Marfrig presented its latest progress report
Achievements within the scope of the Marfrig Verde+ Program are also presented, which brings together the company's strategy to promote sustainable livestock and aims to make 100% of the supply chain – direct and indirect – free of deforestation in the Amazon, Cerrado and other biomes.
The Sustainability Report reveals that last year, for the first time, 100% of Marfrig's operations in Brazil (and a distribution center in Chile) offset all carbon emissions from energy consumption at the units, through the acquisition of I-RECs, international renewable energy certificates. Recognized worldwide, the I-RECs attest that the electricity consumption of these operating units came from a sustainable source of energy.
Marfrig is the only one in the beef protein sector to have targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, to control global warming by 1.5°C, approved by Science Based Targets (SBTi), an international initiative that results from the collaboration between the CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, the World Resources Institute and the World Wide Fund for Nature. In this way, based on science, the company contributes to global warming not exceeding 1.5°C, as established by the Paris Agreement.
For scope 1 (gases coming directly from Marfrig's operations) and scope 2 (gases coming from energy purchased by the company), Marfrig's commitment is to reduce emissions by 68%. As for scope 3 (indirect emissions, promoted along the production chain), the target is a 33% reduction. For the three scopes, the reduction deadline is 2035 and the base year is 2019.
In 2022, Marfrig started a pilot project to reduce the emission of methane gas, produced by oxen in digestion processes. Enteric fermentation is one of the main sources of direct gas emissions in the company's activities. At one of the supplying farms, Marfrig began to offer the animals, in the fattening phase, Silvafeed® BX tannin, a food supplement manufactured by SilvaTeam, mixed with feed. Studies show an average reduction of 15% in methane emissions resulting from enteric fermentation. This initiative helps Marfrig to reduce the gases released into the atmosphere along its supply chain, minimizing the impact of emissions.
In 2022, Marfrig achieved indirect supplier identification rates of 72% in the Amazon and 71% in the Cerrado. Since 2010, 100% of the direct supplier properties (around 8,000) in all Brazilian regions have been monitored and tracked via satellite. They participate in the Marfrig Club Program, which disseminates good sustainability practices in the company's chain of Brazilian producers. Marfrig has already invested US$30 million in direct and indirect supply chain management.
Last year, the company completed the Social and Environmental Risk Map for all regions where it operates. With it, Marfrig is able to identify and prioritize actions in the cattle supply areas in Brazil that are more exposed to socio-environmental risks. In 2022, the tool started to cover 100% of the national territory, after the inclusion of the Atlantic Forest biome. With a pioneering approach, the map was based on a detailed risk matrix based on a broad photograph of forest areas, combining information on: livestock production – herd of cattle present in a given space; environmental conservation – areas of deforestation, pastures and native vegetation, identifying preserved areas and levels of production/degradation; human rights – incidents of forced labor or child labor, in addition to mapping indigenous lands and protected areas destined for traditional communities, such as quilombola territories. This risk matrix, converted into a geographic distribution map, makes it possible to identify locations where cattle come from with different degrees of risk, from “low” to “very high”, marked with different colors, and allowing targeted and precise actions, according to priority regions.
The number of farms reinserted as Marfrig suppliers in 2022 surpassed 2,500, after returning to operate in accordance with the company's socio-environmental commitments, demonstrating the strong commitment to the principle of socio-economic inclusion of cattle ranchers, present in the Marfrig Verde+ Program.
Associated with the reinclusion process, Marfrig – in an unprecedented way – carried out environmental diagnoses for producers in the Amazon and outlined, together with them, an action plan to restore the vegetation on the properties.
Marfrig's animal welfare area received investments of US$2.5 million last year, allocated to structural improvements at the company's units in North and South America. Also globally, there were 115 technical visits to monitor rural properties, 2,648 hours of lectures and training; 3,106 employees were trained in animal welfare.
