2025 Sustainability Progress Report: Advancing the Circular Economy

Sustainability is core to our business, and how we create value. We transform unused resources into valuable ingredients that nourish people, feed animals and crops, and fuel the world with renewable energy. Each step we take unlocks new value from what would otherwise be wasted, driving both environmental and economic returns.

Our innovations reduce landfill and minimize greenhouse gas emissions, while strengthening resilience across the value chain. We continually seek ways to maximize resources and help move the world toward a more circular economy. At the same time, we are minimizing our own environmental footprint, making measurable progress year after year. Our 2025 Sustainability Progress Report highlights our advancement toward our sustainability commitments and outlines our strategic plans for a greener future.

Key 2025 sustainability highlights

• Continued to substantially improve workplace safety, reducing our Lost-Time Incident Rate by more than 50% since 2023.
• 7% improvement in Scope 1 and 2 emissions intensity since 2023, lowering our absolute emissions 5% while increasing the amount of raw material processed.
• Avoided more than 7.5 million metric tons of GHG emissions relative to fossil fuels with sustainable aviation fuel and renewable diesel sold from our Diamond Green Diesel joint venture.
• Returned more than 11 billion gallons of water to the environment through our responsible treatment and release of water produced alongside the by-products we process.

 

Across each of these critical areas, our approach is consistent: we focus on actions that deliver measurable outcomes and reinforce the strength of our business. Here are a few milestones that underscore how we are turning environmental ambition into action:

• Wastewater emissions capture that generates new revenue: At our rendering facility in Dublin, Georgia, we are capturing methane from wastewater treatment and selling it back to the local Municipal Gas Authority as renewable natural gas.
• From used cooking oil to diesel engines: Through our partnership with Chick-fil-A, we generated approximately 1.1 million gallons of renewable diesel from used cooking oil from more than 2,000 Chick-fil-A restaurants.
• The safety program that cut incidents by 45%: In 2024, we launched our “Everyone, Every Day” campaign to promote safety as a shared responsibility by all 15,000 employees across the world.

Smart investments and accountability

While global environmental expectations continue to evolve, our core commitment remains the same: meeting stakeholder expectations with transparency, accountability and disciplined execution.

We continue to pull forward smart investments that enhance environmental performance and support long-term operational integrity. Investments in our wastewater infrastructure, expanding our renewable natural gas production and projects to improve energy efficiency are just a few examples. These strategic projects are designed to strengthen regulatory compliance, improve water management and support the long-term sustainability of the communities where we operate.

Sustainability is more than just a corporate strategy. It’s how we operate, innovate and lead.