Kinesha Allen, the environmental manager at the Smithfield Farmland facility in Smithfield, Virginia, is part of a team that helps keep the plant's environmental performance on track. Allen and her teammates are committed to fulfilling one of Smithfield Foods' key sustainability commitments, reducing the company's environmental footprint, and she is featured in the latest installment of multi-media "sustainability stories" on Smithfieldcommitments.com.

"The environmental performance of all our plants—in the U.S. and internationally—receives a lot of attention, and we work hard to improve every year," said Larry Pope, Smithfield's president and chief executive officer. "Kinesha is part of that effort as are virtually all the employees who work for Smithfield Foods and our independent operating companies."

Allen has a passion for the environment, and her responsibilities run the gamut from checking water and energy usage to volunteering at local schools. She's proud of her team's performance. "We've won several environmental awards at this facility. The most recent one would be the 2014 Business Partner of the Year through the Virginia Recycling Association," Allen said.

For more than a decade, Smithfield Foods has been committed to conducting business in a manner that reduces its environmental impact. Over the years Smithfield has augmented and improved its environmental management systems, enabling the company to reduce its use of key resources, including water, energy and land.

Smithfield also sets challenging targets to further elevate its performance around water, energy, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and solid waste. Not only has this made good economic and environmental sense, but the company's focus on improvement has resulted in reaching some of those targets ahead of schedule.

Smithfield believes that sustainability is a journey, not a destination, and corporations must continually strive to exceed what is expected of them. This belief is ingrained in the culture and operations at Smithfield Foods. The online sustainability stories help share Smithfield's journey and introduce the people who create this culture.

All three installments of the "Sustainability Stories" series can be found at http://www.smithfieldcommitments.com/stories