SUSTAINABILITY REPORT SUSTAINABILITY REPORT
SUSTAINABILITY REPORT
  • Sustainability Blueprint
    • A Message from Our CEO
    • Our Vision for Sustainable Waste Management
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Our Policies
    • Listening to Our Stakeholders
    • Materiality Analysis
    • Progress on Goals
  • Materials Management
    • Recovering Energy from Waste
    • Recovering Materials
    • Covanta Environmental Solutions
    • Supporting the Circular Economy
    • Zero Waste to Landfill
    • Continuous Improvement
  • Environmental Sustainability
    • Addressing Climate Change
    • Minimizing Air Emissions
    • Improving Our Performance
    • Optimizing Water Use
  • Community Relations
    • Our Approach
    • What We Do
  • Safety and Health
    • Promoting a Safety Culture
    • Ensuring Safety in the Workplace
    • Delivering on Safety Performance
  • Workforce Engagement
    • Building a Great Place to Work
    • Investing in Training and Development
    • Promoting Diversity and Inclusion
  • About This Report
    • Awards
    • About Covanta
    • Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
  • Performance Tables
  • GRI Index
  • SASB Index
  • Contact
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Performance Tables

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  • SASB Index
  • Performance Tables
  • GRI Index
Economic Data1
(data for Covanta Holding Corp., including all global operations, in millions, except per share amounts, USD)2 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015
Operating Revenue
Waste and service revenue 1,393 1,327 1,231 1,187 1,104
Energy revenue 329 343 334 370 421
Recycled metals revenue 86 95 82 61 61
Other operating revenue 62  103 105 81 59
Total operating revenue 1,870 1,868 1,752 1,699 1,645
operating expense
Total operating expense 1,780 1,805 1,651 1,590 1,536
income tax
Income tax expense (benefit) (7) (29) (191) 22 (84)
net income
Net (loss) income attributable to Covanta Holding 10 152 57 (4) 68
Cash flow provided by operating activities 226 238 242 264 226
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
Adjusted EBITDA 428 457 408 410 428
Free Cash Flow 140 100 132 176 152
dividends
Annualized Cash Dividends per Share $1.00 $1.00 $1.00  $1.00 $1.00
Community Investment
Total donations 2.2 1.8 2.0 1.9 1.7

1  For complete information, please refer to Covanta’s Form 10-K filings.
2  For the years ended December 31

 

Workforce Data
2019 2018 2017 2016 2015
Employees
Total employees 3,881 3,911 3,719 3,582 3,539
Salaried 1,228 1,230 1,193 1,157 1,142
Hourly3 2,653 2,683 2,526 2,425 2,397
Global Head count
North America 3,803 3,834 3,649 3,537 3,511
United States 3,638 3,676 3,520 3,454 3,431
Canada 165 158 129 83 80
Asia 13 15 14 15 21
Europe 65 62 56 30 7
Safety and Health4
DART (Days Away/ Restricted/ Transfer Rate) 0.44 0.61 0.77 0.81 0.73
TCIR (Total Case Incident Rate) 0.80 0.81 1.06 1.00 1.26
Fatality Rate 0 0 0.02 0.02 0
Number of sites in OSHA VPP program 32 33 35 37 38
Contractor DART5 1.08 1.19 0.90 0.89 0.70
Contractor TCIR5 1.63 1.80 1.40 1.48 1.22
Diversity
Women (% of total workforce) 11% 11% 11% 10% 10%
Minorities (% of total workforce) 28% 28% 26% 26% 25%

 

2019 Employee Data
Total6 Female Male
Employees 3,881 431 3,448
   Part-time 48 15 32
   Full-time 3,831 415 3,415
Contractors 2 1 1
Collective bargaining
Employees 225 5 220
Percent of workforce 5.8% 0.1% 5.7%
Employee geography
Americas 3,638 377 3,260
   Region 1 921 45 876
   Region 2 853 45 808
   Region 3 737 23 714
   Transfer Station 132 9 123
   Covanta Field Services 123 1 122
   Corporate Headquarters 510 170 339
   Covanta Environmental Solutions 498 125 372
Asia 13 6 7
Canada 165 44 120
Europe 65 6 59

