Waste Management announced the release of the WM 2021 Sustainability Report, where the company noted progress against its 2025 and 2038 sustainability goals around people, customers, environment and community, including key investments made through early 2021 to further the company’s sustainability agenda. The company’s goals align to eight of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) where WM can have the greatest impact.

This year’s report focuses on the people behind the progress WM made in the past year, and how they are doing their part to take care of WM’s customers, neighbors and the environment in communities across North America. “As we continued to provide an essential service to customers and communities across North America, we are proud to have been able to invest in our team members as part of our sustainability progress,” said Jim Fish, president and chief executive officer, WM. “This included guaranteed pay for 40 hours of work per week for all full-time hourly employees, regardless of COVID-19 related service decreases, as well as our most-recently announced Your Tomorrow program that pays for team members’ education and upskilling opportunities with expansion to their dependents in 2022.”

In addition to an investment in its people, highlights from the WM 2021 Sustainability Report include how WM:

  • Invested $100 million in new recycling infrastructure technology in 2020.
  • Continues to make strides in fleet emissions reduction, lowering its absolute greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 16 percent in 2020, and powering 55 percent of its more than 19,000 fleet of vehicles with renewable natural gas (RNG). WM is also building facilities to capture and process landfill gas into RNG, with approximately 20 projects in early stages of development across North America.
  • Increased demand for recycled content by collaborating with Unifi to create WM team member uniforms made of REPREVE fiber woven with recycled plastic.
  • Moved into WM’s new corporate headquarters in Houston, which is the first LEED v4 Platinum Core and Shell-certified project in the U.S. The building is designed to offset 100 percent of its electricity consumption with renewable energy.
  • Fosters creative dialogue around protecting the planet and driving change through the annual WM Sustainability Forum and a new web series, “Together Today, For Tomorrow.”

“I’m extremely proud of our team’s work to advance our sustainability agenda to not only propel our company forward, but encourage our customers, industry and others to make progress on sustainability,” said Tara Hemmer, SVP and chief sustainability officer, WM. “For the fourth year, we’ve been able to make record investments in recycling technology at our material recovery facilities and have already exceeded our 2025 target to have more than half of our compressed natural gas fleet powered by RNG. But even as we’ve had strong accomplishments, we continue to strive to do more and set a higher bar for our sustainability initiatives. Now more than ever, we are confident that the investments we are making will help us unlock new solutions so our company and communities throughout North America can thrive.”

To read the full story, visit https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211013005891/en/WM-Highlights-Investments-in-Its-People-Recycling-and-Renewable-Natural-Gas-in-2021-Sustainability-Report.
Author: Business Wire

Sponsor