? And, realistically, do denizens of the drive-through really care?