SUSTAINABILITY REPORT
SUSTAINABILITY REPORT
  • Protecting Tomorrow
    • A Message from Our CEO
    • About Covanta
  • Materials Management
    • Covanta and the Circular Economy
    • Zero Waste to Landfill
    • Recovering Energy from Waste
    • Sustainable Waste Solutions
    • Recovering Materials
    • Continuous Improvement
  • Environment
    • Reducing Greenhouse Gases
    • Minimizing Air Emissions
    • Improving Our Performance
    • Optimizing Water Use
  • Community Relations
    • Engaging With Our Communities
    • Community Partnership Programs
    • Covanta Employees Making a Difference
  • Safety and Health
    • Ensuring Safety in the Workplace
    • Promoting a Safety Culture
    • Delivering on Safety Performance
  • Workforce Engagement
    • Building a Great Place to Work
    • Investing in Training and Development
    • Promoting Diversity and Inclusion
Focus on stakeholders
Employees Community Clients Investors
  • About this Report
    • Materiality Analysis
    • Covanta’s Value Chain
    • Listening to Our Stakeholders
    • Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
  • Progress on Goals
  • Performance tables
  • GRI Index
  • Contact
  • PDF Downloads

Performance tables

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  • Progress on Goals
  • Performance tables
  • GRI Index
Economic Data1
(data for Covanta Holding Corp., including all global operations, in millions USD)1,2 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013
Operating Revenue
Waste and service revenue 1,231 1,187 1,104 1,032 1,008
Energy revenue 334 370 421 460 431
Recycled metals revenue 82 61 61 93 73
Other operating revenue  105 81 59 97 118
Total operating revenue 1,752 1,699 1,645 1,682 1,630
operating expense
Total operating expense 1,651 1,590 1,536 1,528 1,395
income tax
Income tax expense (benefit) (191) 22 (84) 15 43
net income
Net income (loss) attributable to Covanta Holding Corporation 57 (4) 68 (2) (9)
Non-GAAP Financial Measures
Adjusted EBITDA 408 410 428 474 494
Free Cash Flow 132 176 152 244 255
dividends
Annualized Cash Dividends per Share $1.00  $1.00 $1.00 $0.86 $0.66
Community Investment
Total donations 2.0 1.9 1.7 2.2 2.1

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

Workforce Data
2017 2016 2015 2014 2013
Employees
Total employees 3,719 3,582 3,539 3,224 3,269
Salaried 1,193 1,157 1,142 1,033 1,048
Hourly4 2,526 2,425 2,397 2,191 2,221
Global Head count
North America 3,649 3,537 3,511 3,202 3,244
United States 3,520 3,454 3,431 3,122 3,193
Canada 129 83 80 80 51
Asia 14 15 21 21 21
Europe 56 30 7 1 4
Safety & Health5
DART (Days Away/ Restricted/ Transfer Rate) 0.77 0.81 0.73 0.72 0.65
TCIR (Total Case Incident Rate) 1.06 1.00 1.26 1.02 0.95
Number of sites in OSHA VPP program 35 37 38 41 43
Contractor DART6 0.90 0.89 0.70 0.78 0.88
Contractor TCIR6 1.40 1.48 1.22 1.31 1.49
Diversity
Women (% of total workforce) 11% 10% 10% 9% 10%
Minorities (% of total workforce) 26% 26% 25% 28% 27%

 

2017 Employee Data
Total Female Male
Employees 3,719 410 3,309
   Part-Time 35 11 24
   Full-Time 3,684 399 3,285
Collective bargaining
Employees 325
Percent of Workforce 8.7%
Employee geography
Americas 3,520 370 3,150
   Mid-Atlantic 531 20 511
   West Central 372 22 350
   Northeast 523 30 493
   NY/ NJ 462 28 434
   South 517 19 498
   Covanta Field Services 116 1 115
   Corporate Headquarters 593 179 414
   Covanta Environmental Solutions 450 90 360
Asia 14 6 8
Canada 85 11 74
Europe 56 4 52

 