 

2019 Diversity by EEO Category
race/ethnic composition of our employees
American Indian Black White Hispanic Asian Pacific Islander Two or more races N/A Total
Executives 0 2 50 1 2 0 0 2 57
Directors 0 7 211 4 9 0 2 7 240
Managers 1 10 235 20 23 0 2 24 315
Professionals/ administrative 3 57 551 38 42 6 9 55 761
Hourly3 13 354 1,537 282 91 58 51 122 2,508
age composition of our employees
Executives Directors Managers Professionals/
administrative		 Hourly3 Total
Under 30 years old 0 0 6 78 407 491
30-50 years old 13 79 166 353 1,266 1,877
Over 50 years old 44 161 143 330 835 1,513
Total 57 240 315 761 2,508 3,881
Gender composition of our employees
Female 9 26 86 238 73 432
Male 48 214 229 522 2,434 3,447
Total6 57 240 315 761 2,508 3,881

 

2019 Governance Body Diversity
gender composition within our board of directors
Female 3
Male 9
Age composition of our board of directors
Under 30 years old 0
30-50 years old 0
Over 50 years old 12

 

2019 Employee Statistics
2018 Employee Turnover Statistics
Salaried Hourly3 Total Average Service (years) # of Voluntary Separations # of Involuntary Separations Total # of Separations Total Rate (%)
Total6 203 592 805 6.1 547 258 805 21%
   Female 43 90 139 4.7 97 42 139 4%
   Male 160 501 665 6.4 449 216 665 17%
   Age less than 30 13 207 223 0.9 180 43 223 6%
   Age 30-50 86 217 321 4.0 217 104 321 8%
   Age over 50 104 168 261 12.8 150 111 261 7%
   United States 188 558 754 6.3 504 250 754 19%
   Asia 3 0 3 2.3 3 0 3 0.1%
   Canada 4 30 36 4.1 30 6 36 1%
   Europe 4 8 12 1.2 10 2 12 0.3%
2018 New hire Statistics
Salaried Hourly3 Total
Total6 171 562 733
   Female 52 79 131
   Male 119 482 601
   Age less than 30 25 220 245
   Age 30-50 91 269 360
   Age over 50 55 73 128
   United States 151 529 680
   Asia 1 0 1
   Canada 8 28 36
   Europe 11 5 16

 

2019 Employee Safety, Health and Environmental (SHE) Training
EfW facility peronnel
Average Training Hours
Environmental 12
Safety and Health 24
Corporate supply chain personnel
Combined Safety, Health and Environmental 16
covanta environmental solutions personnel
Safety, Health and Transportation 5.5
Environmental 4.5

3  Hourly = Technicians/ sales workers/ admin support workers/ craft workers/ operatives/ laborers/ helpers.
4  Safety and Health data is for U.S. and Canada only.
5  Contractor safety performance rates reflect the overall safety performance of the contractors employed by Covanta, not their specific performance on Covanta’s sites.
6 Reported genders may not add up to the totals due to undisclosed/non-binary gendered employees

 