In 2022, 100% of Marfrig's cattle and sheep slaughter units in South America (Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay) were audited in accordance with the NAMI Protocol, which determines the highest global standards of animal welfare, from the evaluation of the structural conditions and equipment, the quality and conditions of transport and handling of the animals until the moment of slaughter. By 2025 the North America Operation must also be audited to NAMI animal welfare standards.
At the units in South America, 77% of the cattle were transported on journeys lasting eight hours or less, exceeding the target (70%).
In Brazil, 6,611 evaluations of animal transport vehicles were carried out; 98% of the transport cages were in perfect condition; 99.9% of drivers were rated among the best levels; 88.1% of the farms met at least one animal welfare criterion of the Marfrig Club Program.
Last year, 92% of the energy used in Marfrig's Brazilian operations was purchased on the free market. All operational units have Water Treatment Stations (ETAs), which are subject to internal audit processes. In Brazil, the highlight is that 25% of the units reuse water, in routines that do not require the input to be potable.
Marfrig's global goal is to reduce, by 2035, 20% of the volume of water consumed to produce one ton of product (base year 2020).
Marfrig's effluent and waste area also advanced in 2022. The company's Brazilian units received investments of 46 million reais, applied to the modernization and operation of Effluent Treatment Stations (ETEs). They all have ETEs. Another 39 million reais were invested in the construction and maintenance of biodigesters. And a novelty in this area was that 17% of Marfrig's Brazilian units began to adopt, in 2022, fertirrigation in their work routines. The technique, which is increasingly used to make nutrients available to the soil and subsequently absorbed by plants, provides increases in production and productivity. Fertirrigation is a sustainable alternative to the disposal of effluents and improves the soil and cultivation of properties neighboring the units.
A novelty announced by the Report on Progress in Sustainability is that, in 2022, Marfrig became part of the Steering Committee of the Protocol for Voluntary Monitoring of Cerrado Cattle Suppliers, which will contribute to the alignment of the best socio-environmental monitoring practices for the purchase of products of bovine origin in the biome. The committee is defining responsible purchasing criteria and parameters to be followed by all companies linked to the beef sector, in order to ensure that supply chains are not linked to socio-environmental problems.
At the end of the year, Marfrig was invited by the Harvard Business School – one of the most prestigious business schools in the world – to make the company's sustainability journey one of the cases studied in the Agribusiness Seminar program. The company accepted and the presentation, in early 2023, focused on Marfrig's actions to promote sustainable and low-carbon livestock. In front of an audience made up of leaders of companies, governments and non-governmental organizations from different countries that work in agribusiness, company representatives spoke about topics such as the Marfrig Verde+ Program and challenges in tracking suppliers.
The report recalls that Marfrig was the animal protein company with the best positions in rankings, indices, lists and reports considered a reference in the evaluation of ESG policies and practices. In the Coller FAIRR Protein Producer Index 2022 ranking, used by investors in their analyzes and decision-making, the company was classified as low risk in terms of sustainability, unprecedented recognition for an animal protein company. In the overall ranking of this study, Marfrig moved from seventh to third, ahead of other companies in the industry.
Marfrig was also highlighted in global rankings for animal welfare, water security and climate change. It remained, for the third consecutive year, in the portfolios of the Corporate Sustainability Index and the Carbon Efficient Index, both of B3, the Brazilian stock exchange.
"In 2022, Marfrig achieved real and significant advances in ESG, detailed for society in the Sustainability Progress Report, which took the company to even more prominent positions in the main international ESG rankings and reports. This coincides with periods when high rates of deforestation in tropical forests made headlines around the world. We are a multinational, with products that reach more than 100 countries, but our origin is Brazilian. Therefore, we are very pleased to show the world that environmental preservation and livestock production are complementary, and that there are companies in Brazil that are global references in practices that encourage sustainable livestock farming", says Paulo Pianez, director of Sustainability and Communication Marfrig Corporate.
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