Since its founding, J. R. Simplot Company has contributed to numerous local organizations and causes, including Ronald McDonald House, WWF-Australia, Boys and Girls Clubs, Future Farmers of America, St. Luke's Children's Hospital, and the Special Olympics.
The Simplot Company has donated thousands of pounds of potatoes to the Idaho Foodbank and the Boise Rescue Mission.
[7] In February 2002, Simplot agreed to buy equipment and pay penalties related to an unreported release of 80,000 pounds of sulphur dioxide from a facility in Pocatello, Idaho.
[8] In February 2004, J.R. Simplot Company agreed to pay the United States Environmental Protection Agency $525,000 and install $2 million in air pollution control equipment to resolve violations of the federal Clean Air Act at its silica sand mining facility in Overton, Nevada.
[10] Simplot is one of six major companies to join the Obama Administration in an effort to significantly reduce energy use over the next 10 years.
[11] In June 2012, Simplot partnered with two conservation groups and three phosphate mining companies in an effort to improve the water quality of the Blackfoot River in Eastern Idaho.
Under the settlement, Simplot was required to spend an estimated $42 million to install, upgrade and operate pollution controls that significantly cut sulfur dioxide emissions at all five plants, fund a wood stove replacement project in the area surrounding the Lathrop plant, and pay an amount of $899,000 as civil penalty.
[13] The company settled with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Justice resolving Simplot's liability for alleged violations at the Rock Springs, Wyoming facility under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), including failure to determine if a solid waste is a hazardous waste (40 C.F.R.
Part 268); and failure to submit complete Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) annual toxic release reports (42 U.S.C.
Simplot agree to pay a civil penalty of $775,000 to resolve the alleged past violations of RCRA and EPCRA.