Stericycle releases 18-month sustainability report

Stericycle Inc., Bannockburn, Illinois, a leading provider of regulated medical waste management and secure information destruction solutions, has published its 2023 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report, which highlights the company’s progress in prioritizing safety and sustainability while advancing its strategic environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives. The report includes updates on data and initiatives from Jan. 1, 2022, through June 30 of this year and outlines forward-looking global ESG targets.

Stericycle says it continues to focus on the health and well-being of the communities it serves by investing time and resources in initiatives that help reduce environmental impact, implement operational enhancements, further diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and employee support initiatives and execute on corporate governance and ethics goals. The company reports that a number of key actions were taken during the reporting period:

• setting a global environmental target to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) for Scopes 1 and 2 in the United Kingdom by 2045 and globally by 2050, as well as setting a social target to improve the company’s total recordable incident rate by 30 percent by 2035;
• driving 2.3 million fewer miles in North America during the first half of 2023 compared with the same time period in 2022, resulting in a reduction of 3,438 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions through routing efficiencies;
• launching redesigned 1-gallon SafeDrop Sharps Mail Back and one-gallon CsRx Controlled Substance Wastage containers in 2023, which use 40 percent less plastic compared with Stericycle’s prior containers, helping to reduce CO2 emissions associated with the manufacturing process; and
• investing in electrical vehicles this year, which could further reduce its CO2 emissions.

“Every day, our team members live out our mission of protecting health and well-being in a safe, responsible and sustainable way, and I’m very proud of our organization’s commitment to set our first global ESG targets that will help guide our journey over the coming years,” Stericycle President and CEO Cindy J. Miller says. “We will continue to be strategic in our approach to corporate social responsibility by prioritizing data-based solutions, accuracy and transparency to make a real and valuable impact on the world.”

Environmental impact

Stericycle says it treated 1.5 billion pounds of medical waste and shredded and recycled 1 billion pounds of paper globally in addition to safely disposing of approximately 2.7 million pounds of expired medications. The company also launched an internal Green Team in 2023 to identify opportunities to promote sustainability by optimizing operations and customer programs in the communities where Stericycle operates. Stericycle also partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation in 2022 and 2023 to plant more than 120,000 trees across the United States, Canada and the U.K. The company completed shoreline restoration projects in Florida and Georgia with the National Park Foundation in 2022 and announced upcoming projects at Yosemite National Park and the Cape Cod National Seashore in 2023.

Diversity, equity and inclusion

Stericycle says it has enhanced its culture of belonging. In 2022, 65 percent of all U.S.-based new hires identified with racial or ethnic minority groups. The company also created two new employee resource groups (ERGs) to support young professionals, team members and their family members who have disabilities, bringing Stericycle’s total number of ERGs to seven. The company expanded its strategic partnerships with diverse community stakeholders, including Equality Illinois, Hire Our Heroes, Women In Trucking, Hispanic Alliance for Career Enhancement (HACE) and American Corporate Partners (ACP). In addition, Stericycle was recognized by 50/50 Women on Boards as a “3+” company for having three or more women on its board of directors. As of 2023, the average tenure of the company’s board is approximately 4.7 years, with 60 percent gender, ethnic or racial minority representation.

Corporate governance and ethics

Stericycle says it strengthened its corporate governance practices by launching its global ESG Steering Committee, a cross-functional group of global leaders who collaborate to ensure effective alignment and accountability for ESG strategic initiatives and work closely with the company’s environmental justice (EJ) task force to better understand the communities where Stericycle operates.

“Our ESG strategy is closely tied to our promise to protect what matters, and this report highlights the progress we have made and the targets we are focused on achieving to keep this commitment,” Stericycle Vice President of Environmental, Social and Governance Mike Rozembajgier says. “We are early in our ESG journey but believe that, with a disciplined approach, we will be able to affect significant, positive change while delivering meaningful shareholder value.”

The company reports that 70 percent of its facilities are not situated in low-income communities and 74 percent of them are not located in communities with people of color.

As a result of an EJ audit of its operations by an independent law firm, Stericycle has enacted new policies and procedures and committed to learning from the communities where it operates how it can adjust operations to address EJ concerns. Looking ahead, EJ will be factored into expansion plans.

“EJ was integrated into our siting and zoning process to inform and guide our business decisions if an area we may be seeking to rebuild or expand is located in an overburdened community,” the company states in its sustainability report.

To learn more about Stericycle and its sustainability efforts, download the company’s 2023 Corporate Social Responsibility Report.