The financial impact of waste reduction and diversion is immense but can be very challenging to calculate. This session provides education on how to address this challenge and build a quantifiable business case for waste diversion and zero waste. It covers the financial impact of waste from multiple lenses, including purchasing and materials, material handling, disposal fees, and soft costs. The session deep dives into how to effectively estimate and calculate the financial impacts to build a strong business case for individual waste initiatives and an overall zero waste program. Waste has impact beyond financials, and the session covers how to incorporate critical factors such as material use, emissions, safety, employee impact, and community impact and how they strengthen a zero waste business case. It provides guidance on how zero waste is an investment for the future, how to showcase the financial impact for success, and how to link the impact to sustainability goals, such as carbon and circularity. This focuses on an important aspect of sustainability for existing buildings and facilities. It highlights LEEDv5 O+M as a starting point for materials management and TRUE as a roadmap to zero waste, showing how the rating systems can be leveraged for zero waste programs and support the business case. The session provides real world examples of zero waste business cases, with expertise provided by Common Ground Compost and Battery Park City Authority, local organizations that are investing in the future of New York City. Common Ground Compost provides perspectives as consultants and microhaulers, highlighting key strategies in their zero waste projects and breaking down misconceptions about the cost of waste diversion. Battery Park City Authority provides an important perspective of zero waste being an investment for the whole community and how they build business cases for their small- and large-scale actions.
