Hormel Foods Corp. is continuing its emphasis on corporate responsibility.

Hormel announced today the release of its 2010 Hormel Foods Corporate Responsibility Report. Among other successes, the company achieved its water use goal one year early, reducing water use by 30 million gallons since 2009. Hormel’s safety performance was also 27 percent better than the industry average.

The company “self-declared” the report, which it will submit to the Global Reporting Initiative to make sure all requirements were met.

This year’s theme is “Elevate the Everyday, Our Way.”

“With our unwavering commitment to corporate responsibility, Hormel Foods continues to ‘elevate the everyday, our way,’” said Jeff Ettinger, chairman of the board, president and CEO at Hormel Foods. “Through continuous improvement, we endeavor to reduce our impact on the environment, act responsibly and provide value to our shareholders as we plan for the future.”

This year’s report details the company’s performance in fiscal year 2010 to reduce water use and solid waste going to landfills, as well as philanthropic efforts and employee safety performance. It also outlines new initiatives in health and wellness and food safety. Julie Craven, vice president of corporate communications at Hormel, said they are looking to improve in energy reduction.

“Based on our 2010 data, we are not meeting the aggressive energy-reduction goal we set to accomplish by the end of fiscal year 2011,” Craven said. “We have made significant capital investments to increase energy efficiencies, which have offset increased energy use in our facilities.”

A majority of our environmental sustainability goals were established for five years using 2006 as a benchmark. The report is available at www.hormelfoods.com/csr. According to a press release, Hormel will donate $5 to Feeding America for every retweet of the report on Twitter, up to $5,000.