Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Taking Care of Business

It's August, the last chance to enjoy the summer. It's also the last chance to take advantage of the Early Bird rate for VERGE 16, which expires August 19, and save up to $400.

That's two hot offers in one paragraph.

In addition, we've just opened registration for VERGE Interconnect Expo, which runs adjacent to the VERGE conference and features dozens of cutting-edge technology companies, from virtual reality demonstrations to electric vehicle test drives. As part of the $50 Interconnect pass, you'll get to attend Solutions Series sessions and other events.

To learn more about all this stuff, click here.

Calculating the Emissions Impact of Recycling. We've got a terrific webcast coming up next week, on August 9, the first of a two-part series. it focuses on how corporate and urban sustainability leaders can understand the carbon impacts of their own waste reduction and recycling efforts, including where to focus limited resources to realize the greatest environmental return. To sign up for this free, hourlong session, click here.

In 2009 the EPA introduced the concept of Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) which looks at the entire lifecycle of goods and products, not just end-of-life materials management. Waste Management has recently applied these principles to measure the greenhouse gas emissions impact of the solid waste and recycling industry.

When the principles of SMM were applied to the materials handled by the solid waste and recycling industry, analysts at Waste Management found that their old way of thinking needed to change to focus more on the overall environmental impacts of their operations. This led them to develop a unique model that identifies the cost per ton of carbon emissions reduction for various solid waste and recycling services.

In the first of a two-part series, this one-hour webcast will provide insight into how corporate and urban sustainability leaders can understand the carbon impacts of their own waste reduction and recycling efforts. You’ll learn:

• The role of lifecycle thinking when developing and evaluating materials management goals

• Where to focus limited resources to realize the greatest environmental return

• How to take actions to to ensure that your goals reflect true environmental improvements

Speakers:

• Susan Robinson, Senior Public Affairs Director, Waste Management

• Rob Hallenbeck, Venturing Analyst, Waste Management

• Elisabeth Resek, Chief of Municipal Source Reduction, EPA

Setting Goals: Have We Reached the Limits of Recycling?

August 16, 2016

This second of our two-part webcast series on calculating the environmental impacts of recycling and waste disposal (see Part 1 here), looks at how regulators and private industry can apply the principles of Sustainable Materials Management (SMM) to replace or augment weight-based recycling goals.

As the materials in the waste stream change, becoming lighter and more efficient, weight-based goals are no longer achievable. A growing number of organizations are applying lifecycle assessment strategies to capture the value of reducing environmental impacts from production through use and end-of-life.

This one-hour webcast will provide insight into how corporate and urban sustainability leaders can understand new approaches for setting waste reduction and recycling goals. You’ll learn:

• What the paradigm shift to sustainable materials management implies in terms of balancing the recycling goals of environmental benefit, economics and material recovery.

• The value of setting and updating goals as technology and society evolve

• Why the concepts of Sustainable Materials Management and lifecycle thinking are critical to establishing materials management goals and programs

• How changes in the global economy, packaging trends and recycling programs require that we update our thinking on materials management and develop programs for today’s changing waste stream

Speakers:

• Susan Robinson, Waste Management Senior Public Affairs Director

• Anne Johnson, Vice President, Resource Recycling Systems

Taking Care of Business

Sep 10, 2007 - Joel Makower - GreenBuzz

I've long maintained that human resource managers are the real drivers of sustainability inside mainstream companies. Every time I see how-to advice on greening a company that includes the suggestion to 'get top-management buy-in,' I think, 'Sure, but what about everyone else?'

The potential of human resource professionals -- whose dominion includes hiring and training, among other things -- is significant, and largely untapped, in helping to make sustainability a strategic activity inside companies. With a growing number of companies competing to be seen as an employer of choice, and with sustainability and corporate responsibility looming increasingly larger in some sectors, the ability for HR folks to attract, hire, and retain green-minded job seekers can play a huge role in the success of a company's long-term sustainability goals.

Sometimes, motivating employees starts with teaching them 'how to fish' -- that is, helping them be more aware and engaged in sustainability in their personal lives. That's what Wal-Mart is doing in helping its 1.3 million employees engage in Personal Sustainability Projects. As Judah Schiller, whose company developed the concept for Wal-Mart, explains this week, 'Just as sustainability is being used more frequently from an operational perspective to improve internal processes, reduce costs and create efficiencies, personal sustainability can also be used as a powerful tool to improve upon a range of HR issues: commitment, attrition, education, health & wellness, motivation, and engagement.'

The Wal-Mart experiment is -- well, an experiment. We don't yet know whether and how sustainability will 'stick' with the company's employees. But it's an intriguing notion: by demonstrating the benefits of sustainability -- from improved health and well-being to creating a more eco-conscious community -- in their personal lives, employees just might help their employer be similarly less wasteful, more resourceful, and more engaged in the local community.

And that makes human resources a critical link in the quest to make sustainabiilty a part of everyone's job.

Companies are tackling climate emissions in creative ways Companies are tackling climate emissions in creative ways featured image By: Ecosystem Marketplace From offsets to carbon pricing, a new report reveals the latest strategies for reducing carbon footprints. Read more PwC-EnerNOC-Winston-Energy-Strategy-brief-2016.pdf