Hormel Foods surpasses packaging minimization goals

Hormel Foods Corp. has released its 2011 Hormel Foods Corporate Responsibility Report. This is the company's fifth full report and the completion of the first set of five-year environmental goals. The report is self-declared Application Level B as confirmed by the Global Reporting Initiative. The annual report focuses on the company's commitment to being a responsible food manufacturer. 

The report relates these examples of successful packaging-reduction projects:

Hormel Compleats

• Hormel Country Crock refrigerated side dishes: Reduced corrugate board grade, which saved 560,000 pounds of material. 

• Don Miguel: Changed the type of slip sheets they use to prevent their products from slipping during shipping. They moved from thick, corrugate slip sheets to new, thinner paperboard slip sheets. This transition helped them save approximately 280,000 pounds of fiber every year while still having the same quality and stacking strength. Additionally, they were able to reduce the number of truckloads moving the pallets of slip sheets and significantly increase their storage space at the plant.

• Farmer John: Converted to a new, nonlaminated package material for ribs and other bone-in products sold to both foodservice clients and retail consumers. The new material is tougher, stronger and weighs less. The elimination of the laminated layers needed for the previous packaging resulted in a material reduction of 44,000 pounds.

Highlighted performance and initiatives throughout 2011 include Hormel Foods:

• Being listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for the second consecutive year, placing the company among the world's top 10 percent of sustainable companies. 

• Achieving outstanding results from the annual Environmental Sustainability Best of the Best competition among all Hormel Foods locations. In 2011, the competition generated entries throughout all business segments that resulted in the reduction of 695.2 tons of solid waste to landfill, an increase in recycling tonnage by 27 percent and more than 40.4 million gallons of water saved collectively. 

• Enhancing the On Our Way to Ending Hunger program, with contributions of more than $5 million in cash and product to aid hunger-relief efforts in the United States and abroad. 

•Distributing its Supplier Responsibility Principles, which were designed to ensure the quality of products and services received from suppliers follows the commitment of Hormel Foods to responsible environmental and social performance. 

• Expanding the number of facilities that have been certified under the Global Food Safety Initiative-recognized food safety management standards. 

• Improving performance on a number of key metrics, including:
»Beating the packaging minimization goal, reducing packaging by 4.2 million pounds;
»Beating the water reduction goal, reducing water consumption by 15 percent;
»Continuing to outperform the industry average for safety rates; and
»Implementing several significant capital projects designed to reduce energy use, expecting to see results in the 2012 fiscal year, as part of the new energy conservation goal.

"I am proud of our team for achieving outstanding results in fiscal 2011," says Jeffrey Ettinger, chairman of the board, president/CEO at Hormel Foods. "We will continue to responsibly conduct business following Our Way—the Hormel Foods values statement that defines how we operate every day in our approach to people, process, products, performance and philanthropy."

The 2011 Hormel Foods Corporate Responsibility Report is the company's fourth consecutive report that can be found entirely online. Also available is an executive summary that provides a condensed version of the full report along with key highlights.

In alignment with the company's commitment to philanthropy and in honor of the launch of the report, Hormel Foods will feature an online contest. For every retweet on Twitter announcing the release of the 2011 Hormel Foods Corporate Responsibility Report, the company will donate $6 to Feeding America (up to $5,000). Feeding America is the nation's leading domestic hunger-relief charity.

Hormel Foods plans to continue reporting on its environmental and social performance annually; the next report will be released in May 2013 for data spanning November 2011 to October 2012.

Source: Hormel Foods

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