Environmental education

8th edition of the Environmental Week (2021). Dissemination of videos on environmental issues. Contest for the best phrase about environmental preservation. Drawing contest on Tree Day. We believe that awareness is the best weapon to preserve the natural resources of our planet.

Water resources

Monitoring of water intake, use, and destination, aiming for continuous improvements in management and the guarantee of sustainable preservation of the resource. We continuously work on raising awareness among employees and develop actions to reduce water consumption in the units.

Effluent Treatment Plant

The quality of the effluent is measured daily based on criteria such as pH, chlorine quantity, chemical dosage, and turbidity. In Itaberaí, we capture water after our disposal point, while in Nova Veneza, we use the final effluent after treatment for fertigation. In 2020, we achieved up to 97.1% removal of pollutant load, as assessed by Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD). We also sent 2.4 thousand tons of fatty oil to partners who produce biodiesel.

Solid Waste

Our Waste Management Project involves continuous reuse, where possible, of materials and equipment, reduction of inefficient consumption of natural resources, and recycling of byproducts from our production process. We sent over 13 thousand liters of lubricating oil to qualified companies for the rererefination process, recycled 6,833 pieces of materials such as containers and pallets, and produced 26.5 thousand tons of flour from industry waste. We also sold about 12.4 thousand tons of materials, generating a monthly revenue of approximately 120 thousand Brazilian reais.

Composting

Around 20 thousand tons of organic waste were allocated to composting, aiming to minimize disposal and recover and regenerate products and materials throughout their life cycle. SSA directs 100% of its organic waste from production processes to composting. These numbers are from 2020.

Emissions and Energy

In 2021, we started supporting our partners to study and monitor the use of solar energy in broiler farms. Currently, 45% of our integration uses clean energy. We monitor emission and energy indicators, establish an action plan to mitigate energy use, identify projects that enable biogenic CO2 emissions and renewable energy sources. The use of renewable sources is the main vector of our energy consumption management strategy. The largest percentage in the energy mix that supplies us comes from vapor resulting from burning eucalyptus chips.
We became a member of the GHG Protocol Program, aiming to identify, measure, and manage greenhouse gas emissions through action plans. This initiative is the beginning of an action to define our goal and strategy to become a CO2-free company. We register a reduction of approximately 55 thousand tons of CO2 equivalent in direct emissions annually. This result is due to the physical-chemical system used in the effluent treatment stage, which removes organic matter and prevents the generation of methane (CH) and carbon dioxide (CO2).

Biodiversity

We aim to promote sustainable natural resource management, including actions towards civil society, seeking the well-being and continuous improvement of the company’s influence areas. We have no operations in the Amazon Region. Our units are located in the Cerrado, the second-largest Brazilian biome, with the world’s richest savanna biodiversity. We also establish vegetal sanitary barriers around our units by planting eucalyptus seedlings and encourage rural producers to do the same, which we use in our steam-generating boiler. One of our objectives is to achieve a deforestation-free supply chain in the coming years. Therefore, we have initiated the implementation of the Due Diligence project with our suppliers and partners.