Sustainability

Sustainability at GFL

Since our inception, in support of our vision, we have made significant investments in new technology and in the innovation of management and operating processes. These investments reflect our commitment to providing sustainable solutions that are also value-enhancing initiatives for our business. Examples of these investments include:

• Organics facilities that recycle organic waste to produce high-quality compost products, fertilizers, and other soil supplements. By providing a commercially viable environmental solution, communities are able to help reduce their GHG footprint by keeping organic waste out of landfills.
• Landfill gas to energy facilities that capture landfill gas and convert the captured gas into renewable natural gas (RNG) for use as electricity by households and commercial establishments or as a source of fuel for vehicles.
• A growing compressed natural gas (CNG) fleet that uses clean natural gas to power solid waste collection vehicles. CNG emits far less greenhouse gas and contaminants per kilometre (or mile) than traditional diesel fuel. GFL is developing plans to roll out more CNG vehicles across our fleet. Coupled with a natural gas fleet that partially operates on RNG, it is also moving us closer to a near-zero emissions collection fleet.
• Soil recycling facilities that remediate contaminated soils otherwise destined for landfill disposal for reuse in construction and development projects. The use of soil recycling facilities not only reduces construction costs by supporting beneficial reuse of soils but also reduces GHGs from trucking to more remote disposal locations.
• Larger scale material recovery facilities or MRFs that employ advanced sorting technologies and drive diversion from landfill, preserve virgin resources, reduce GHG emissions and contribute to a lower carbon future.
• Wood recycling facilities that efficiently recover and reprocess wood waste to produce a range of products and materials including garden mulch and biofuels.

Our employees and the communities we work in are also an important part of GFL’s sustainability strategy.  Programs and initiatives that implement our strategy in these areas include:

• the GFL Safe for Life Program, which focuses all employees and contractors on a path to achieving a best in industry safety record;
• the GFL EMS Framework, a corporate environmental management system (EMS) designed to consistently monitor and ensure environmental compliance and prompt proactive issues management across our operations;
• our Women in Waste program, a diversity strategy aimed at increasing the participation of women across GFL; and
• the Full Circle Project, one of GFL’s charitable giving programs, which allows GFL’s customers to identify charitable categories for our annual giving commitment and our employees to. build long term relationships with local charities within the customer identified categories.

More information on these programs and our 2020 sustainability results can be found in our 2020 Sustainability Update Report.

OUR FUTURE

The urgency of the environmental and social challenges facing us today is clear. GFL recognizes that we play a critical role in providing the environmental solutions needed to transition to a more circular and low-carbon future.

Over the next year, we will finalize our sustainability action plan and announce our full set of sustainability related commitments, goals and objectives in our 2021 Sustainability Report which will be released in 2022. The three key focus areas of our action plan will be to:

• Increase the avoided GHG emissions by our customers through sustainable solutions that we provide. This will be achieved by increasing the resource recovery and recycling solutions that we offer our customers, as well as the beneficial use of landfill gas.
• Reduce the direct GHG emissions from our operations. This will be achieved through higher gas capture rates at our landfills and continuing to pursue opportunities to increase the use of low-carbon fuels in our fleet.
• Increase the sustainable environmental innovations that come from within our business by continuing to identify and invest in our entrepreneurial and innovative culture.

We believe the passion and focus that we share with our employees, customers and communities to be Green for Life will return shared value for all our stakeholders.

2020 Sustainability Reports and Documents

Click here to download our 2020 Sustainability Update Report (English)

Click here to download our 2020 Sustainability Update Report (French)

Click here to download information about our Safe for Life Program

Click here to download information about the GFL EMS Framework