Mighty Earth Sues JBS USA for Greenwashing in Washington, D.C.

Lawsuit alleges that the Brazilian meat giant is deceiving the Washington D.C. public with misleading net zero claims and violating consumer protection laws

WASHINGTON, DC — Mighty Earth has filed a lawsuit against JBS USA Food Company in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia (D.C.) alleging that JBS USA is deceiving the Washington public with ‘feel-good promises of “Net Zero” emissions that the company has neither the intention nor the capability of fulfilling.’ It comes as New York State Attorney General Letitia James prepares to submit an amended greenwashing complaint against JBS USA in the New York Supreme Court.

Studies show that consumers care about sustainability. Bringing the case on behalf of the Washington, D.C. public, Mighty Earth is alleging that meat giant JBS USA’s false and misleading representations that it can achieve “Net Zero by 2040” and material omissions about the environmental harm and deforestation caused by its operations in Brazil violate the D.C. Consumer Protection Procedures Act (CPPA).

JBS USA claim on its website and consumer-facing adverts that it will achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, despite documented global expansion plans and GHG reduction targets that cover just 3% of parent company JBS Group’s total emissions. JBS admits that its methodology only covers “Scope 1 and 2” emissions, but continues to make Net Zero claims even though it does not include reductions to ‘Scope 3’ emissions – which represent 97% of its emissions. JBS’s total emissions are estimated to be greater than Spain’s, and its annual methane emissions are greater than oil giants ExxonMobil’s and Shell’s combined.

Mighty Earth’s lawsuit also notes JBS USA raised $3 billion from investors by selling special ‘Sustainability-Linked bonds’ (SLBs) in 2021. These net zero-related bonds allowed JBS to profit from its deception because the company was able to lock in historically low borrowing costs for the next 10 years.

Mighty Earth’s legal action is aimed at ending JBS USA’s false marketing and the deception of the Washington, D.C. public by claiming to have sustainability core to its operations. It comes weeks before the COP30 Heads of State Leaders’ Summit and Climate Conference in Belém in Brazil, where JBS and the powerful meat sector is expected to have a significant presence to defend livestock farming’s impact on the environment. Mighty Earth urges JBS to eradicate all deforestation in its global supply chains and to validate plans to reduce its methane emissions by 45% by 2030.

Alex Wijeratna, Senior Director, Investigations and Law, at Mighty Earth, said:

“We’re challenging JBS USA’s climate claims to be ‘Net Zero by 2040’ as false and misleading. The world’s largest meatpacker doesn’t have any credible plan to tackle a staggering 97% of the greenhouse gas emissions found in its meat supply chains.”

“JBS is linked to over a million of acres of Amazon deforestation and it spews more climate damaging methane each year than oil giants ExxonMobil and Shell combined. JBS is a climate super polluter, and yet it’s trying to hoodwink the public with misleading happy talk about its false climate goals.”

JBS USA’s Net Zero advertising

JBS USA made its Net Zero by 2040 commitment in 2021 and is still promoting it. On a website published by The Washington Post, with content paid for and created by JBS USA, the meat giant claims to be “not just talking the talk,” but to be “leading the change” through its Net Zero by 2040 target. On the site, JBS USA also claims its net zero commitment is “realistic and achievable”.

What JBS USA fails to explain in its advertising, is that its net zero commitment only accounts for its Scope 1 and 2 emissions but does not address how it will reduce its Scope 3 supply chain emissions, which represent 97% of its total emissions footprint. Scope 3 emissions include climate superheating methane emissions from livestock and CO2 emissions from forest loss and land conversion. The lawsuit claims JBS USA fails to tell the Washington D.C. public that its net zero goals only apply to 3% of the whole of JBS Group’s total emissions.

Managing Attorney Jennifer Church from Richman Law and Policy, said:

“Our lawsuit says JBS USA is falsely portraying its net zero commitment to the Washington D.C. public and is omitting material facts in a way that make their representations unlawfully deceptive, thereby violating D.C. consumer protection law.”

