Hormel Foods Corp. announced the release of its 2010 Hormel Foods Corporate Responsibility Report, available online at www.hormelfoods.com/csr. Among other successes, the company achieved its water use goal one year early, reducing water use by 30 million gallons since 2009. The report is self-declared Application Level A as confirmed by the Global Reporting Initiative.

This is the fourth full report the company has released covering environmental and social performance and the fifth report overall highlighting the company’s commitment to being a good corporate citizen. This year’s theme, “Elevate the Everyday, Our Way,” emphasizes the company’s desire to build upon its heritage of innovation and quality when conducting its day-to-day business activities.

“With our unwavering commitment to corporate responsibility, Hormel Foods continues to 'Elevate the Everyday, Our Way',” said Jeffrey M. Ettinger, chairman of the board, president and CEO at Hormel Foods. "Through continuous improvement, we endeavor to reduce our impact on the environment, act responsibly and provide value to our shareholders as we plan for the future."

This year’s report details the company’s performance in fiscal year 2010 to reduce water use and solid waste going to landfill, as well as strategic philanthropic efforts and industry-leading employee safety performance; it also outlines new initiatives in key areas such as health and wellness and food safety.

Key highlights about the company’s corporate responsibility performance and initiatives include:

• Hormel Foods created Spammy, a fortified, shelf-stable turkey spread to help address childhood malnutrition throughout the world. The company made an initial three-year commitment to deliver 1 million cans of Spammy to in-need families in Guatemala through partners Food For The Poor and Caritas Arquidiocesana in 2011.
• Hormel Foods donated more than $5.7 million in products and cash to charitable organizations focused on education and hunger efforts.
• The company reduced water use by 11 percent, solid waste to landfill by 28 percent and direct energy use by 6 percent when normalized for production from the baseline year of 2006.
• In select products, Hormel Foods reduced sodium by 8 percent in 2010.
• The Progressive Processing LLC (Dubuque, Iowa) production facility was awarded LEED Gold and became one of the first manufacturing plants to be a LEED-certified project at any level. LEED certification is the recognized standard for measuring building sustainability.

The 2010 Hormel Foods Corporate Responsibility Report is the third consecutive report that can be found entirely online. An additional 12-page executive summary is also available, which provides a condensed version of the full report along with key highlights. The online report can be accessed and the summary can be downloaded at www.hormelfoods.com/csr.

Source: Hormel Foods Corp.