Weekly Dose of ESG — Climate Piglets
Climate Piglets
Friday, 4th June 2021
What is going on?
Greenwashing… greenwashing everywhere. Just when you thought companies are finally starting to understand that using green labels is not enough, a new PR campaign appeared: climate-controlled pigs.
As ridiculous as it sounds, it is the latest marketing move from Danish pork producer Danish Crown, part of the company’s 2030 emissions reduction agenda. However, activists and NGOs accused Danish Crown of greenwashing as this climate labelling is misleading the consumers and not backed up by robust action plan. The case is currently under review by the Danish Consumer Ombudsman so we shall see what happens next. While we all want to make environmentally friendly buying choices, the reality is that referring to any meat products as climate-controlled is simply problematic …
We have talked a lot about cows’ environmental footprint in the past but what about pork? Pigs do not produce as much methane as cows, but due to the intensive farming operations, pork has the third-highest environmental impact among meats. So how are pork producers scoring on sustainability?
What does the data tell us?
S-Ray has a dedicated pork filter, allowing us to search for companies that are linked to pork-related activities. As of now, 91 out of 8250 companies were flagged for some type of pork involvement.
Danish Crown is the 5th largest global pork producer; however, the company is not listed so we do not have an S-Ray score.
The undisputed king of pork production is Chinese/Hong Kong firm WH Group, with over 48 million slaughtered pigs (!). Other pork majors are (infamous) JBS and Tyson Foods. In terms of ESG score, there seems to be quite a gap with WH Group scoring within the top 72% within its industry and JBS within the bottom 3%. Tyson stands at 20%, so not exactly impressive. A common problem across these three giants is Capital Structure, Diversity, and Occupational Health and Safety (for workers.. not the pigs). Interestingly, all companies score highly on “E” features like Waste, Water, or Environmental Management. However, only JBS has a Temperature Score on the 1.5-degree trajectory, where the other two companies don’t seem to be reporting sufficient emission data.
What do we think, would you invest in good “E” scoring companies producing environmentally unfriendly products?
What can we do?
Unfortunately for piglets, pork is pretty popular across global cuisines. Pork consumption is on a rise, especially in China, Vietnam and South Korea, where the average citizen eats over 30kg of pork per year. However, we ask you to reconsider meat/dairy intake for the sake of the planet and the pigs …. and we won’t even go into the health argument. Try jack fruit as pulled pork belly alternative (you will not regret it) or this vegan bacon brand that is killing it.
Pigs are the smartest out of domestic animals and despite the popular belief, they are one of the cleanest animals (we would also argue they are the cutest). So it is a real shame to eat them, especially when you can train them to search for truffles?!
When it comes to matters of earthly food delights, we opt for veggie alternatives and say truffle > bacon.
Bon Appétit!
Paula & Nicolas
*Source: Arabesque S-Ray, data as of 3rd June 2021
