Climate Leadership
Emission Reductions
goal Emission Reductions
Casella began measuring its carbon footprint in 2006 as a founding partner of the EPA Climate Leaders program. As the only waste and recycling company among the program’s founding members, Casella worked with EPA staff to test and evaluate new models for quantifying emissions from our industry. We established our 2005 baseline and announced a public reduction target.
In 2012, we received the EPA’s Excellence in Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Management award, celebrating the company’s achievement of a 45% reduction in total GHG emissions from 2005 to 2010. We achieved those reductions through investments in landfill gas collection, landfill gas to energy facilities, energy efficiency, and alternative fuel vehicles.
Having achieved our first goal, the company has developed a new target to reduce our GHG emissions to 40% below 2010 levels by 2030. We will achieve this goal through further investments in landfill gas collection and beneficial use and through fleet and facility efficiency measures.
For a more detailed review of our emissions and a discussion of our corporate approach to climate-related risks and opportunities, readers can view our Sustainable Accounting Standards Board (SASB) disclosure and CDP Climate reporting. These reports are available on the ESG (environmental, social, and governance) section of our website.
Net Climate Benefit
goal Net Climate Benefit
We calculate our Net Climate Benefit Factor by adding the emission benefits of our recycling, renewable energy, and sequestration activities and then dividing this number by our total Scope 1 and 2 emissions. These calculations are all completed using EPA factors and tools.
For a business like ours, rising to the climate challenge means we cannot simply emit less; we must also do more to develop and grow the waste and recycling services that will be required in a low-carbon circular economy future. We will work to increase our Net Climate Benefit Factor to 5x by 2030.
The work we do benefits the climate. For every ton of carbon we generate managing our customers’ and communities’ waste and recyclables, 2.9 tons of carbon are eliminated elsewhere in the economy through recycling, energy production, and carbon sequestration.
Waste reduction, reuse, and recycling activities reduce emissions throughout global supply chains. Renewable energy production displaces more carbon-intensive forms of energy in the power grid. Carbon is sequestered by waste that is landfilled rather than incinerated.
Calculating our Net Climate Benefit Factor
Million Metric Tons of CO2e
2019 Emissions
2019 Emissions
2019 Emission
Prevention
| 2019 | Target 2030 | |
|---|---|---|
| Emission Prevention | 2.101÷0.176 |  |
| Emissions |  |
|
| Net Climate Benefit Factor | 2.9x | 5x |
Planning & Resilience
In the face of increasingly frequent and severe storms, we are making our business more resilient so we pass that resilience along to our customers and communities.
To ensure that we can continue to meet the service needs of our customers and communities during major storms, we maintain priority response plans and natural disaster guidance in our facility operating manuals. This includes planning for rapid deployment of workers and equipment to affected areas as well as operational, communication, and safety best practices.
Our field operations at transfer station and disposal facilities are directly impacted by climate factors such as the size and frequency of rain events and the timing and frequency of freeze-thaw cycles. Shifts in these factors require us to revise aspects of our facility design and operating practices.