2017 Diversity by EEO Category
race/ ethnic composition of our employees
American Indian Black White Hispanic Asian Pacific Islander Two or more races Total
Executives 0 4 62 2 3 0 0 71
Managers 0 19 439 24 36 0 7 525
Professionals/ administrative 2 31 430 40 33 2 7 545
Hourly4 10 299 1,643 243 105 54 38 2,392
age composition of our employees
Executives Managers Professionals/ administrative Hourly4 Total
Under 30 years old 0 8 48 433 489
30-50 years old 14 261 276 1,215 1,766
Over 50 years old 61 293 247 863 1,464
Total 75 562 571 2,511 3,719
Gender composition of our employees
Female 12 109  99 190 410
Male 63 453  472 2,321 3,309
Total 75 562 571 2,511 3,719

 

2017 Governance Body Diversity
gender composition within our board of directors
Female 3
Male 8
Age composition of our board of directors
Under 30 years old 0
30-50 years old 0
Over 50 years old 11

 

2017 Employee Statistics
2017 Employee Turnover Statistics
Salaried Hourly Total Average Service (years) # of Voluntary Separations # of Involuntary Separations Total # of Separations Total Rate (%)
Total 128 363 491 6 350 141 491 13%
   Female 18 22 40 6 29 11 40 10%
   Male 110 341 451 6 321 130 451 14%
   Age less than 30 7 78 85 2 68 17 85 17%
   Age 30-50 65 197 262 5 191 71 262 15%
   Age over 50 56 88 144 13 91 53 144 10%
   United States 119 340 459 7 321 138 459 13%
   Asia 3 0 3 7 3 0 3 21%
   Canada 2 16 18 1 17 1 18 14%
   Europe 4 7 11 0 9 2 11 20%
2017 New hire Statistics
Salaried Hourly Total
Total 145 546 691
   Female 38 66 104
   Male 107 480 587
   Age less than 30 21 240 261
   Age 30-50 84 246 330
   Age over 50 40 60 100
   United States 124 461 585
   Asia 2 0 2
   Canada 13 54 67
   Europe 6 31 37

 

2017 Employee Human Resource Training7
average training hours
Salaried 9-13
Hourly4 2-6

 

2017 Employee Safety and Health Training
Average TRAINING hours
Field Employees 24

4  Hourly = Technicians/ sales workers/ admin support workers/ craft workers/ operatives/ laborers/ helpers.

5  Safety & Health data is for U.S. and Canada only.

6  Contractor safety performance rates reflect the overall safety performance of the contractors employed by Covanta, not their specific performance on Covanta’s sites.

7  For employees receiving training. Upper end of range reflects those who participated in diversity & inclusion (D&I) training during the year alongside other training programs.

 

Operations Data
2017 2016 2015 2014 2013
Facilities (owned, equity investments in, and/ or operated)
Number of EfW operations 43 43 46 46 44
  Total capacity (MW) 1,574 1,557 1,541 1,587 1,522
  Total capacity (TPD) 58,938 58,249 59,288 60,908 57,418
Number of material processing facilities 19 15 12 1 –
Number of transfer stations 17 17 18 18 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) 19.0 20.0 21.2 20.7 20.3
Commercial & industrial waste (thousand tons) 1,509 1,416 1,292 881 812
Metals recovery1 (thousand tons) 569 513 496 489 441
E-waste recycled (million lbs.) 15.9 16.0 13.2 13.6 6.2
Energy Generation
Net electricity exported to the grid (million MW hours) 8.7 9.1 9.8 9.8 9.5
Steam exported (billion lbs.) 9.1 9.1 12 12.6 11
RECs, value recognized ($M) 12.9 11.5 22 22 17
Operational Investments
R&D Expenses (Capital expenditures associated with technology development, in millions USD) (1) (2) (3) (3) (5)

1  Metals recovery reported for U.S. and Canadian operations only.

 

Environmental Data
Monetary fines and compliance frequency 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013
EfW CEM fines $101,693 $84,854 $43,224 $42,850 $61,946
EfW Stack test fines $- $29,612 $- $- $-
Other environmental fines, including biomass & other facilities $3,900 $1,000 $177,800 $22,686 $67,500
Percent compliance–stack tests (EfW facilities) 100.00% 99.87% 99.93% 100.00% 100.00%
Percent compliance–CEMs (EfW facilities) 99.96% 99.95% 99.92% 99.95% 99.94%

 

