JBS reworks its climate goals to focus on its own operations
Brazil-headquartered food group and tannery owner JBS has published its 2025 Sustainability Report, focusing on workforce health and safety, operational emissions and energy, water, sourcing and supply chain transparency.
The group reduced total water consumption by 9.7% from 2024 to 2025, increased the recycling of waste in its operations by 9.2% and reduced waste sent to landfill by 26%.
It highlighted that since 2020, it has invested nearly $200 million across projects inside its facilities intended to reduce Scope 1 and 2 emissions.
In 2025, renewables accounted for 31.3% of JBS global energy use.
Jason Weller (pictured), global chief sustainability officer, said: “In 2021, JBS announced a Net Zero by 2040 ambition to signal urgency and collaboration across the food system. That ambition reflected a sincere belief that agriculture must be part of the climate solution. That belief has not changed.
“What has changed is the level of discipline stakeholders expect from corporate sustainability goals. Customers, investors, regulators and communities want goals that are measurable, comparable and tied to clear action. The further we got into execution, the clearer it became that a Net Zero goal spanning hundreds of thousands of independent agricultural producers across tens of millions of hectares in dozens of countries - each with different practices, different baselines and no standardised measurement infrastructure - is an immense challenge."
He added the group is instead sharpening its climate goals around its operations. Its climate targets include a 30% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions intensity by 2030 from a 2019 baseline; and a 70% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions intensity across JBS processing facilities by 2050.
“We’re not walking away from challenges and opportunities in feeding a growing world in the face of a changing climate. We are strengthening our framework so our goals better reflect where we can take direct action, measure progress consistently and hold ourselves accountable," he added.
