Smithfield companies receive GEEA awards

Smithfield Foods and two of its Smithfield Packing operating companies have earned honors from the state of Virginia's 12th annual Governor's Environmental Excellence Awards (GEEA) for Business and Industry for environmental stewardship achievements during the past year.

All based in Smithfield VA, the corporate headquarters received a gold award; Smithfield Transportation, a silver award; and Smithfield Packing South, a bronze award.

Specific projects and programs recognized were:

• Smithfield Foods — Its ISO 14001-certified Environmental Management System (EMS) completed its first three-year cycle of environmental projects. During that time, the company recycled 118,490,000 pounds of cardboard, saved 250,000,000 gallons of water, eliminated 716,000 pounds of air pollutants, and burned 1,900,000 decatherms of biogas converted from treated wastewater.

• Smithfield Transportation — When renewing its lease for fleet vehicles, the company decided to switch to new vehicles with state-of-the-art technologies that significantly reduce fuel consumption and emissions. In 2006, the new vehicles increased fuel efficiency by 20 percent and reduced diesel fuel consumption by 300,000 gallons.

• Smithfield Packing South — This plant implemented revisions to the rendering operation, changes in the production lines, and elimination of the hog processing operation. It also replaced two boilers and upgraded two more to help reduce its environmental footprint in air emissions and conserve natural resources.