Federal Standard 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013
Water1
Total water use (Mgal.) – 9,031 9,741 9,622 9.247 8,832
Reclaimed water use (Mgal.) – 2,331 2,749 2,672 1,892 1,626
Reclaimed water use as % of total – 25.8% 28.2% 27.8% 20.5% 18.4%
Net EfW Life cycle GHG Benefit (thousand tons CO2e reduced, net basis)
Equity-share basis – 9,997 10,600 11,100 11,300 11,070
Operational control basis – 16,860 17,800 18,800 18,200 18,000
GHG Emissions (thousand tons CO2e) (equity share basis)
Total Scope 1, 2, and 3 GHG emissions – 4,142 4,548 4,865 5,066 4,757
Scope 1 – 3,997 4,402 4,744 4,912 4,615
Scope 2 – 25 28 8 23 19
Scope 3 – 120 118 112 131 124
Biogenic CO2 – 5,781 5,928 7,099 8,052 7,660
GHG emission intensity (tons CO2e/ $ revenue) – 0.0023 0.0026 0.0026 0.0028 0.0030
Air Emissions
Lead (μg/ dscm) 400 11.5 12.1 12.3 11.2 12.1
Cadmium (μg/ dscm) 35 1.2 1.2 1.3 1.3 1.1
Mercury (μg/ dscm) 50 1.8 2.7 2.5 5.9 2.5
Total dioxins & furans (ng/ dscm) 30 2.0 3.4 2.4 2.4 2.2
Particulate matter (mg/ dscm) 25 2.4 2.8 3.0 2.6 2.7
Hydrogen chloride (ppm) 29 7.0 6.8 6.7 7.2 6.9
Carbon monoxide (ppm) 100 29.4 29.1 29.3 29.3 30.9
Sulfur oxides (ppm) 29 7.2 7.5 8.0 8.2 8.4
Nitrogen oxides (ppm) 205 135.8 136.4 138.1 140.4 143.0

1  Water consumption reported for U.S. and Canadian operations only.

 

 

 

Non-GAAP Reconciliation (Adjusted EBITDA & Free Cash Flow–Continuing Operations)1,2

($ in Millions)
2017 2016 2015 2014 2013
Net Income (Loss) from Continuing Operations Attributable to Covanta Holding Corporation $57 $(4) $68 $(2) $43
Operating loss related to insurance subsidiaries – – – 2 2
Depreciation and amortization expense 215 207 198 211 209
Interest expense, net 147 138 134 147 159
Income tax (benefit) expense (191) 22 (84) 15 43
Gain related to trust distribution – – – – (4)
Impairment charges 2 20 43 64 15
Defined benefit pension plan settlement gain – – – – (6)
Loss on extinguishment of debt 84 – 2 2 1
Loss (gain) on asset sales 6 (44) – – –
Property insurance recoveries, net (2) – – – –
Net income (loss) attributable to noncontrolling interests in subsidiaries – – 1 1 (1)
Other adjustments:
  Debt service billings in excess of revenue recognized 5 4 1 2 9
  Business development and transaction costs 5 2 3 – –
  Severance and reorganization costs 1 3 4 9 2
  Capital-type expenditures at service-fee operated facilities1 55 39 31 – –
  Non-cash compensation expense 18 16 18 17 15
  Other 6 7 9 6 7
Subtotal other adjustments 90 71 66 34 33
Total adjustments 351 414 360 476 451
Adjusted EBITDA $408 $410 $428 $474 $494
Cash paid for interest, net of capitalized interest (132) (135) (131) (119) (122)
Cash paid for taxes – (6) (2) (11) (11)
Equity in net income from unconsolidated investments (1) (4) (13) (10) (6)
Dividends from unconsolidated investments 2 2 5 11 7
Capital-type expenditures at service-fee operated facilities3 (55) (39) (31) – –
Working capital/ other 20 36 (30) (12) (48)
Cash flow provided by operating activities from continuing operations4 $242 $264 $226 $333 $314
Plus: Changes in restricted funds–operating5 $1 $22 $28 $11 $20
Plus: Cash flow provided by operating activities from insurance subsidiaries – – – 1 8
Less: Maintenance capital expenditures (111) (110) (102) (101) (87)
Free Cash Flow $132 $176 $152 $244 $255

1  For complete information, please refer to Covanta’s Form 10-K filings.
2  For the years ended December 31.
3  Adjustment for impact of adoption of FASB ASC 853 – Service Concession Arrangements
4  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.
5  Adjustment for impact of adoption of FASB ASU 2016-18 Statement of Cash Flows (Topic 230) — Restricted Cash