“JBS USA cannot tell consumers that it will reach Net Zero by 2040 while excluding all of the JBS’s Scope 3 emissions from that calculation and failing to present validated plans to urgently reduce those emissions, which would require it to radically overhaul how it does business.”

Attorney Kevin Galbraith from The Galbraith Law Firm, said:

“We hope the D.C Superior Court carefully examines the evidence we have presented which alleges that JBS USA is greenwashing its climate credentials and presenting itself as a sustainability champion to an unsuspecting Washington D.C. public.”

“If the D.C. court agrees with us, then it has the power to compel JBS to remove all misleading consumer-facing statements related to net zero, adding to the body of concerns about JBS’s promotion of its net zero target, including that of the New York Attorney General, Letitia James.”

Ends

For more information or to arrange an interview please contact:

Carole Mitchell, Global Director of Communications (London)
[email protected]
+44 7917 105000

Syd Jones, Press Secretary (Washington D.C)
[email protected]

Notes to editors

• The legal action in Washington D.C. by Mighty Earth follows that of the New York Attorney General, Letitia James, who last year filed a lawsuit against JBS USA Food Company for misleading the New York public about its environmental impact and alleged fraudulent Net Zero claims. The case was filed February 28, 2024, and dismissed with leave to amend on January 13, 2025. The parties agreed by stipulation to extend the deadline to amend to October 31, 2025.

• The appellate National Advertising Review Board (NARB) upheld a recommendation by the National Advertising Division (NAD) for JBS to discontinue using its “Net Zero by 2040” claims. Ruling on JBS’s appeal of the recommendation in February 2023, NARB upheld the initial ruling and concluded that JBS’s challenged Net Zero claims communicate misleading messages.

• JBS USA conducts JBS Group’s operations in the United States. From May 2024 through April 2025, shipping data shows JBS Group imported $767 million worth of JBS Group beef products from Brazil to the United States to sell under JBS Group, including JBS USA brands, including Pilgrim’s, Blue Ribbon Beef and Swift.

• The operations of JBS USA, along with those of its direct and indirect parents, subsidiaries and affiliates (collectively “JBS Group”) cause massive GHG emissions both through methane emissions from belches from the extensive number of cattle in the company’s supply chains and from CO2 from the significant levels of deforestation and land conversion associated with cattle and soy animal feed expansion in countries such as Brazil.

• JBS USA and its affiliated entities constitute the largest producer of animal protein on the planet and conduct business on five continents in 25 countries, with ambitious multi-billion-dollar expansion plans in Nigeria, Vietnam, United States and Saudi Arabia.

• JBS USA claims to be the number one beef producer, and the number two pork and poultry producer in the United States.

• The $77 billion annual turnover JBS Group has estimated total GHG emissions greater than Spain.

• JBS the fifth largest emitter of methane on the planet and is estimated responsible for more annual methane emissions than oil giants ExxonMobil and Shell combined.

• JBS Group is the world’s largest producer of animal protein with an aggregate daily processing capacity of approximately 75,622 head of cattle – or 27 million per year.

• JBS’s Global Chief Sustainability Officer Jason Weller admitted to Reuters in January 2025 that the company has “zero operational, legal or contractual control over its supply chain” and that JBS’s Net Zero pledge was merely an “aspiration” and was “never a promise” it was going to make happen.

• The company came back to Reuters with: “JBS takes its commitment to a more sustainable future for agriculture very seriously, and our climate ambitions have not changed” and “any assertion otherwise is completely untrue.”

About Mighty Earth

Mighty Earth is a global advocacy organization working to defend a living planet.  Our team has achieved transformative change by persuading leading industries to dramatically reduce deforestation and climate pollution throughout their global supply chains in palm oil, rubber, cocoa, and animal feed, while improving livelihoods for Indigenous and local communities across the tropics. www.mightyearth.org