Company highlights progress on environmental
improvements, employee support, and the release of initial global
ESG targets focused on forward-looking impact
BANNOCKBURN, Ill., Nov. 21,
2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Stericycle, Inc. (Nasdaq:
SRCL), a leading provider of regulated medical waste management and
secure information destruction solutions, today 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 January 1, 2022, through
June 30, 2023, and outlines
forward-looking global ESG targets.
Exemplifying its core mission, Stericycle 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 DEI and
employee support initiatives, and execute on corporate governance
and ethics goals. Key actions taken during the reporting period
include:
- Setting a global environmental target to achieve net zero
greenhouse gas emissions for scope 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% by 2035.
- Driving 2.3 million fewer miles in North America during the first half of 2023
compared to the same time period in 2022, resulting in a reduction
of 3,438 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions through
routing efficiencies.
- Launching re-engineered one-gallon SafeDrop™ Sharps Mail Back
and one-gallon CsRx® Controlled Substance Wastage
containers in 2023, which use 40% less plastic compared to
Stericycle's prior containers, helping to reduce CO2 emissions
associated with the manufacturing process.
"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," said Cindy J. Miller,
president and chief executive officer at Stericycle. "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."
Additional highlights from the 2023 CSR report include:
Environmental Impact
Stericycle 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, whose goals include
identifying opportunities to promote sustainability by optimizing
operations and customer programs in the communities where
Stericycle operates. Additionally, Stericycle partnered with the
Arbor Day Foundation in 2022 and 2023 to plant over 120,000 trees
across the United States,
Canada and the United Kingdom. The company also completed
shoreline restoration projects in Florida and Georgia with the National Park Foundation in
2022 and announced upcoming project locations at Yosemite National Park and Cape Cod National
Seashore in 2023.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)
Stericycle
enhanced its culture of belonging with 65% of all U.S.-based
new hires in 2022 that identified with racial or ethnic minority
groups. The company also created two new Employee Resource Groups
(ERGs) to support young professionals and team members and their
family members who have disabilities, bringing the total number of
ERGs company-wide to seven. Additionally, Stericycle 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, the company was recognized by 50/50 Women on Boards™ as a
"3+" company for having three or more women on its corporate Board
of Directors. As of 2023, the average tenure of the company's Board
of Directors is approximately 4.7 years, with 60% gender, ethnic or
racial minority representation.
Corporate Governance and Ethics
Stericycle
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,"
said Mike Rozembajgier, vice
president of environmental, social and governance at Stericycle.
"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."
To learn more about Stericycle and its sustainability efforts,
please download the company's 2023 Corporate Social Responsibility
Report.
Safe Harbor Statement
This document may contain
forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When we use words such as
"believes", "expects", "anticipates", "estimates", "may", "plan",
"will", "goal", or similar expressions, we are making
forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are
prospective in nature and are not based on historical facts, but
rather on current expectations and projections of our management
about future events and are therefore subject to risks and
uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ
materially from the future results expressed or implied by the
forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause such
differences include, among others, SOP pricing volatility or
pricing volatility in other commodities, decreases in the volume of
regulated wastes or personal and confidential information collected
from customers, the ability to complete deployment of the remaining
phases of our ERP system, and disruptions resulting from deployment
of our ERP system, disruptions in our supply chain, disruptions in
or attacks on information technology systems, labor shortages, a
recession or economic disruption in the U.S. and other countries,
inflationary cost pressure in labor, supply chain, energy, and
other expenses, rising interest rates or a downgrade in our credit
rating resulting in an increase in interest expense, changing
market conditions in the healthcare industry, competition and
demand for services in the regulated waste and secure information
destruction industries, foreign exchange rate volatility in the
jurisdictions in which we operate, changes in governmental
regulation of the collection, transportation, treatment and
disposal of regulated waste or the proper handling and protection
of personal and confidential information, the level of government
enforcement of regulations governing regulated waste collection and
treatment or the proper handling and protection of personal and
confidential information, reliance on third parties to provide a
variety of services, our ability to realize expected financial
benefits from our continuous improvement efforts, charges related
to portfolio optimization or the failure of acquisitions or
divestitures to achieve the desired results, failure to consummate
transactions with respect to non-core businesses, the obligations
to service substantial indebtedness and comply with the covenants
and restrictions contained in our credit agreements and notes,
political, economic, and other risks related to our foreign
operations, pandemics and the resulting impact on the results of
operations, long-term remote work arrangements which may adversely
affect our business, supply chain disruptions, disruptions in
transportation services, restrictions on the ability of our team
members to travel, closures of our facilities or the facilities of
our customers and suppliers, changes in the volume of paper
processed by our secure information destruction business and the
revenue generated from the sale of SOP, weather and environmental
changes related to climate change, requirements of customers and
investors for net carbon zero emissions strategies, and the
introduction of regulations for greenhouse gases, which could
negatively affect our costs to operate, the outcome of pending,
future or settled litigation or investigations, including the
investigation by the DEA discussed in our SEC reports and
litigation or investigations with respect to the U.S. Foreign
Corrupt Practices Act and foreign anti-corruption laws, failure to
maintain an effective system of internal control over financial
reporting, as well as other factors described in our filings with
the SEC, including our 2022 Form 10-K and subsequent Quarterly
Reports on Form 10-Q. As a result, past financial performance
should not be considered a reliable indicator of future
performance, and investors should not use historical trends to
anticipate future results or trends. We disclaim any obligation to
update or revise any forward-looking or other statements contained
herein other than in accordance with legal and regulatory
obligations.
About Stericycle
Stericycle, Inc., is a U.S. based
business-to-business services company and leading provider of
compliance-based solutions that protects people and brands,
promotes health and well-being and safeguards the environment.
Stericycle serves customers in North
America and Europe with
solutions for regulated waste and compliance services and secure
information destruction. For more information about Stericycle,
please visit stericycle.com.
Media Contact:
Stericycle
Media Relations
Stericycle, Inc.
media@stericycle.com
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SOURCE Stericycle