Greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change are under growing scrutiny from regulators and investors alike. Finding the most precise way to measure them remains a complex effort.
Waste companies have long been comfortable dealing with regulations about tracking and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but heightened attention may make that more complex in the years ahead.
The pressure to address contributions to climate change is starting to come from new sources. Growing numbers of customers and investors are insisting that all industries — waste included — record greenhouse gas emissions and shrink their carbon footprints. In a relatively short period, considering how a company may be exacerbating the effects of climate change morphed from a peripheral concern for investors to a mainstream inquiry.
“I continue to be impressed by how quickly this conversation has changed, and how rapidly it’s evolved in the last few years,” said Hana Vizcarra, a staff attorney at Harvard Law School’s Environmental & Energy Law Program.
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In January, for example, the chief of the investment group BlackRock, which has holdings in several major waste companies, wrote a letter to CEOs surging them to bring their net emissions to zero by 2050. In many cases that objective would be more aggressive than the climate targets set by the industry’s largest companies. The request comes with force, as the firm has begun to hold companies accountable for their climate-related choices.
The financial group’s announcement happened within a week of the inauguration of U.S. President Joe Biden, who leads an administration that has promised stronger action on climate change and emissions reduction measures – including a focus on methane. Any actions making good on the promises could potentially include actions affecting landfills. All together, the facilities accounted for 17.3% of human-caused methane emissions in the U.S. in 2019, and clocked in as the third largest source of the gas, according to the latest emission data released by the U.S. EPA.
Even if advocates for emission transparency and reduction aren’t talking specifically about landfills yet, those are the facilities waste companies will have to address most directly to meaningfully lower emissions.
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