SMITHFIELD, VA. – Smithfield Foods Inc. recently announced its 2023 sustainability impact report detailing goal achievements and renewed commitments for the meat processor.

“Despite the difficult industry environment our company and industry faced in 2023, Smithfield remained resilient and made significant progress on our sustainability journey,” said Stewart Leeth, chief sustainability officer for Smithfield Foods. “We have a clear path forward that builds momentum on our 22-year commitment of being good stewards, doing good work and producing good food.”

In the report, Smithfield highlighted various areas focused on sustainability commitments in the upcoming years.

For animal care, Smithfield farm operations had an average performance score of 95% for internal audits and 98% on third-party audits in 2023. Company processing facilities hold an average score of 99.57% on third-party audits.

Under renewable energy, Smithfield Foods touted that it completed a $150 million renewable natural gas (RNG) project by installing manure-to-energy technology on almost all its company-owned finishing farms in Missouri. Smithfield said it’s on track to install biogas systems on 90% of finishing farms for US company and contract locations by 2030.

In its reducing emissions section, Smithfield said by using alternative feed ingredients, the company would reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with feed by more than 100,000 tonnes from a 2010 baseline.

Other initiatives the pork producer mentioned were its participation in US Food Loss and Waste 2030 Champions. Smithfield said it reduced food waste at its distribution centers by 30% through improvements to inventory management and product handling.

Under its giving back section, Smithfield noted donations of more than 30 million protein servings to food banks, disaster relief efforts and community outreach programs, along with making $37 million in cash and in-kind contributions. It also awarded more than $969,000 in need-based educational scholarships globally.

The meat producer later laid out its diversity, culture and engagement initiatives which included its production facility spending $83 million with minority-owned businesses.

Under its worker safety segment, Smithfield said it achieved safety incident rates below industry averages again during 2023. It also noted that it did not have any product recalls last year.

For increased transparency of food nutrition through cleaner labels, Smithfield plans to reduce added sugars and sodium by 10% across its entire US product line by 2025.

The entire Smithfield sustainability impact report can be found here.