Perdue Farms recently announced aggressive and transparent “2022 goals” to reduce greenhouse gases, water use and solid waste.

The company said it will commit to reducing Scope and Scope Two greenhouse gasses by 30% and potable water use by 25%. It also aims to divert 90% of solid waste from landfills and achieve zero solid waste certification for at least five facilities.

Steve Levitsky, vice president of sustainability for Perdue Farms, said while the company has previously taken steps to reduce its environmental footprint, the 2022 goals will significantly accelerate its progress.

Perdue pointed out that it already has a history of major environmental initiatives, including solar energy installations in Maryland and Delaware, a biogas project in Kentucky that uses methane from a wastewater lagoon to generate electricity and hot water and a biomass-fueled co-generation and boiler project in North Carolina. Perdue’s recently opened soybean crushing plant in Pennsylvania uses steam from an adjacent county waste-to-energy system, eliminating on-site fossil-fuel boilers.

Sixteen years ago, Perdue became the first – and still only – poultry company to provide farmers on the environmentally sensitive Delmarva Peninsula with alternative uses for their poultry litter. Last year, with a move to large-scale composting, that project expanded to include a broader range of nutrient-rich byproducts from poultry production and processing.

“Reaching our 2022 goals will require innovation and continuous improvement,” Levitsky said. “We will report annually on our progress. Along the way, we’ll also announce additional goals and initiatives as our sustainability efforts expand deeper into our supply chain.”