Achieve ESG Goals Through Smarter Waste Management

This understanding is at the core of what we do at Recycle Track Systems, Inc. (RTS). We knew that the trash and recycling industry needed a vast overhaul, so in 2015, we began reshaping the waste collection industry to become more sustainable and environmentally conscious. We give our clients data and visibility into their waste and production habits so they can dramatically improve their practices. Our services help organizations understand their direct impact on the climate, so they can perform better and offer more transparency to their stakeholders.

Our Impact Report summarizes the goals we have set aligned to the ESG framework and where we are in terms of progress. This is a fluid document as more goals are established and we look forward to sharing the evolution with you.

Committing to our Sustainability Goals

Balancing profit and doing good in the world is something that we continuously aim to do at RTS. We meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance to balance profit and purpose. 

We believe change starts with individuals then spreads into businesses. The approach we follow offers the possibility for everyone to be a changemaker, engaging people around us to accelerate the sustainability movement. 

We choose to provide environmentally responsible services to our clients, while helping employers, employees, individuals, and local communities learn more about effective materials management. 

We know our world is truly interconnected, and even the smallest change can make a big difference as we move towards a more sustainable planet.

Sustainability is incorporated into all aspects of our business from the services offered to the vendors we partner with to make the least impact on the environment. Our work aligns with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals which are a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.

Environmental Justice

RTS places Environmental Justice (EJ) considerations at the forefront of our business decisions and our business culture. We view environmental justice as inextricably linked to other fights for social justice, in the US and worldwide.

For far too long, the most historically marginalized groups in the United States and around the world have borne the brunt of human-caused environmental degradation. These negative impacts have affected those most powerless to oppose them — and most vulnerable to their effects.

We are keenly focused on EJ issues connected to our industry, such as location and safety standards of municipal solid waste (MSW) transfer stations, landfills, and recycling process centers– known as Material Recovery Facilities or MRFs. Prior to meaningful regulation of these facilities, their negative air and water impacts disproportionately affected people of color, women, and children.

We must fight for sustainable policy, innovation, and solutions with equitably shared environmental costs and benefits for all people.

We support policies that require companies in our industry to implement proven scientific methods for eliminating or limiting potential harm to residents. Our municipal practice advocates for community involvement and approval over facility placement and operation – through open dialogue and inclusive democracy.

We engage with our city partners reimagining their waste management through an EJ lens. In New York City, we support Commercial Waste Zoning, which will drastically reduce greenhouse gas and other pollutant emissions from service trucks, especially in poorer areas of the city.

Commitment to diversity, inclusion and interaction with local communities.

Labor + Supply Chain Rights

While RTS’s founding goals are environmental, as a mission-driven company we view our corporate and social responsibilities as extending well beyond this realm. RTS is proud to fully endorse the United Nations’ pathbreaking Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and its “Protect, Respect, Remedy” framework for the rights of workers in supply chains.

As the Guiding Principles note, it is RTS’s responsibility to take all reasonable measures to respect and actively protect the human and labor rights of its employees, and, if ever applicable, to fairly investigate allegations of abuses and remedy them if found to be credible.

We live in a world of increasingly globalized and complex corporate supply chains. The waste, recycling, technology, and sustainability industries are not immune to these trends. In selecting our partners, RTS prioritizes those businesses whose values and commitment to social and environmental responsibility match our own.

RTS prioritizes those businesses whose values and commitment to social and environmental responsibility match our own.

Diversity

The human capital management team at RTS is tasked with assessing our core values and providing a more holistic view of the employee experience at the organization. A core piece of our values project is centered around diversity, equity, and inclusion. We understand the value of diversity of gender, race, and other immutable factors, as well as diversity of experience and bringing employees from different industries to the organization. We view diversity not as a “check-the-box” exercise, but as a business advantage. We believe we will continue to out-perform competitors precisely because of our diversity, and so we are committed to this value not only as an ethical principle but as a business imperative.

