Energy and Emissions | Pilgrim's Sustainability Report

Our Commitment

Air quality and greenhouse gases (GHG) are a top concern for our team and the communities where we operate, and we are constantly looking for opportunities to improve our energy efficiency and reduce air emissions.

Reducing Energy and Greenhouse Gasses

Our environmental teams work to implement best practices for energy efficiency and to reduce GHG emissions across our operations.

We continuously invest in energy efficient technologies including LED lighting, real-time measurement devices and predictive maintenance, more efficient equipment, electrification of heating systems and transportation and more efficient refrigeration systems.

We are currently looking at opportunities to use waste-to-energy processes. To date, two of our facilities use biogas as a renewable energy source, and 100% of the electricity that our Pilgrim’s UK facilities source is renewable. In 2020, the share of indirect energy from renewable sources used at our U.S. facilities varied between 3% and 25%, depending on where the facilities were located.

Progress to goals update, as of 2020,

17% reduction in natural gas usage intensity. Achieving our goal of 14%.

11% reduction in electricity use intensity. Working toward a goal of 12%.

18% reduction in GHG emissions. Met our goal of 14%.

*Goals set based on 2013, 2014, 2015 average baselines for our U.S. facilities

Learn more about where we’re headed, to 2030 and beyond.

From 2019 to 2020, Pilgrim’s Global decreased fuel use intensity by 4% and reduced electricity use intensity by 1%.

For our business units in the U.S. and Puerto Rico who participated in our 2020 goal-setting process, natural gas use intensity decreased by 17% and electricity use intensity decreased by 11% since 2015. Our teams will continue to stay focused on reducing energy use throughout our operations to meet our 14% reduction goal in natural gas and our 12% reduction goal in electricity by 2020.

We track direct GHG emissions from stationary and mobile sources (scope 1), excluding manure emissions from our live animal operations, and energy indirect emissions (scope 2). From 2019 to 2020, we reduced our GHG emission intensity by 7% across all Pilgrim’s operations.

In the U.S. and Puerto Rico, GHG emission intensity decreased 18% since 2015, successfully achieving our GHG emission reduction goal.

Energy Performance***

Total Fuel Use (MMBTU)
	2015*	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Pilgrim’s U.S. and Puerto Rico	6,980,333	6,647,307	6,564,729	6,562,572	6,699,359	6,261,448
Pilgrim’s Mexico	627,934	679,075	691,750	667,097	693,184	691,465
Pilgrim’s Europe**	1,163,178	875,461	925,256	954,605	1,504,938	1,598,199

*Reported as an average of 2013, 2014 and 2015 data for purposes of goal setting

**Pilgrim’s acquired Tulip Limited in October of 2019 whose name was then changed to Pilgrim’s UK; Pilgrim’s UK data has been included in Pilgrim’s Europe as of 2019

Fuel Use Intensity (MMBTU per 100 lbs. of finished product)
	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Pilgrim’s U.S. and Puerto Rico	0.073	0.069	0.066	0.066	0.066	0.061
Pilgrim’s Mexico	0.033	0.035	0.035	0.033	0.035	0.034
Pilgrim’s Europe**	0.095	0.072	0.070	0.071	0.074	0.085

Total Electricity Use (kWh)
	2015*	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Pilgrim’s U.S. and Puerto Rico	1,158,982,220	1,120,639,208	1,115,530,313	1,120,342,927	1,132,394,299	1,111,499,948
Pilgrim’s Mexico	128,593,055	131,344,064	130,633,456	136,779,309	139,446,183	166,094,234
Pilgrim’s Europe**	255,369,567	228,021,256	233,243,323	234,775,857	355,017,648	331,767,528

*Reported as an average of 2013, 2014 and 2015 data for purposes of goal setting

**Pilgrim’s acquired Tulip Limited in October of 2019 whose name was then changed to Pilgrim’s UK; Pilgrim’s UK data has been included in Pilgrim’s Europe as of 2019

Electricity Use Intensity (kWh per 100 lbs. of finished product)
	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Pilgrim’s U.S. and Puerto Rico	12.17	11.70	11.20	11.31	11.08	10.82
Pilgrim’s Mexico	6.75	6.75	6.58	6.83	6.98	8.25
Pilgrim’s Europe**	20.93	18.67	17.55	17.34	17.55	17.67

**Pilgrim’s acquired Tulip Limited in October of 2019 whose name was then changed to Pilgrim’s UK; Pilgrim’s UK data has been included in Pilgrim’s Europe as of 2019

***We make every effort to report accurate data. We provide updated data from previous years in cases where improved information is available. JBS USA/Pilgrim’s revisited data collection processes and as a result, this report includes some improved metrics from past years.

GHG Performance***

Scope 1 and 2 GHG Emissions (Tons of CO₂e)
	2015*	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Pilgrim’s U.S. and Puerto Rico	1,155,560	1,160,047	1,060,180	1,097,164	1,061,374	1,018,865
Pilgrim’s Mexico	—	197,390	190,181	186,829	194,276	174,847
Pilgrim’s Europe**	220,111	205,312	198,401	185,755	243,648	187,273

*Reported as an average of 2013, 2014 and 2015 data for purposes of goal setting

**Pilgrim’s acquired Tulip Limited in October of 2019 whose name was then changed to Pilgrim’s UK; Pilgrim’s UK data has been included in Pilgrim’s Europe as of 2019

GHG Emission Intensity (Tons of CO₂e per 100 lbs. of finished product)
	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Pilgrim’s U.S. and Puerto Rico	0.01213	0.01211	0.01064	0.01107	0.01039	0.00992
Pilgrim’s Mexico	—	0.01015	0.00958	0.00933	0.00972	0.00868
Pilgrim’s Europe**	0.01804	0.01681	0.01493	0.01372	0.01204	0.00997

**Pilgrim’s acquired Tulip Limited in October of 2019 whose name was then changed to Pilgrim’s UK; Pilgrim’s UK data has been included in Pilgrim’s Europe as of 2019

***We make every effort to report accurate data. We provide updated data from previous years in cases where improved information is available including a shift from national averages to regional factors when calculating Scope 2 emissions. JBS USA/Pilgrim’s revisited data collection and as a result, this report includes some improved metrics from past years.

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