Responsibility and respect:
Perdue’s environmental sustainability accomplishments

Community Outreach

We’re coming together with various stakeholders, including our local communities, environmental groups and regulatory agencies, to communicate, educate and collaborate on environmental sustainability efforts.

• Perdue has partnered with the Center for Inland Bays to improve water quality in the Eastern Shore’s Little Assawoman Bay.
• The Clean Bays Initiative is an historic agreement between Perdue and the Environmental Protection Agency to protect the Chesapeake Bay and Delmarva’s coastal bays and will expand across all of our growing regions.
• Perdue pledged 500 volunteer hours to environmental groups as part of Maryland Public Television’s Chesapeake Bay Week Volunteer-a-thon.
• We continue to work closely with local, grass-roots environmental groups and programs, including the Oyster Recovery Partnership and Nanticoke Watershed Alliance.

 

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

We’re conserving resources and reducing waste streams by managing material usage more efficiently.

• Our Perdue AgriRecycle litter recycling plant has handled more than 500,000 tons of litter in its first seven years of operation. That’s the equivalent of 40 million pounds of nitrogen, 20 million pounds of phosphorus and 30 million pounds of potassium.
• Phytase, an enzyme added to our feed formulations, reduces phosphorus in manure by 25%.
• Our Shore Water Conservation initiative resulted in an average reduction in water use of 2 million gallons of water per week per plant.
• Cold cathode lighting in our producers’ chicken houses reduces energy use by 80%.
• Energy saving pilot projects at our Delaware processing plants will save 3.98 million kWh annually (equivalent to 6.5 million pounds of CO2) and pave the way for even greater energy savings throughout the company.
• A pilot recycling project at our Dillon, S.C., processing plant recycled 2 million pounds of solid waste in one year, and is now a model for all of our plants.
• Perdue uses recyclable, eco-friendly corrugated boxes.
• Improvements at our Accomac, Va., protein conversion plant reduced nitrogen oxide emissions by 29,000 pounds per year and sulfur dioxide by 121,00 pounds. At our Salisbury, Md., soy crushing operation, we reduced volatile organic compound emissions by 52,000 pounds.
• Perdue Transportation Inc. is an EPA SmartWay Transport Partner with an “exceptional rating” for our fuel savings and environmental improvements.
• The Environmental Management System (EMS), piloted at our Salisbury, Md., processing plant and modeled after internationally recognized ISO 14001 standards, integrates environmental sustainability goals and measures into every aspect of plant operations. We are rolling out the Perdue EMS at all our facilities.

 

Research and Innovation

We’re leveraging technology discovered through research or developed through innovation to drive environmental sustainability throughout Perdue’s supply chain for the benefit of associates, consumers, customers and our businesses. This initiative includes teams working on more environmentally friendly packaging and alternative fuels.

• Perdue BioEnergy, LLC, is pursuing opportunities in alternative fuels, including next-generation bio-energy.
• We’re exploring alternative energy sources, including wood chips and poultry fat, to replace fuel oil at our processing plants.
• We’re working to reduce packaging.
• On Delmarva, we used 883,000 gallons of biodiesel in our trucks this past year.