Earth Day 2018: A Letter to Employees
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Dear Smithfield Family,
As each Earth Day comes around, I find myself ever prouder of our accomplishments in honoring and caring for our environment. I also become more thankful for the remarkable efforts all of you make to help achieve our sustainability goals, making us a better company.
We are making great progress with our “25 by '25” initiative to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions across our company and supply chain 25 percent by 2025. To further this effort, we launched Smithfield Renewables, our new platform which unifies and accelerates our carbon reduction and renewable energy efforts including pioneering projects that transform manure into renewable natural gas.
Our efforts include a remarkable new program that I am very excited about, The Monarch Butterfly Habitat Exchange. This is an effort led by the Environmental Defense Fund to restore and conserve high-quality habitats for the at-risk monarch butterfly. We are the first major food company to take part in the program, and our investment will yield multiple sustainability benefits including providing a habitat for vital pollinators, which are responsible for much of the food we all eat; water quality enhancements; carbon sequestration; and biomass for biogas projects.
I'm thrilled by how much our employees take pride in environmental stewardship and education. Members of every one of our farms and facilities across the country volunteer within their local communities as part of the annual National Conservation Foundation's Envirothon program, which includes more than 50,000 high-school students solving real-world environmental problems. I appreciate the efforts of all of you who are involved.
Many more employees are pitching in to aid our local environmental activities, including environmental cleanups and beautification projects through thousands of volunteer hours annually. These efforts strengthen the local environments of the communities we call home. I can't thank you enough for playing active roles in these endeavors.
From our pursuit of ambitious sustainability and environmental goals, to our support of local ecosystems and investment in tomorrow's leaders, we are making a lasting and positive impact. Together, we are setting a new standard for environmental stewardship and that's something we can all be proud of.
Sincerely,
Stewart Leeth
Vice President of Regulatory Affairs and Chief Sustainability Officer |
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