Since our founding in 1936, Smithfield Foods has been committed to doing business the right way. In this, our 22nd annual sustainability impact report, I’d like to give you an overview of our sustainability strategy and the good work we did in 2023.
We began this year knowing we would face significant market challenges. The U.S. pork supply continued to expand and depressed hog prices as costs for feed, energy and virtually every other input we use to raise our animals increased. Our entire company stepped up as One Smithfield to meet these challenges as we focused on the things we could control, establishing companywide objectives to optimize our assets, drive efficiencies and reduce cost in every part of our business.
Sustainability has been an important part of our business strategy for more than two decades, and it is even more important now as we work to meet the continuing challenges of the market. There isn’t a single aspect of our business that our sustainability pillars don’t touch. Our sustainability strategy is built around seven key pillars grouped under three objectives: being good stewards, doing good work and producing good food. Our sustainability commitments in these areas contribute to our business objectives and are making Smithfield a stronger company for the future.
Good Stewards
Our animal care programs took center stage in 2023, with state laws prescribing how farmers can raise their animals and increasing attention from consumers on how food is produced. This year, all our farm operations scored an average of 95% on our internal audits and 98% on our third-party animal care audits, achieving our targets under our Animal Care Management System. And our customers continue to recognize Smithfield for helping them achieve their own sustainability goals.
Our commitment to shrinking our impact on the environment and eliminating waste was a major focus again this year. We continued to make progress on reducing GHG emissions through projects across the U.S., capturing biogas on farms and reducing food loss and waste in our manufacturing facilities. For our annual sustainability awards, our team members submitted more than 120 projects that reduced our environmental impact and generated cost savings of more than $13 million.
Good Work
For decades, Smithfield has been helping communities where our team members live and work, and 2023 was no exception despite the extremely challenging economic and industry environment. From donating tens of thousands of hams to fight hunger during the holidays, to providing millions of servings of nutritionally important protein to food banks, our Helping Hungry Homes® program provided hope to millions of people facing food insecurity. We also funded more than $2.5 million in education programs in 2023 and supported veterans through our Helping Our Heroes program, earning Smithfield top honors as the #1 Military Times 2023 Best for Vets Employer in agriculture.
We continue to build a culture that values diversity, inclusiveness, employee development and a highly engaged team. In 2023 we hired a new chief human resource officer to create and execute a comprehensive talent strategy that further aligns Smithfield's business plan with our human resources function and leads our recruiting, retention, training and development, and diversity, culture and engagement programs.
Our worker health and safety platform continued to drive continuous improvement throughout the company, and we achieved safety incident rates below industry averages again in 2023. We also met our target to score at least 90% on Smithfield Injury Prevention System (SIPS) audits and are on track to increase safety engagement to 50% of front-line team members globally by 2025.
Good Food
Our unwavering commitment to food safety and quality continued in 2023 as we worked to deliver safe, affordable, high-quality protein to meet the nutritional needs of a growing world population. We implemented a robust data analytics platform to monitor real-time information and long-term trends for the products being produced in our plants. And our “Raise Your Hand” initiative encourages our team members to report food safety concerns, ideas for improvement or anything that needs attention, to line supervisors or plant management.
Animal protein provides critical nutrients in the human diet, and Smithfield offers a wide variety of products for a variety of diets. Health and wellness is an important pillar in our sustainability strategy as our customers and consumers increasingly demand cleaner labeling and healthy ingredients. We continue to reduce added sugars and sodium across our product lines, and we are working with many of our customers to develop new product formulations. Our Smithfield BioScience business continues to be the #1 supplier of Heparin Sodium active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) in the U.S. and is the only 100% vertically integrated, U.S.-based supply chain manufacturing Heparin API.
As you can see, we’ve been laser-focused on driving our sustainability strategy forward in 2023, and we’re excited about what lies ahead in the years to come.
Shane Smith
President & CEO
Shane Smith joined Smithfield more than two decades ago. From his agricultural roots in North Carolina to management at Smithfield Europe, his deep leadership experience spans from operations to strategy. Shane is passionate about leading Smithfield to make a lasting difference in the world.
Our animal care policies and practices document our commitment to the well-being, health and comfort of our animals.
For more than 20 years, Smithfield has employed policies, processes and technologies to reduce our environmental footprint.
Being a good corporate citizen means supporting the communities where our team members and their families live and where we operate.
