JBS launched the “JBS Sustainability-Linked Bond Framework” to reinforce its commitment to reducing its environmental impact and becoming a net-zero emissions company by 2040. The company described this as the industry’s most ambitious sustainability pledge to combat climate change. However, these bonds were later challenged through a complaint to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by the environmental organization Mighty Earth.
In 2021, JBS launched its commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2040. In the statement, the company declared it to be the industry’s most ambitious sustainability commitment to combat climate change. Among its strategies is the goal of reducing scope 1 and 2 emissions by at least 30% compared to 2019 levels, along with the compensation of “residual” emissions. Since then, however, these commitments have been questioned due to a lack of clear parameters and concrete plans for reducing emissions, considering that the company did commit to address the fundamental source of its emissions: meat production.
Amnesty International revealed that a former JBS supply chain auditor denounced the company for falsely claiming that its operations in Brazil’s Amazon region are free of deforestation. In correspondence with Amnesty International, the independent auditor DNV GL Business Assurance—based in Norway and hired by JBS to audit its supply chain between 2017 and 2019—confirmed that it had never audited JBS’s indirect suppliers in Brazil. The company also stated that “the assessment report issued by DNV GL cannot be used as evidence of good practices throughout the supply chain.”
In the second audit cycle of the Beef Terms of Adjustment of Conduct, JBS had a non-compliance rate of 8.3%, which included the purchase of 2,642 head of cattle sourced directly from land where illegal deforestation occurred after 2009, according to an audit report by the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (Ministério Público Federal – MPF).
According to a report in O Eco, JBS has stopped disclosing the geographical coordinates of thousands of farms that supply it with cattle. With the closure of its “Confiança desde a Origem” (“Trust from the Source”) system, transparency around its supply chain has decreased, making it more difficult for the public to monitor the origin of the animals slaughtered by the company.
JBS was the company with the most evidence of irregularities—118,459 head of cattle—in the first audit cycle of the Beef Terms of Adjustment of Conduct (TAC), the agreement between the company, other meatpackers, and the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (Ministério Público Federal – MPF) to curb deforestation in the Amazon region. The audit estimated that 19% of the cattle purchased by JBS showed signs of irregularities.
After the Carne Fria and Carne Fraca operations, Greenpeace discontinued its involvement in the implementation of the G4 Cattle Agreement in the Amazon, considering the accusations against JBS to be extremely serious. Greenpeace stated it would not resume participation “until JBS can prove, in fact, that the meat it sells is fit for consumption and free from deforestation, slave labor, and conflicts with Indigenous lands and protected areas.”
JBS joined the National Pact for the Eradication of Slave Labor (InPacto), a corporate initiative to strengthen actions against slave labor in Brazil. By joining the institute, the company said it reaffirmed “its commitment to sustainability and the development of a clean and responsible supply chain.” Despite this, subsequent reports and surveys by different organizations have revealed ongoing problems in this area.
JBS - Friboi has undertaken to stop purchasing meat from areas embargoed by environmental enforcement agencies, Indigenous lands, and farms where labor analogous to slavery has been identified, across the entire country of Brazil. These obligations were assumed in a nationwide agreement signed with the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office (Ministério Público Federal – MPF), following the signing of similar terms in the states of Pará and Mato Grosso. However, the result of subsequent audits by the MPF indicate that JBS did not reach levels considered satisfactory in the 3rd, 4th and 5th cycles carried out to assess compliance with the terms of the agreement.
JBS joined the Livestock Pact as part of the São Paulo-Amazon Sustainable Connections initiative promoted by the Ethos Institute. The aim of the initiative was to ensure that their suppliers were not on the “dirty list” of labor analogous to slavery or operating in areas embargoed by Ibama. But the following year, the report "Slaughtering the Amazon", by Greenpeace International, revealed that JBS had companies involved in modern slavery and deforestation among its suppliers.
