Lewiston treats approximately 2.4 million gallons of wastewater per day and earned the award predominantly for renewable natural gas (RNG) initiatives it started in 2022. The facility worked with a third-party company to cover two anaerobic wastewater lagoons on site in order to capture the methane that was being produced. The methane is then converted into RNG by equipment on site and sent into the natural gas supply.

The USPoultry award also factored in Lewiston’s work to purify byproduct carbon dioxide from the RNG production on site and convert it into liquid CO2, which is then used for both internal and external applications. These RNG initiatives have reduced greenhouse gas emissions at the facility by a whopping 99%.

Multiple opportunities

Although its RNG initiative stands out at first, at the Lewiston plant, sustainability isn’t defined by a single initiative.

“Years of continuous improvement and innovation,” the facility’s nomination says, have led to progress and high achievement in numerous areas.

The facility demonstrated a 97% waste diversion from landfill rate in 2021, and employees have continued to drive further improvements in waste management. In 2024, the Lewiston plant replaced outdated fluorescent lighting with high-efficiency LEDs throughout key areas of the facility, leading to a reduction in electricity consumption in those areas of 67%.

Ashton Weller, environmental manager for the Lewiston complex, explains how the plant’s sustainability team contributes to these achievements.

“We have a cross-functional team of associates who are actively engaged in trying to find improvement opportunities across all sorts of areas, like electrical, water, air supply and waste management,” she says. “We’re actively looking for small projects because they add up to big environmental impacts.”

And the project list grew in 2025, when the Lewiston plant turned to reducing water consumption and identified an opportunity to conserve water in its offal department. The plant leaned on insights from its sister plant in Accomac, Va., which had embarked upon a similar initiative, and then configured a system to capture vacuum pump cooling and lubrication water and reuse it rather than send it down the drain. It is estimated that project is reducing annual water consumption by nearly 25 million gallons (or 3.4% of total harvest plant water usage).

Lewiston is not finished minimizing the impact it has on the environment and the company’s bottom line, especially given the culture that exists throughout the company and at the facility itself. In fact, Lewiston is already working on further reductions to its water usage, exploring more efficient nozzles and spray guns in the facility. Every little bit helps, and Weller says the employees are always on point when it comes to sustainability.

“Everybody has a role to play in sustainability, because it’s not just the big projects we do that matter,” she says. “It’s turning the light off when you walk out of the office or turning the water hose off — small things add up to big environmental impacts, and our employees know that.”