Sweetgreen is publicly traded with institutional money from Goldman Sachs and Point72 — but the co-founders still control the votes through a dual-class share structure, which makes it a genuinely unusual case. The farm sourcing transparency is real and above peer average; the labor record is mixed, with an automation program cutting headcount and an unresolved discrimination lawsuit filed in 2023. Sweetgreen ultimately answers to its co-founders, not Wall Street — and for now, that's the best you can say about accountability at a 300-location chain.