We are Casella: Driven to serve and guided by core values

As long as people and businesses produce waste, there will be the need to dispose of it safely. The question is: “What’s the best way to accomplish that goal?”

Most would agree that having trash disposed of in the most efficient and environmentally responsible way benefits everyone and everything, including our planet. That is precisely what Casella has been doing since the company was founded in 1975 and as a partner with customers and communities in New Hampshire for more than 30 years.

We have spent most of our 47-year history thinking about sustainability through the things we do, the infrastructure we build, and the expertise we bring to challenges like recycling and resource management. Now, our understanding of sustainability is calling us to reach further, and to set our sights more broadly on creating a sustainable business culture — from our people to our operations — and to create more sustainable value, especially for our customers and also the communities in which we operate.

Responsible materials management has evolved over time and is built squarely upon four pillars, creating an integrated approach that we continue to effectively operate and improve today.

• Take it away. Since our founding, the most important job has been to keep neighborhoods clean and healthy by promptly and reliably removing waste.

• Divert waste and recover resources. Technology continues to enable additional waste diversion and energy recovery, such as recycling, which has played an important role in helping us manage scarce disposal capacity and renewing natural resources for 45 years.

• Fuel a circular economy and protect the planet. We all must play a part in helping to minimize waste, cycling resources back into supply chains, and dramatically cutting carbon emissions while creating real value for all stakeholders. A true circular economy exists at the intersection of economic and environmental sustainability, with shared value and risk throughout the supply chain.

• Ensure safe and secure disposal. Our role in managing waste at the bottom of the hierarchy has grown from closing local unlined and unsafe “dumps” and properly securing waste in engineered sanitary landfills, such as the one in Bethlehem, NH, to advancing energy recovery and finding a higher and better use for all material we manage at these facilities.

This progression includes building the first recycling facility in Vermont in 1977, the initiation of a food waste collection in 1999 that became Casella Organics two years later, and the reduction of the company’s carbon footprint by 45% in 2010, which led to the company earning the 2012 EPA Climate Leadership Award for Excellence in Greenhouse Gas Management.

Sustainability is a journey without a destination. It is constantly evolving, and we have found that for nearly 50 years the best way forward is together. Our understanding of sustainability is calling us to reach further, and to set our sights more broadly on creating a sustainable business culture — from our people to our operations — and create more sustainable value for our customers and the communities we serve. As a result, we’ve established 10 sustainability goals that appear later in this publication and are strategically aligned to help guide us over the next decade.

CASELLA WASTE SYSTEMS, INC.

JOHN W. CASELLA

CHAIRMAN & CEO