Environment

Brandywine Sees Cost Savings by Going Green

6.24 million bags of trash diverted from landfills in less than 1 year
Mar 18, 2014 6:55 PM ET

Brandywine Sees Cost Savings by Going Green with WM

Brandywine Realty Trust is one of the largest full-service integrated real estate companies in the United States and has operations in eight states.

Client Challenge

Brandywine aimed to establish sustainable office practices and wanted to start a pilot recycling program in its Maryland and Virginia offices, which were diverting 20% of their waste at the time. Brandywine’s aim was to reach an 80% recycling goal at these properties.

WM Sustainability Plan

Brandywine approached Waste Management’s Sustainability Services to help achieve an 80% diversion goal for 29 office buildings in Maryland and Virginia. To help achieve this ambitious goal, WM Consultants worked directly with the Executive Vice President of Brandywine and created acustomized sustainability plan to achieve economic, social and environmental (also referred to as the “Triple Bottom Line”) success:

  • WM Consultants met and trained all Property Managers, janitorial staff, and tenants
  • All office trash cans were replaced with recycling bins
  • Equipment was changed to handle more single stream recycling efforts

The program exceeded diversion rate expectations within four months, and WM was asked byBrandywine to work on an additional 11 buildings.

Green Outcome

With a customized hands-on approach, WM helped Brandywine achieve a 77% landfill diversion rate in less than one year after implementation. For an average building with 600 workstations, WM helped divert 3,000 bags of trash per week. That is 6.24 million bags of trash diverted from landfills in one year from the 40 buildings in the program! As a direct result of implementing the WM program, Brandywine was also able to reduce monthly waste service costs up to 29% on an individual building basis, and 24% on average.

WM continues to work with Brandywine on its sustainability initiatives and hopes to exceed the 80% diversion goal by the end of the year.

Recycling Program Accomplishments:

• 77% landfill diversion rate

• 30% increase in cost savings

• Recycling average exceeded expectation’s within 4 months