Progress on Goals

To advance our company’s mission and sustainability performance, and to implement our vision for more sustainable waste management, we have set goals and targets around our material issues. We regularly review our goals and our progress, including with our senior leadership team and board, to ensure that they continue to reflect our mission and our business and drive us to improve our performance.

SAFETY AND HEALTH

Goal

Performance Indicators

Progress in 2021

Achieve world-class safety and health performance through disciplined continuous improvement, safety leadership at all levels, full employee engagement and an integrated, interdependent world-class safety culture.

Business Linkage

Organizations with an integrated and interdependent safety culture are more likely to achieve and sustain injury-free workplaces and demonstrate outstanding safety management and performance.
Safety leadership, teamwork, peer support, trust, open and honest communication, employee engagement at all levels and organizational pride are hallmarks of integrated and interdependent safety cultures.
While incident rates and other safety metrics ultimately demonstrate performance, they are lagging indicators and ineffective at tracking the efficacy of cultural development.

Develop and assess the efficacy of safety culture performance metrics. Implement, track and report these metrics to demonstrate measurable improvements in Covanta’s safety culture through the end of 2020.

In Progress: We have been focused on monitoring leading indicators such as reporting and following up on reported near misses and potential hazards, as well as behavioral safety observations. In 2021, the company rolled out a formal safety perception survey to our MPFs to gauge overall safety culture. The overall perception of health and safety at Covanta was very positive. Safety committees were asked to investigate the topics for which operators and supervisors had opposing perceptions, and to identify ways to improve scores in areas like off the job safety and the reporting of near miss incidents.

Complete a review of our root cause analysis and corrective action process and implement changes as necessary by the end of 2016 to ensure the process adequately evaluates and resolves issues as identified.

Achieved: Plant sites continue to complete comprehensive root cause analyses for injuries and potential serious near misses. A focus is put on identifying material, human, as well as system causal factors. Findings are shared across the company during monthly review meetings.

Move Beyond Zero by focusing on the three P’s: Participation, Performance, and Potential opportunities for improvement. Develop and implement focused behavioral safety observation process to capture and report data by 2020.

Achieved: To date, employees have completed over 73,000 observations in ProcessMap. Observations have been focused on hand safety, Line of Fire hazards, Lockout/Tagout procedures, and heat stress prevention. We have begun reporting 3-P metrics with a focus on improving participation and the identification of potential opportunities for improvement.

MATERIALS MANAGEMENT

Goal

Performance Indicators

Progress in 2021

Advance sustainable waste management and life cycle greenhouse gas reductions through increased landfill diversion, greater operational efficiency, and expansion of waste reduction, reuse, and recycling.

Business Linkage

Reducing landfill management of ash from energy recovery by finding new beneficial reuse opportunities, and by recovering more usable materials (g., metals, aggregate) prior to disposal, reduces costs and generates new revenue streams. By increasing the amount of waste avoided, recycled or reused for our clients, we expand our service offerings and help meet our clients’ needs, thereby generating additional sources of revenue and strengthening—and lengthening—client relationships.

Climate Change Linkage

More sustainable waste and materials management reduces GHG emissions. Our most significant contributions to reducing GHG emissions are increasing landfill diversion rates and moving up the waste hierarchy, both for our own and our clients’ operations.

By 2020, increase the amount of waste managed through energy recovery and other sustainable waste management operations by 10% relative to a 2014 baseline.

New Indicator:
(Sustainability Linked Financing)
Cumulative growth of 2.5% of sustainably processed waste by year-end 2025, compared to a 2020 baseline.

In Progress: In 2021, we sustainably processed 21.6 million tons of waste, a 0.2% decrease from the 2020 baseline.

Increase total wastes avoided, recycled, or reused under our management by 100% by 2022 relative to a 2014 baseline of 548,000 tons.

New Indicator:
(Sustainability Linked Financing)
Cumulative growth of 25% by year-end 2025 of waste recycled / reused measured, compared to a 2020 baseline.

In Progress: In 2021, we avoided, recycled or reused 1.1 million tons of waste. We have achieved 24% of our target.

Achieve additional energy efficiency improvements at our energy recovery facilities of 60,000 MWh in total by the end of 2020.

In Progress: 54,000 MWh of additional energy efficiency improvements, 90% of our goal of 60,000 MWh, have been completed to date.

COMMUNITY RELATIONS

Goal

Performance Indicators

Progress in 2021

Expand the number and quality of our community outreach programs.

Business Linkage Covanta has been investing in community outreach programs for more than two decades. Our comprehensive approach to outreach improves relationships; business opportunities, including renewal of existing contracts and favorable permitting terms; and operational standing.

Update the Community Affairs engagement plan using a new facility-centered process to better integrate community outreach into business management and planning.

Achieved: All facilities have continued to utilize the new company-wide process to identify community stakeholders and plan an effective facility-specific Outreach Plan. The revised Playbook will be released in Q1 2022.

