Summary:
Fortune 500 companies are cutting costs and boosting sustainability by rethinking waste management. Google and Nike lead with circular economy strategies, reducing raw material use and turning waste into revenue. Waste audits, data-driven insights, and zero-waste design help unlock hidden savings and new efficiencies.
Waste management is an unavoidable expense for so many businesses.
There is simply no way for most companies to avoid generating waste and addressing the costs of management and removal, along with the price of meeting related regulatory requirements.
While waste generation and management can’t be avoided, they can be improved and optimized. In many cases, waste management cost savings can be realized.
Innovative strategies for companies to reduce waste, from in-depth waste audits to embracing the circular economy, can lead to major and positive change. Leading businesses are embracing changes that can not only offer significant cost savings but also increase regulatory compliance and improve sustainability.
Waste is far from the only factor when leaders of large organizations consider how to reduce costs in a company, but it can be an especially important one.
Waste management needs generally scale as operations grow, which means large businesses have both a challenge and an opportunity in this area. Direct cost pressures – disposal, regulatory compliance, logistics, labor – can quickly add up.
Other major influences – investor and shareholder pressure for leaner budgets and higher returns, regulatory needs, customer expectations – also impact the push for a more efficient approach to waste handling.
For large enterprises, even modest changes in how they approach waste management services can result in substantial savings. From optimizations in the manufacturing process to reduce waste generation to partnerships with service providers to more efficiently handle waste material, there are many options.
Google takes a comprehensive approach to increasing efficiency and improving sustainability in its operations. In terms of the circular economy specifically, the company has made major changes that address environmental impacts as well as manage raw material extraction.
By reusing, reselling, and recycling materials such as hardware components, Google reduces its landfill output. At the same time, the company makes more efficient use of important and finite resources needed for its own digital infrastructure and consumer products.
Key achievements noted by Google in its circular economy efforts as of 2024 include diverting 84% of operational waste from its global network of owned-and-operated data centers. The company has also harvested close to 9 million components from its hardware for reuse and resale.
This approach leads to reduced costs in terms of new raw material extraction and traditional waste disposal, as well as income from the resale of harvested components.
For leaders wondering how to reduce costs in a manufacturing company, Nike provides some enlightening examples. The global footwear and apparel brand has a comprehensive zero-waste initiative that addresses sustainability concerns and aids in cutting costs related to new materials and energy consumption.
This is another example of a circular economic strategy in action. Examples of key efforts include:
Waste audits reveal hidden costs, such as excessive or insufficient waste removal strategies that incur penalties or additional charges. These audits can also help businesses identify reusable waste, which can reduce raw material costs.
Reducing landfill output lowers waste management costs and can open up opportunities to repurpose what would otherwise be manufacturing waste. Resale of scrap and similar materials to other businesses offers a new income stream, changing a cost into profit.
Not every company can transform its waste products into new consumer goods, but nearly every business has the opportunity to find new efficiencies in waste management.
A fully managed approach to waste management can make finding and acting on these efficiencies simpler. By leveraging the experience, technology, and expertise of a fully managed commercial waste service provider, businesses can find opportunities through landfill diversion, service consolidation, project management support, and more.
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