Operations Data
2019 2018 2017 2016 2015
Facilities (owned, equity investments in, and/ or operated)
Number of EfW operations 44 45 43 43 46
  Total electrical generation capacity (MW) 1,791 1,714 1,574 1,557 1,541
  Total capacity (TPD) 65,172 63,294 58,938 58,249 59,288
Number of material processing facilities 20 20 19 15 12
Number of transfer stations 14 16 17 17 18
Number of landfills 4 4 4 4 4
Number of electronic waste recycling facilities 1 1 1 1 1
Waste Processed
Total waste processed (million tons) 22.2 21.2 19.5 20.4 21.6
  Municipal waste processed (thousand tons) 21,584 20,574 18,976 19,992 21,247
  Commercial and industrial waste (thousand tons) 1,638 1,571 1,475 1,357 1,288
  Waste recycled (thousand tons) 1,028 933.0 842.1 789.2 744.2
  Waste processed as EfW (million tons) 21,569 20.6 19.0 20.0 21.2
  Waste incinerated, no energy recovery (thousand tons) 0.035 0.056 0.068 0 0
  Waste sent to landfill7 (thousand tons) 174 140 139 97 109
  Total hazardous waste processed (thousand tons) 7.2 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0
  EfW ash sent to landfill (million tons) 5.0 4.8 4.4 4.7 4.6
Metals recycled (tons) 551,588 500,253 460,598 513,439 497,109
E-waste recycled (million lbs.)8 13.6 14.5 16.5 15.0 13.8
Energy Generation
Net electricity exported to the grid (million MW hours) 10.1 9.5 8.7 9.1 9.8
Steam exported (billion lbs.) 9.1 9.8 9.1 9.1 12.0
Total energy, million MWh electrical equivalent 10.8 10.3 9.5 9.9 10.8
RECs, value recognized ($M) 12.2 12.1 12.9 11.5 22.0
energy use
Total energy consumption (GJ)9 208,081,896 205,556,141 194,119,485 200,601,106 220,642,869
  Waste (GJ) 201,324,299 200,887,072 189,942,310 196,149,302 202,908,655
  Fossil fuel (GJ) 2,730,820 4,240,422 3,769,015 3,839,415 7,398,593
  Biogenic fuel (GJ) 12,233 22,031 18,466 16,842 10,032,220
Fossil fuel (% of total energy input) 1.3% 2.1% 1.9% 1.9% 3.4%
Fleet fuel consumption (GJ)10 169,998 135,349 149,735 – –
  Natural gas as fleet fuel (%) 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%
  Renewable fuel as fleet fuel (%) 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%

7  Not including ash from WTE facilities, reported separately.
8  Reflects total e-waste received for processing. Earlier reports attempted to estimate tons recycled, which impacted comparability between years.
9  Energy consumption total includes heat input from MSW and auxiliary fuel, as well as purchased electricity. Purchased electricity is not reflected in the breakdown below.
10 Represents fleet operations, insignificant prior to 2017, predominately associated with Covanta Environmental Solutions (CES).

 

Environmental Data
Monetary fines and compliance frequency 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015
EfW CEM fines $83,172 $101,138 $68,061 $49,200
EfW Stack test fines $- $- $22,600 $5,200
Other environmental fines, including biomass and other facilities $20,750 $4,400 $1,000 $177,800
Percent compliance–stack tests (EfW facilities) 100% 100% 100% 99.9% 99.9%
Percent compliance–CEMs (EfW facilities) 99.97% 99.95% 99.96% 99.95% 99.92%

 

Federal Standard 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015
Water
Total potable water use (Mgal.) – 6,014 6,020 5,648 5,903 5,919
Reclaimed water use (Mgal.) – 3,499 2,649 2,331 2,749 2,672
Saline/other non-potable water use (Mgal.) – 31,524 58,276 1,052 1,089 1,030
Alternative freshwater use as % of total freshwater use – 38.9% 32.9% 31.5% 33.8% 33.1%
Net EfW Life cycle GHG Benefit (thousand METRIC tonNEs CO2e reduced, net basis)
Equity-share basis – 10,900 11,100 9,997 10,600 11,100
Operational control basis – 18,800 18,200 16,860 17,800 18,800
GHG Emissions (thousand METRIC tonNEs CO2e) (equity share basis)
Total Scope 1, 2, and 3 GHG emissions – 4,488 4,481 4,142 4,548 4,865
Scope 1 – 4,345 4,329 3,997 4,402 4,744
Scope 2 – 22 23 25 28 8
Scope 3 – 122 129 120 118 112
Biogenic CO2 – 6,539 6,289 5,781 5,928 7,099
GHG emission intensity (metric tonnes CO2e/ $ revenue) – .0024 0.0025 0.0023 0.0026 0.0026
GHG emissions covered under an emissions-limiting regulation (%) – 2.4% 2.3% 1.6% 1.4% 2.2%
Air Emissions
Total landfill gas generated (MMBtu) – 63,217 58,236 68,687 76,234 60,863
 Percentage flared (%)11 – 78% 77% 84% 84% 84%
 Percentage used for energy (%) – 0% 0% 0% 0% 0%
Lead (μg/ dscm) 400 9.8 10.7 11.5 12.1 12.3
Cadmium (μg/ dscm) 35 1.2 1.2 1.2 1.2 1.3
Mercury (μg/ dscm) 50 2.0 2.3 1.8 2.7 2.5
Total dioxins and furans (ng/ dscm) 30 2.3 2.2 2.0 3.4 2.4
Particulate matter (mg/ dscm) 25 3.3 2.7 2.4 2.8 3.0
Hydrogen chloride (ppm) 29 6.2 7.0 7.0 6.8 6.7
Carbon monoxide (ppm) 100 30.5 32.0 30.3 29.1 29.3
Sulfur oxides (ppm) 29 8.4 7.5 7.0 7.5 8.0
Nitrogen oxides (ppm) 205 128.9 132.1 134.3 136.4 138.1