We consider our diverse and inclusive staff to be our biggest strength and most valuable asset.

We presently partner with staffing organizations which have a core mission centered around placing diverse candidates at roles with scaling startup organizations, such as RTS. These firms currently assist with hiring needs across all levels, including all open executive leadership roles. Moreover, we have recently implemented a quarterly diversity snapshot, which includes our gender, ethnicity, veteran hiring and highlighting other forms of employee diversity and representation. These metrics are reviewed by our board of directors.

Commitment to responsible business practices.

Choosing the Right Partners + Vendors

As part of our commitment to managing waste for our clients, we align ourselves with vendors that also share our values and are managing waste responsibly. Our hauler partners’ trucks are outfitted with RTS proprietary technology so that our team can track the flow of waste from the point of generation to the end destination facility. This technology and hauler relationship allows our team to validate that materials are being delivered to the appropriate facility for processing.

Our team also examines our recycling facilities so we know exactly how our clients’ materials will be handled once it leaves their hands. We extend that transparency at the facility level with our clients by having them join us for tours of the facilities. Our electronic waste vendors maintain certifications like e-Steward, which upholds a safe and ethical standard for e-waste recycling, as well as R2 Certifications, which ensures environmental and social responsibility of electronic recycling facilities.

RTS back office and financial support has added new levels of capability for Save That Stuff. With focused managers in many areas they are able to analyze and report continual improvement ideas to customers, and their systems for gathering data increases opportunity and transparency for our business.

— Erik Levy, Founder + President, Save That Stuff

Policy Guidelines

RTS’s alignment with local, state, federal, and international laws, regulations, and norms is a top priority for the company. To ensure that this would always be the case, early in its lifecycle RTS created a team dedicated specifically to policy and government-related work. Thus, policy issues – like sustainability issues – are not viewed as mere matters of compliance or branding, but as actual responsibilities.

Our Policy team constantly engages with governments from Townships to the City Government of New York – as it is implementing its new Commercial Waste Zone (CWZ) policy – to the United Nations (and its Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and Sustainability Development Goal-focused departments).

Corporate Governance

RTS is organized as a benefit corporation under Article 17 of New York State’s Business Corporation Law (“BCL”). That means that RTS has elected to legally commit to having a purpose of creating a material positive impact on society and the environment, taken as a whole, assessed against a third-party standard, from its business and operations. Further, in keeping its status as a benefit corporation under the BCL, RTS has adopted provisions in its corporate bylaws providing that, in discharging the duties of their respective positions, each of RTS’ directors and officers shall consider the effect of any action upon:

(i) the ability for the corporation to accomplish its general public benefit purpose;

(ii) the shareholders of the corporation;

(iii) the employees and workforce of the corporation and its subsidiaries and suppliers;

(iv) the interests of customers as beneficiaries of the general public benefit purpose of the corporation;

(v) community and societal considerations, including those of any community in which offices or facilities of the corporation or its subsidiaries or suppliers are located;

(vi) the local and global environment; and

(vii) the short-term and long-term interests of the corporation, including benefits that may accrue to the corporation from its long-term plans and the possibility that these interests may be best served by the continued independence of the corporation.

RTS has elected to legally commit to having a purpose of creating a material positive impact on society and the environment, taken as a whole, assessed against a third-party standard, from its business and operations.

Board of Directors Composition

We are privileged to have the experience and acumen from our board members to guide our values and further our mission. The breadth of their experience, which is grounded in the principles of the ESG framework, have provided a solid foundation for our progress.

We value their approach to our relationship with the environment in which we serve, and as individuals contributing to the greater whole – continually pushing us to go beyond our limits in a responsible, but impactful manner.

Our board includes diverse entrepreneurs, business leaders, and self-starters inspiring us with unique perspectives. This, combined with a structure of monthly and quarterly touch points, allows us to evaluate our ethical practices routinely.