Impact Stories
Cleanaway
About the company
We’re going to go out on a limb and guess that Australian waste management probably doesn’t set your pulse racing. But as the old saying loosely goes, ‘one person’s trash, is another person’s treasure’ - in the case of Cleanaway, an ASX-100 listed firm, we think we’ve invested in a treasure.
Cleanaway is one of Australia’s leading waste management firms, providing a wide range of waste removal services including hazardous regulated waste, organic waste, E-waste recycling, demolition waster and automotive spill kits. Across all these services they go about their business with an admirable commitment to sustainability.
Their impressive growth story has been driven both organically – in other words, via their own sales initiatives – and via acquisitions, buying similar companies that can complement, and enhance, their services.
Today, the company employs just under 8,000 people and enjoys the largest national network of “integrated collections and post-collections assets.” [1] In other words, they have a large amount of equipment, facilities, and specialist teams to collect, treat, and dispose of waste. For context, a ‘post-collection asset’ can refer to a landfill site or a transfer station.
Why Pathfinder invested
As an ethical investor, we were drawn to Cleanaway for several reasons. Their sustainable ways-of-working tally with our own vision of helping to fund a lasting transformation to a better world.
This is evidenced by their four ‘sustainability pillars’ [2] underpinning their operations:
Recovering resources: the firm wants to help foster a circular economy that protects land, rivers, and oceans.
Protecting the environment: they pay attention the 3 Rs in their day-to-day operations: reuse, recycle, and recovery.
Reducing emissions: they’re aiming to be a net-zero emitter
Working together: they value collaboration to build a more sustainable future.
In parallel, their ‘Blueprint 2030’ strategy statement offers a clear direction of travel and highlights three areas that Cleanaway hopes will drive future growth:
Sustainable customer solutions
Operational excellence
Strategic infrastructure growth
The company envisages driving growth “by integrating and extending our leading network of infrastructure assets to provide high-circularity, low-carbon solutions, seamless service and value for money for our customers.” [3]
What positive steps is this company taking?
Cleanaway is actively working to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 43%, and its methane outputs by 34%, by the year 2030. Both targets are based on a starting point for FY22 [4] which means they can track their progress and as investors, we can track their impact. It’s a good sign of transparency and accountability.
In parallel with its environmental goals, the company is committed to a strong people agenda that we like as an ethical investor that invests with respect for people in mind.
In their own words: “…working together with partners, suppliers and contractors that share our objectives of creating positive social ...impact and addressing modern slavery.” [5] Their efforts to address modern slavery are extensive and cover all aspects of their day-to-day operations . As an example, the company requires new suppliers to provide them with their own modern slavery compliance information. The suppliers are also ranked as high, medium or low-risk with regards to industry, geography and spend. For those suppliers rated as low or medium-risk, Cleanaway sends them a due diligence survey which assesses how they manage their own workers and human rights. Suppliers who fail to meet Cleanaway’s standards (according to their survey responses), are then subject to further assessment before a course of action is decided. In other words, the firm has multi-layered processes in place to ensure it is working with suppliers who respect their workers and treat them well. It has the ability to filter out potential business partners who don’t meet Cleanaway’s high standards. You can find out more in their ‘Building stronger foundations together' report.
Cleanaway acknowledges the importance of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), amongst which it prioritises the eight that it thinks it can contribute to. They include gender equality, decent work and economic growth, and affordable and clean energy.
Final thoughts
Cleanaway’s operations might not be as fashionable as the US-listed tech stocks that generate a lot of hype and headlines, but their work is valuable.
We appreciate their sustainability goals, and admire their commitment to helping foster cleaner, safer, and healthier communities.