Cox Enterprises hits its zero waste goal

Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises, a media company with numerous other holdings, has been certified by Pennsylvania-based GreenCircle Certified LLC as achieving a 92 percent discarded materials landfill diversion rate.

While that is not strictly a zero-waste outcome, that rate meets the definition of a zero-waste business by Zero Waste USA, the California-based not-for-profit group.

In 2014, Cox announced its goal to send zero waste to landfill by 2024. The company now says it is the first United States-based, enterprisewide service company to be verified by GreenCircle Certified as achieving the 92 percent waste diversion rate.

“When our Chairman Emeritus Jim Kennedy set us on the path to zero waste, he did so because he knew it was a way we could positively impact our communities and our world,” Cox Enterprises CEO Alex Taylor says.

“Since then, virtually everyone in our company has contributed in one way or another. Reaching this goal required us to make major shifts in how we do things, but we knew it was important for our planet and future generations. I want to thank everyone who helped — it all mattered, and it's making a big difference.”

The zero waste achievement of 92 percent diversion is nearly triple a national average of 32 percent, according to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimate from 2018.

Since 2013, Cox has kept more than 375,000 tons of discarded materials out of landfills, the equivalent of 10 million reams of copy paper, organic waste equal to 60 million apples and the same amount of metal used to build more than 4,000 vehicles, the company says.

Its zero-waste efforts provided a net benefit of $340 million to the business, accomplished by working closely with recyclers and sustainability vendors to find "new, innovative ways to eliminate waste and contribute to the circular economy.”

“Achieving zero waste wouldn’t have been possible without the help of partners who laid the foundation for our recycling operations or served as ‘boots on the ground,’ delivering the benefits of sustainable actions directly to communities and residents in need,” says Meredith Lindvall, senior director of sustainability, recycling and waste diversion at Cox. “Their partnership helped us make the necessary changes to lower our collective impact.”

With a $1.9 million investment in not-for-profit partners tied to recycling infrastructure creation, Cox is a founding member of The Inclusion Fund of The Recycling Partnership, Falls Church, Virginia.

The company also worked with the Keep Georgia Beautiful Foundation, Live Thrive’s CHaRM facility and Chattahoochee River Keepers, all based in Georgia. Cox says other allies included Atlanta-based Goodr and Kentucky-based Rubicon Technologies.

Cox now has 71 locations in its corporate network that can be considered zero-waste facilities.

"The dedication of Cox employees has been impressive,” Lindvall says. “They have supported multiple changes big and small, ranging from opting out of to-go containers in cafes to composting food and recycling nontraditional waste. We've come a long way since this project began in 2013 and we will continue to support every location in efforts to divert as much waste as possible.”