Ford Motor Company’s Research and Engineering Center in Dearborn, Michigan, near Ford’s world headquarters, is now landfill free, helping the automaker achieve its goal to trim global waste-to-landfill by 40% per vehicle produced from 2011 to 2016.
The R&E Center sits on 720 acres of land and with more than 12,000 employees working out of 34 buildings including research labs, design studios, and a major data center, the campus is much like a small city. Paring waste streams will enable Ford to be more efficient while helping to improve the environment.
The nearly three-year effort to achieve landfill-free status started by identifying various waste streams and categorizing them from smallest to largest. Waste managers and environmental engineers then worked to find creative solutions to avoid using landfills while not incurring additional cost to manage the waste. The move also included recycling training for campus employees.
September 24, 2015
