Water

Our water sources for our domestic manufacturing facilities are solely municipal utilities. We consistently look for ways to improve our equipment and engage our employees on an ongoing basis to achieve water use reduction through behavior-based initiatives. Normalized usage (cubic meters/sales tonnage) for 2021 was 7, a 14% decrease compared to our prior-year level.

Each year, we aim to achieve a 2% reduction in water use and an annual efficiency gain of 1% in water use. In 2021, we achieved a 14% reduction in water use. Our annual water use efficiency improved 14%. These results were due to the implementation of water reduction projects and increased production efficiencies.

As we continually monitor our water usage, we evaluate our operations to determine the business risk associated with water scarcity. After careful evaluation, we have confirmed that Hormel Foods does not have manufacturing operations in areas defined as water-scarce regions by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. We have identified three manufacturing facilities that are in regions defined as overall high risk, using the World Resources Institute’s Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas. Access-to-water risk remains low at all domestic manufacturing locations, and we remain committed to driving water reduction and efficiency improvements at these and all manufacturing locations.