Sustainability and
Environmental Stewardship

Meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

Peterson Farms is committed to minimizing the impact of its activities on the environment through resource management, supporting regulatory compliance, and other policy mechanisms concerning environmental issues. Peterson Farms has always understood the value of sustainable practices, both as cherry growers and as fruit processors. In August 2010, we began the journey of designing social accountability & sustainability initiatives to help track existing activity and create new and innovative programs.

Our vision is to become an industry leader, not only in safe food and quality processing, but in sustainable business practices, environmental stewardship, and social accountability which includes our growers, contractors, and vendors we partner with.

Water Reduction Initiative: Maintain Water Usage Intensity reduction by 25% by 2023

Peterson Farms, Inc has been working diligently since 2017 to reduce the water usage on campus. Peterson Farms, Inc has achieved a 30% reduction in water usage from 2018 to 2022. Due to 2022 initiatives, Peterson Farms had a 5% increase from 2021. Even with this slight increase Peterson Farms Inc was still able to maintain a 30% decrease from the baseline year of 2018. With the fluctuation in production needs and the expansion of Peterson Farms, our water usage is liable to change to accommodate future needs. With the addition of new lines and plants, Peterson Farms takes into the consideration water usage while engineering new lines and facilities.

Electricity Reduction Initiative: Maintain the Electric Usage Intensity reduction of 1% for 2023.

Peterson Farms continues to increase the production capacity of existing processing lines and continues to build new processing lines, while reducing the electricity consumption due to transitioning to newer technologies and focused initiatives based on managing what we are measuring. Some of these technologies are newer models of laptops, monitors, printers, phone systems, upgraded facility lighting (inside and outside) and reducing the motor and control equipment voltage on the automated equipment used for the fruit processing. In 2022, Peterson Farms had a 1% decrease vs. 2021.

Reduce Overall Carbon Footprint

Continuous improvement comes from changing the way we do things and historical data provides the baseline for improvement going forward. The Environmental Management Team has been aggressively evaluating and prioritizing our environmental aspects, procedures for monitoring and measuring to ensure we are exceeding our compliance obligations and customer expectations. The combined initiatives contributed to the reduction in our carbon footprint for 2022. Our 2022 carbon footprint, which is measured annually, is 0.31 lbs. CO2e for each pound of fruit produced. The 2022 results are a 15% CO2e reduction for each pound produced vs. 2021 and a 34% reduction for each pound produced vs. 2020.

Partnership with TerraCycle ®

In 2023, Peterson Farms partnered with international recycling company, TerraCycle, to provide an easy outlet for recycling Peterson Farms Treats applesauce pouches.

Learn more about the recycling program with TerraCycle at www.terracycle.com/petersonfarms