Our Sustainability Stories

The Pilgrim’s Europe Prepared Foods business was awarded the RoSPA Gold Award for health and safety performance for the period from January 01, 2023, to December 31, 2023. The ultimate symbol of achievement in safety and excellence, the internationally renowned RoSPA Health and Safety Awards recognize organizations, teams, and projects across all sectors for their unwavering commitment to protecting lives - setting the benchmark for prestige and inspiring sector-wide admiration. By earning a RoSPA Award, organizations not only receive recognition for their accomplishments but also become part of a legacy that values dedication to high safety standards, the well-being of individuals, and signifies a commitment to excellence.

In 2023, Pilgrim’s Mexico replaced styrofoam trays with PET trays for its Just Bare product line. PET is the most recyclable material in the world and can be recycled indefinitely while maintaining all its characteristics.

Each year, numerous capital projects and procedural improvements are installed to reduce and/or reuse water at JBS facilities. In the United States for example, our Pilgrim’s chicken processing facility in Sumter, South Carolina, reduced water consumption by more than 10% from 2022 to 2023. Sumter’s primary reduction project focused on reusing partially treated wastewater in non-edible areas within the site. Alternatively, our Cold Spring, Minnesota, facility reduced year-over-year water usage by nearly 5% primarily due to procedural improvements applied during sanitation. Enhanced metering and tracking of data led our Broadway, Virginia, facility to better communicate reduction opportunities, leading to a noteworthy decrease in its water use. Perhaps the largest water reduction impact project took place at our Mayfield, Kentucky, facility. In 2023, the plant upgraded its open-vessel scalder (a warm water basin used in production facility) to a closed-vessel. This and other water reduction actions resulted in nearly a 1 gallon per bird water reduction due to technological advancements. However, significant co-benefits were also realized, such as lowering radiant heat loss into the immediate area, improving working conditions for team members, reducing fossil fuel usage that would be required to maintain water temperature, and mitigating the resulting GHG emissions.

The incubation department of Pilgrim’s Mexico’s center chicken complex consists of six hatcheries that have a cumulative loading capacity of 5,798,880 fertile eggs per week. In 2016, the business developed a plan to reduce liquefied petroleum (LP) gas consumed for heating, while still maintaining temperature needs across different rooms and areas of the hatcheries. Over the years, Pilgrim’s Mexico implemented several energy efficiency strategies that managed to reduce LP gas consumption from 507,587 liters to 207,962 liters from 2016 to 2023, a reduction of almost 60%.

Pilgrim's U.S. partnered with local utility providers and third-party energy consultants to identify energy savings opportunities, audit routine operations, and implement best practices for reducing energy consumption across multiple facilities. Plants received on-site assistance and as a result realized reductions across a range of interventions – from daily low-cost behaviors to capital-funded heat recovery projects. Today, they continue to engage in other energy saving initiatives. Many projects were also implemented in 2023 based on previous 2022 consultant findings, and we are working to monitor and quantify the resulting reductions. At Pilgrim's, continual reductions through multiple smaller-scale projects are as important as a one-time implementation of a large project.

In May 2023, a full-service food safety and food plant sanitation company was formed to provide in-house sanitation services for Pilgrim’s facilities. In light of the troubling revelations that occurred in the food sanitation sector related to child labor among subcontractors in meatpacking plants, Pilgrim's made the decision to create a company that can provide the highest levels of food safety and quality assurance in its facilities, while also adopting the same high standards for compliance and employment verification that Pilgrim's adheres to in the hiring of its own workforce. To date, Pilgrim’s U.S. has transitioned 63% of facility sanitation contracts from third-party providers to internal sanitation teams.

At Pilgrim’s Mexico, day-old chicks are transported from hatcheries to broiler farms on trucks equipped with temperature monitoring systems. This allows drivers to monitor and ensure chick comfort throughout transit. Additional monitoring mechanisms were implemented in 2023 via DATALOGERs, which record truck temperatures in real-time throughout the entire journey, confirming correct comfort levels for the chicks daily.

In 2023, our Pilgrim’s Europe beef patty production facility, Beef Orléans, celebrated the 20th anniversary of its cattle supplier contract program. Created in 2003 as a guaranteed outlet for farmers seeking an alternative to a volatile and uncertain cattle market, the program’s objectives remain the same today: To secure the facility’s beef supply via dedicated animals on farm To agree to a price independent of market fluctuations, guaranteeing economic efficiency and income security for all, beginning with farmer partners To ensure that farmers have an avenue and medium- / long-term vision to plan production and investment To help their suppliers meet evolving challenges and expectations related to climate, Beef Orléans developed two unique diagnosis tools CAP’2ER, an on-farm Life Cycle Assessment that helps cattle breeders understand their action levers and the positive environmental outcomes generated by their farms BoviWell, an on-farm animal performance assessment that identifies where farms can further improve In 2023, Beef Orléans contracted 30,000 cattle from 1,070 French farms, 100% of which were evaluated using these tools. Today, an additional program is being developed to support the implementation of further action on farm.

BQP, Pilgrim's Europe's in-house 100 percent higher welfare pig farming operation, marked its 40th anniversary with a celebration event at the Suffolk Food Hall in Ipswich. Established by Pilgrim's Europe Agriculture Director Andrew Saunders in 1979, the organization has evolved to become the UK's leading pig farmer and award-winning producer of higher welfare pigs, consistently winning top honors in key industry awards year on year. “Our core strategy at BQP focuses on the production of top quality, higher welfare pigs, with considerations of efficiency and CSR responsibilities at the heart of this, and safety as a condition,” Saunders said, speaking at the event. “For 40 years, we’ve worked with the best suppliers who have helped us to continue to push forward with the latest farming innovations to become the best in the industry. We are also proud to count two of the UK's major retailers, Waitrose and Co-op, as our core customers.” “We're already looking ahead to the next 40 years of BQP, including attracting a new generation of farmers and enhancing our green credentials. Sustainable farming will remain a key priority as we strive to set new benchmarks in industry practices. As well as exploring solutions to reduce and minimize our impact on the environment, we're proactively evolving our processes to ensure we have a culture that supports our people, our animals and our planet.”

In Continental Europe and the United Kingdom, our Pilgrim's Europe team saw an 8% reduction in energy intensity between 2021 and 2022. Overall energy consumption was reduced due to the business’ utility saving teams at the facility level leading reduction projects, action plans outlining targeted opportunities, and behavioral changes in team members. Energy-related key performance indicators (KPIs) were also closely evaluated through regular performance reviews, and improved metering system deployment and analysis were advanced. Finally, sharing utility reduction activities and improvements between facilities was also found to be effective.

Pilgrim's Europe's efforts to protect nature and biodiversity have been recognized with ‘Platinum’ level accreditation in an independent Business & Biodiversity Charter, delivered by Business in the Community Northern Ireland (BITCNI) in partnership with Ulster Wildlife. The Charter recognizes organizations that are committed to enhancing and protecting biodiversity and have taken action to address their impact on all living things, from ecosystems to individual organisms. The top rank was conferred on Pilgrim's Europe in recognition of its focus on protecting and enhancing the environment through a range of nature-focused initiatives including schools’ outreach and community engagement, along with strategic partnerships and investments to enhance biodiversity at its sites across Northern Ireland.

Our Pilgrim’s Europe businesses continued to maintain their commitments to send zero waste to landfill across all facilities in 2022. Pilgrim's Europe also began using 100% recyclable rigid packaging this year in line with their “Remove, Reduce, Recycle and Research” strategy. All other packaging will be widely recyclable by 2025.