WM Highlights Investments in Its People, Recycling and Renewable Natural Gas in 2021 Sustainability Report

By: Waste Management, Inc. via Business Wire

October 13, 2021 at 11:50 AM EDT

Report Outlines Continued Momentum on WM Sustainability Goals through 2038

Waste Management (NYSE: WM) today 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.

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2021 WM Sustainability Report Overview: Our 2021 Sustainability Report shows how WM people are doing their part to support our communities while creating new value from waste. WM is leading across several areas that impact our people, communities, environment and customers. (Graphic: Business Wire)

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.”

WM committed to setting a Science-Based Target initiative (SBTi) emissions reduction goal in 2022 and recently improved its environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure, as recognized by third-party rating organizations. WM continues to be the only company in its industry to publish details about its landfill sites using the EJSCREEN tool, which uses nationally consistent data to identify and quantify factors related to demographic indicators and environmental quality and health.

Visit WM’s sustainability website at https://sustainability.wm.com/ for the full report and to learn more about how the company is always working for a sustainable tomorrow.

ABOUT WASTE MANAGEMENT

WM (Waste Management) is the leading provider of comprehensive environmental services in North America. Through its subsidiaries, WM provides collection, transfer, disposal services, and recycling and resource recovery. It is also a leading developer, operator, and owner of landfill gas-to-energy facilities in the United States. To learn more information about WM, please visit wm.com.