JBS improves performance in global sustainability ranking for third consecutive year

JBS, the second-largest global food company and protein industry leader, has been acknowledged for its progress in sustainability criteria, having recorded an overall score of 57% in the 4^th edition of the Coller Fairr Protein Producer Index. The ranking evaluates 60 global, publicly listed companies engaged in the production of food from meat, fish and dairy products. This score represents for the Company an improvement of 10.1% in comparison with 2020 index.  

JBS is in 11^th place in the global ranking and continues to be among the best-placed Brazilian publicly listed companies. The Company’s overall score has been consistently evolving year after year, from 38% in the inaugural edition of the index in 2018, to 39% in 2019, jumping to 51% in 2020 and reaching 57% in the 2021 edition.  

“The evolution of the score of JBS, year after year, reflects the priority that the Company has given to ESG issues. Sustainability has definitively become our business strategy. This year, we assumed the commitment to be Net Zero by 2040, and our focus is on actions to reduce emissions across our entire value chain. Many of these challenges are sectorial, that is why it is also important to see the improvement of other companies”, points out Márcio Nappo, Sustainability Officer at JBS. 

It was with a focus on this sustainable transformation that JBS assumed, in March of this year, what is the most significant commitment in its history: to be Net Zero by 2040. With it, the company has committed to zeroing its net balance of greenhouse gas emissions, taking into account its direct emissions and those of its entire value chain.  

Recently, JBS was also present at COP26, in Glasgow, to share what it has learned and to get to know the most recent advances in tackling climate change. On that occasion, the Company signed a joint declaration with 10 of the world’s largest global companies in trading and processing of farm produce, committing to develop by COP27 a sectorial roadmap to contain global warming at 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. The agreement was put together by the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom. Also during the climate summit JBS announced a partnership with Royal DSM for adopting a nutritional supplement capable of reducing by up to 90% enteral methane emissions from the beef cattle chain. 

Lastly, JBS wishes to emphasize that it has been advancing steadfastly in the item identified by Fairr as being susceptible to improvement within the context of Brazilian livestock farming: the traceability of the production chain. The Company has had, for more than 10 years, a geo-spatial monitoring system that uses satellite imagery to monitor its suppliers, evaluating on a daily basis almost 80,000 supplier farms and covering an area of 85 million hectares (850,000 km²), larger than the land area of France. This system covers every Brazilian biome where the company operates, including the Amazon and the Cerrado, to ensure compliance with all JBS socioenvironmental criteria, including zero deforestation, non-use of hard labor and respect for indigenous lands and conservation units, among others. 

To extend this control to the suppliers of its own suppliers, JBS is implementing the Transparent Livestock Farming Platform that uses blockchain technology. Beginning in 2026, JBS will no longer purchase from producers that have not adhered to the platform. In addition, the company has opened 15 Green Offices to provide free support to livestock farmers that have environmental restrictions, to enable them to obtain environmental regularization of their properties. With all of this, the Company’s major objective is to provide a sustainable, deforestation-free production chain by the end of 2025.  

“It is our conviction that these advances and many others to come will be picked up by the radar of the organizers of the Coller Fairr Protein Producer Index and that JBS will continue to improve its performance in forthcoming editions”, emphasizes Márcio Nappo.

• Environment
• Sustainability