11  Percentage flared based on LFG collection efficiency methodology in U.S. EPA Mandatory Reporting Rule, equation HH-3.

 

Non-GAAP Reconciliation (Adjusted EBITDA and Free Cash Flow)12,13

($ in Millions)
2019 2018 2017 2016 2015
Net Income (Loss) Attributable to Covanta Holding Corporation $10 $152 $57 $(4) $68
Operating loss related to insurance subsidiaries – – – – –
Depreciation and amortization expense 221 218 215 207 198
Interest expense, net 143 145 147 138 134
Income tax expense (benefit) (7) (29) (191) 22 (84)
Impairment charges 2 86 2 20 43
Loss on extinguishment of debt – 15 84 – 2
(Gain) loss on sale of business and investments (49) (217) 6 (44) –
Property insurance recoveries (net) – (18) (2) – –
Net income (loss) attributable to noncontrolling interests in subsidiaries – – – – 1
Other adjustments
  Debt service billings in excess of revenue recognized – (1) 5 4 1
  Business development and transaction costs 2 3 5 2 3
  Severance and reorganization costs 13 5 1 3 4
  Capital type expenditures at service-fee operated facilities12 34 37 55 39 31
  Non-cash compensation expense 25 24 18 16 18
Adjustments to reflect Adjusted EBITDA from unconsolidated investments 25 23 – – –
  Other 9 14 6 7 9
Subtotal other adjustments 108 105 90 71 66
Total adjustments 418 305 351 414 360
Adjusted EBITDA 428 $457 $408 $410 $428
Cash paid for interest, net of capitalized interest (152) (136) (132) (135) (131)
Cash paid for taxes (5) (2) – (6) (2)
Equity in net income from unconsolidated investments (6) (6) (1) (4) (13)
Adjustments to reflect Adjusted EBITDA from unconsolidated investments (25) (23) – – –
Dividends from unconsolidated investments 9 13 2 2 5
Capital-type expenditures at service-fee operated facilities14 (34) (37) (55) (39) (31)
Working capital/ other 11 (28) 20 36 (30)
Cash flow provided by operating activities15 $226 $238 $242 $264 $226
Plus: Changes in restricted funds–operating16 20 4 $1 $22 $28
Plus: Cash flow provided by operating activities from insurance subsidiaries – – – – –
Less: Maintenance capital expenditures (106) (142) (111) (110) (102)
Free Cash Flow $140 $100 $132 $176 $152

12  For complete information, please refer to Covanta’s Form 10-K filings.
13  For the years ended December 31.
14  Adjustment for impact of adoption of FASB ASC 853 — Service Concession Arrangements
15  Prior years were revised to reflect adoption of FASB ASU 2016-18 Statement of Cash Flows (Topic 230) —Restricted Cash adopted 1/1/2018 and FASB 2016-09 Compensation — Stock Compensation (Topic 718): Improvements to Employee Share-Based Payment Accounting adopted 1/1/2017.
16  Adjustment for impact of adoption of FASB ASU 2016-18 Statement of Cash Flows (Topic 230) — Restricted Cash