Energy and Emissions | Pilgrim's Sustainability Report

Environment

Energy and Emissions

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.

Pilgrim’s was also the first major global protein company to set a net-zero GHG emissions by 2040 target, covering our scope 1, scope 2 and scope 3 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. Globally, 7.4% of our indirect energy came from renewable sources in 2021, which we are steadily increasing across operations.

2021 Progress

2030/Goals

Energy and Emissions

Progress to goals update, as of 2021,

10% reduction in scope 1 & 2 GHG emission intensity. Working toward our goal of 30%.

$18.7MM invested in capital emission-reduction projects in Pilgrim’s-owned facilities.

7.4% renewable electricity. Growing our portfolio toward a goal of 60%.

Senior executive compensation considerations tied to environmental performance.

Partnering with our family farm partners to reduce GHG emissions in chicken houses.


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

From 2019 to 2021, Pilgrim’s Global decreased total energy use intensity by 2%, fuel use intensity by 2%, and electricity use intensity by 1%. Our teams will continue to stay focused on reducing energy use throughout our operations, while also increasing the amount of renewable energy that we purchase and generate to meet our 60% renewable electricity goal by 2030.

Historically, we have tracked 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 2021, we reduced our scope 1 & 2 GHG emission intensity by 10% across all Pilgrim’s operations, while also reducing our absolute scope 1 & 2 GHG emissions by 11%. We will continue to work toward our interim target to achieve a 30% reduction in scope 1 & 2 GHG emission intensity by 2030, and report progress annually.

Net Zero by 2040

We have committed to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 throughout our global operations and in partnership with our producers, suppliers, and customers. Our journey towards Net Zero has only just started, but to date we have invested in projects to facilitate knowledge, learnings and technological innovation across our live animal and feed supply chains. The investments include supporting conservation agriculture practices in row crop production and environmental analysis and quantification on live animal operations. Learnings from these projects will be implemented in our evolving net zero strategy that is rooted in our ability to use our size and scale for good while supporting producers on their operations.

In addition to our scope 3 investment, we invested over $18.7 million across more than 64 of projects inside our own facilities to reduce scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions. The investment is directly tied to our Net Zero efforts but also aligned with the Sustainability Linked Bond our company issued in early 2021. Throughout 2021 our teams aligned to internal processes that allowed us to identify and prioritize impactful projects within our operations to improve energy efficiency, reduce energy use, convert our systems to renewable energy, and overall improve our facilities which makes our team member’s lives better. Currently, we are on track to meet the 30% scope 1 and 2 emission intensity reduction required by this bond and our investments will continue to grow.

 

Energy Performance*

Total Energy Use
(kWh)
2019 2020 2021
Pilgrim’s U.S. and Puerto Rico 3,611,764,613 3,522,769,203 3,488,962,903
Pilgrim’s Mexico 859,667,007 837,524,840 858,352,056
Pilgrim’s Europe** 1,016,479,914 995,992,527 1,020,203,885
Energy Use Intensity
(kWh per 100 lbs. of finished product)
2019 2020 2021
Pilgrim’s U.S. and Puerto Rico 35.35 34.31 34.10
Pilgrim’s Mexico 43.03 41.60 42.98
Pilgrim’s Europe** 50.24 53.04 52.25
Total Fuel Use***
(kWh)
2019 2020 2021
Pilgrim’s U.S. and Puerto Rico 2,477,815,230 2,407,354,825 2,371,299,480
Pilgrim’s Mexico 640,115,836 620,366,662 637,591,457
Pilgrim’s Europe** 658,873,448 664,232,124 679,244,090
Fuel Use Intensity
(kWh per 100 lbs. of finished product)
2019 2020 2021
Pilgrim’s U.S. and Puerto Rico 24.25 23.45 23.18
Pilgrim’s Mexico 32.04 30.81 31.92
Pilgrim’s Europe** 32.57 35.37 34.78
Total Electricity Use
(kWh)
  2019 2020 2021
Pilgrim’s U.S. and Puerto Rico 1,133,949,383 1,115,414,378 1,117,663,423
Pilgrim’s Mexico 219,551,171 217,158,178 220,760,599
Pilgrim’s Europe** 357,606,466 331,760,403 340,959,794
Electricity Use Intensity
(kWh per 100 lbs. of finished product)
  2019 2020 2021
Pilgrim’s U.S. and Puerto Rico 11.10 10.86 10.92
Pilgrim’s Mexico 10.99 10.79 11.05
Pilgrim’s Europe** 17.68 17.67 17.46

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

**Includes Pilgrim’s Moy Park and Pilgrim’s UK.

***Includes all scope 1 energy

GHG Performance*

Scope 1 and 2 GHG Emissions
(Metric tons of CO2e)
2019 2020 2021
Pilgrim’s U.S. and Puerto Rico 1,147,350 1,067,981 1,018,164
Pilgrim’s Mexico 289,982 277,878 274,421
Pilgrim’s Moy Park 138,477 122,612 125,744
Pilgrim’s UK 65,904 61,038 48,379
Pilgrim’s Global 1,641,713 1,529,510 1,466,707
GHG Emission Intensity
(Metric tons of CO2e per 100 lbs. of finished product)
2019 2020 2021
Pilgrim’s U.S. and Puerto Rico 0.0112 0.0104 0.0100
Pilgrim’s Mexico 0.0145 0.0138 0.0137
Pilgrim’s Moy Park 0.0102 0.0101 0.0100
Pilgrim’s UK 0.0099 0.0092 0.0070
Pilgrim’s Global 0.0115 0.0108 0.0103

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

Next Section Waste Reduction and Recycling
Previous Section Water