GREELEY, COLO. – Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., a subsidiary of JBS USA, announced that it will offer $1 billion worth of sustainability-linked bonds that are a part of its efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“Since the release of our inaugural corporate responsibility report nearly a decade ago, Pilgrim’s has set ambitious environmental improvement targets and publicly reported our progress to the market,” said Fabio Sandri, Pilgrim’s global chief executive officer. “Earlier this week, we announced our commitment to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 and today we offer our first sustainability-linked bond. These actions reinforce our company’s long-standing commitment to responsible environmental stewardship and sustainable food production.”

The new bonds provide a link to a Sustainability Performance Target (SPT) by the company of achieving a 30% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emission intensity across the global operations by 2030. These numbers are from a baseline set by Pilgrim’s in 2019. JBS committed to net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2040 on March 24.

“We are confident that our unique global production platform, coupled with our diverse portfolio of sustainably-produced foods and our commitment to the fight against climate change, will lead to increased shareholder value and greater standards of living for millions of consumers around the world,” Sandri said.

Pilgrim’s Pride said that the framework for the bond is consistent with the aim of the Paris Climate Agreement to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius by 2050. The Framework has been independently assessed by ISS ESG, which determined the SPT was ambitious based both on Pilgrim’s past performance and in comparison to other companies in the global food and beverage sector.