At each WTE facility, perform a minimum of eight community interactions per year, beginning in 2016, that deliver demonstrative impact to our Protecting Tomorrow programs, local community programs and sustainable solid waste management education.

In Progress: Given the nature of the revised approach to focus on stakeholder interactions, facilities were able to better plan community interactions. In 2021, 29 facilities met this goal, with 28 of them exceeding the minimum requirement. Four facilities had fewer interactions (7 or less) due to residual challenges from the pandemic.

WORKFORCE ENGAGEMENT

Goal

Performance Indicators

Progress in 2021

Create and maintain an inclusive, respectful and equitable environment that leverages the unique talents, perspectives and experiences of our diverse workforce to help retain top talent and meet and exceed our business objectives and the expectations of our diverse client communities, business partners and shareholders.

Business Linkage

Our employees drive our business and our success. By attracting the best talent; hiring and retaining a diverse workforce about age, race, gender, ethnicity and other dimensions of diversity; and promoting the inclusion of all employees and their ideas, we foster innovation and continuous improvement. In turn, we can increase revenue and reduce costs. A low attrition rate, especially for top performers, means that we can preserve institutional knowledge and reduce recruiting and training costs.

New Indicator:

Expand diversity, equity and inclusion training beyond awareness, focusing on mitigating unconscious bias. Complete roll-out of training to targeted groups by end of 2022.

Achieved:

The top 72 leaders at Covanta were invited to half-day trainings in Unconscious Bias mitigation and Behavioral Interview techniques. First line leaders training also updated to include Unconscious Bias awareness. Values Diversity competency was introduced and rolled out to all employees along with guidance on expected behaviors by performance rating and management level.

2022 goals include development and deployment of DEI Toolkit for field leaders. Toolkit to include access to training and recommended practices to foster culture of inclusion in the field.

Revised Indicator: Reorient mentoring program in 2020 to focus on both management level participants in High Potential Development program as well as on field-based individual performers. Develop appropriate metrics by 2021 to ensure diversity of the program, including with respect to age, gender, and ethnicity/race.

Achieved: The High Potential Development program that was launched in 2020 wrapped in mid-2021. 38% of the participants were women or People of Color. All HIPO’s were assigned mentors and completed 360 reviews and individual development plans.

Planning was completed to launch an Operations High Potential Development program in 2022 focused on fostering diverse talent for Facility leadership roles.

Revised Indicator: Continue to increase the share of diverse gender and race/ethnicity representation at all levels of the organization, and more specifically in leadership positions. By 2030, we strive to have similar representation in our professional and leadership positions as the communities in which we operate and serve, defined by today’s census as 50% women and 37% people of color, inclusive of 13% black employees.

Achieved: Since we began tracking our DEI metrics in professional and leadership positions from 2017 to 2021, we have increased the number of women and POC in those categories from 18% to 21% for both groups. We now review these metrics twice a year with the ELT and present regular updates to the Board. We continue to activate initiatives as part of our 10-year DEI Strategic Plan in order to reach our longer-term goals to mirror demographics in the US population. In 2021, we joined the HBCU Partnership Challenge, which will facilitate access to a diverse talent tool at our nation’s HBCUs.

ENVIRONMENT

Goal

Performance Indicators

Progress in 2021

Waste-to-energy (WTE) facilities are subject to stringent regulatory standards. We are committed to 100% compliance with all discharge limits (air, water, etc.) at all facilities while also maintaining emissions at levels consistent with past performance, which are well below existing standards.

Business Linkage

We view full and continual compliance with all applicable laws, regulations and permits to be a basic condition of responsible operation.
One hundred percent compliance with discharge limits avoids fines and other monetary penalties.
By demonstrating and continuing full compliance with applicable regulations, we build our reputation and demonstrate that Covanta is a responsible member of the community.

100% compliance with stack test standards and continuous emission monitor (CEM) reporting limits at all WTE facilities.

In Progress: 100% compliance with stack test standards and 99.98% compliance with CEM limits at our WTE facilities in 2021.

100% compliance with discharge limits at Covanta Environmental Solutions (CES) and other new facilities within one year of acquisition.

In Progress: 99.95% compliance with POTW wastewater discharge limits at MPF facilities.

Maintain WTE emissions performance gains achieved.

Achieved: All WTE emissions performance gains were maintained as of the end of 2021.

Set a science-based target and implementation plan by 2022 in line with the level of decarbonization required to keep global temperature increase below 2°C compared to pre-industrial temperatures.

In Progress: While WTE is a critical element of reducing GHG emissions from the waste management sector today, reaching the levels of GHG reductions that we need by mid-century to stem the largest impacts of climate change will require innovative thinking.

Implement five projects by 2023 to further reduce emissions in EJ communities.

In Progress: Installation of Low NOx technology is complete for all units at 2 facilities in EJ communities. All units will be operational by the end of 2022. Odor Control system installed at Milwaukee material processing facility, located in an EJ community.

Please visit our 2022 Sustainability Updatefor additional information about our progress.

Progress on Goals

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