GREELEY, Colo. –Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., a subsidiary of São Paulo, Brazil-based JBS SA, showed sustainability progress in its latest report. The digital report focused on categories that would impact team members, customers and consumers, the environment, animal care, communities and suppliers.
“Our 2018 Pilgrim’s Sustainability Report shares the ways our 55,000 team members and more than 5,400 family farm partners are contributing to environmental, social and economic progress in the US, Puerto Rico, Mexico and Europe,” said Pilgrim’s Global President and CEO Jayson Penn. “We are committed to improving the lives of families around the world through high-quality, sustainable food solutions and are focused on long-term success for our business and our stakeholders.”
In terms of workplace safety, Pilgrim’s reported a 26 percent reduction in severe incidents globally from 2017-2018. However, the company also set a goal of reducing severe incidents by 15 percent year over year and last year it only decreased by 2 percent.
For animal care, the company said it achieved 97.1 to 100 percent scores on Pilgrim’s US external animal welfare audits. Electricity use intensity was decreased by five percent from 2017-2018 as part of an environmental initiative.
For its Family Farm Partners, Pilgrim’s paid $1.2 billion to more than 5,400 poultry family farms. Finally, the company said it approved $255 million of investments in sustainability-related projects.
For its 2020 sustainability goals, Pilgrim’s made some progress including:
- 20 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emission intensity, compared to the goal of 14 percent;
- 13 percent reduction in electricity use intensity, compared to the goal of 12 percent; and
- 11 percent reduction in natural gas use intensity, compared to the goal of 14 percent.
The company also showed it was on track with two of its animal welfare goals. First it said that it should achieve 90 percent or better on its Animal Health and Welfare Scorecard at all processing plants. It is also on track to achieve a 95 percent or better on live operations for the Animal Health and Welfare Scorecard and 100 percent vendor compliance with its Supplier Code of Business Ethics and Conduct.
“While we are proud of our achievements to date, there is more work to be done,” Penn said. “We are confident our unique global production platform, in conjunction with our diverse products, position us well to meet the demand for sustainable protein while demonstrating continuous improvement.”
Pilgrim’s fell short on one other goal. The company planned to reduce its water use intensity by 10 percent, but instead it increased intensity by 13 percent during 2018.
The entire Pilgrim’s Sustainability Report is available here.
