Environmental Awards 2006

Our 16th annual Environmental Awards honorees make the world run better

They work smarter. They address challenges by forming partnerships. They save precious resources. This year’s crop of Environmental Award winners show the kind of leadership and commitment it takes to keep their world green.

Homes and open space too

Land use management is part of Bovenzi’s strategy

By Micky Baca

Even after preserving more than 500 acres of open land for future generations, Peter Bovenzi doesn’t consider himself a conservationist. The president of Leominster-based development company Bovenzi Inc. says he’s just a developer meeting a responsibility that’s part of the job — preserving open space while providing needed housing.

But few in the conservation or development realm would deem Bovenzi a typical developer. After all, he opted to set aside 75 percent of the land — 117 largely buildable acres – at one of his most recent Fitchburg housing developments, called Bridle Cross Estates, as permanent conservation space. And he worked for more than 10 years on a preservation effort in Worcester that finally contributed 80 permanently

protected acres, including Laurel Mountain, to a 120-acre conservation area now called Bovenzi Park. In that deal, Bovenzi carved out only about 10 percent of the original parcel for housing development.

"I don’t know of another developer who would leave that much land on the table," says Peter Angelini, a self-described conservation watchdog and executive director of the Leominster Land Trust, which Bovenzi actually spearheaded in 1998.

Allen Fletcher, president of the Greater Worcester Land Trust (and chair of Worcester Publishing Ltd., parent company of the Worcester Business Journal), agrees Bovenzi is one of a kind: "I just think he’s a very enlightened guy."

Preserving open space is something Bovenzi says he’s always done since starting out as a developer in 1982. It’s a primary reason the Worcester Business Journal chose him as one of our 2005 Business Leaders of the Year (see "Builders of the Future," January 24, 2005). "Every development I’ve done, I’ve tried to look at as part of the whole responsibility — to mitigate some of the impact," he says.

Bovenzi also has a penchant for inviting feedback from opponents of his developments and making concessions to their concerns – even, at times, offering to walk away from unwelcome projects. Apparently his unique approach hasn’t hampered his company’s success. Profitable for 23 years, Bovenzi Inc. employs 50 people, had $31 million in revenue in 2005 and is currently building more than 1,000 housing units in the Leominster area.

These latest two mitigation efforts, however, seemingly have upped the ante on even Bovenzi’s track record. Take the Laurel Mountain effort, for instance. Bovenzi says he bought the land at an FDIC auction in 1992 and could have built some 200 single-family homes there. But neighbors opposed its development, lawsuits loomed and the area was on the City of Worcester’s list of areas it wanted to preserve.

Fletcher recalls that it was Bovenzi that contacted the Greater Worcester Land Trust about preserving the Laurel Mountain site in what was Fletcher’s first introduction to Bovenzi. He was, Fletcher says, guarded at the prospect of this high-powered developer’s intentions. "I was looking to smell a rat." There was an element of enlightened self-interest in Bovenzi’s effort, Fletcher says. The property was a "hornets’ nest" and Bovenzi was looking to recover costs and get out. He asked the Land Trust to back his plan with planning officials. But Fletcher found that Bovenzi has "an abiding concern for conserving land" and was good at his word – and then some – in the Laurel Mountain project. In fact, in 1998, Bovenzi spearheaded the formation of the Leominster Land Trust, modeled after the Worcester trust, to help stem depletion of open space.

Bovenzi offers a wry summation of the Laurel Mountain effort, which, to his frustration, still drew opposition even with a 90 percent open-space component. His company, he says, built the roads, carried the expense on the land for 10 years and fought several lawsuits before selling off a mere 44 house lots to another builder. "A typical day in the development world," he says.

While he’s now pleased with the open space he established in Worcester, Bovenzi says that bit of responsible developing was not a "win-win" situation for Bovenzi Inc.

It is the Fitchburg project Bridle Cross Estates that the 47-year-old Leominster native is most proud of, despite the fact that it too was something of a hornets’ nest. Bovenzi bought the $4.1-million, 160-acre site, which borders Leominster, in chunks beginning in 2002. He was approached by the City of Fitchburg to bid on the first 44-acre parcel when the city decided to take bids on the land after opposition from Leominster nixed Fitchburg’s plans to develop an industrial park there. The land, rezoned for residential, bordered the Leominster’s Notown Reservoir.

Bovenzi urged Leominster to buy the land to protect the watershed but says it was unable to do so. He combined the parcel with three more that came on the market. Once again, he says, he could have put several hundred single-family homes on the site. But Bovenzi wanted to make sure the watershed was protected and to create an innovative project — something he notes is critical to his professional fulfillment. "If I can’t get excited about it, it’s like torture," he says. "I can’t work on it."

As the project progressed, it became the focus of some political conflict between Bovenzi and Leominster Mayor Dean Mazzarella, who raised concerns about the density of the project and claimed Bovenzi had vowed to give Leominster ownership of the open space. Bovenzi actually funded a review of his plans by Leominster to quell such concerns. His company is still working out who will control the open space, which Bovenzi is adamant about taking every precaution to preserve permanently.

Bovenzi Inc. also inadvertently

ran afoul of state Department of Environmental Protection regulations on the project when site workers cut trees in a small section of an intermittent stream. While the misstep is offset by the project’s extensive conservation achievement, Bovenzi owned up to the infraction and paid a $10,000 fine.

Showing off Bridle Cross Estates, Bovenzi jumps out of his SUV to dip a hand in a stream to highlight the clear running water. He points out an open field at the front of the development that will remain permanently preserved.

Angelini notes that developers almost never create open space along property frontage due to the value of such acreage. "What you end up doing in conservation is begging for table scraps," agrees Fletcher.

Thomas Starr, chairman of the Fitchburg Conservation Commission and a 25-year veteran on the board, says Bovenzi went above and beyond the norm in his conservation efforts at Bridle Cross, as he long has on other projects. Starr attributes Bovenzi’s altruism to having "a great deal of common sense. He’s going to be around for a while; he wants to do a good job." While the hiking trails and open space at Bridle Cross may add to its marketability, Bovenzi’s contribution is exceptional. "He’s one of the few developers — I can’t emphasize enough — who’s giving back."

Both Starr and Angelini say that Bovenzi could have made considerably more money if he had pursued a traditional subdivision at Bridle Cross.

With 193 townhouses now built, Bridle Cross Estates will ultimately contain 372 condominiums units clustered on some 40 acres of what Bovenzi says is the least valuable land on the site. While the density is more than a single-family layout, he says it wasn’t a matter of a trade off to up profits.

The project uses many low-impact development techniques, including narrowing roads that follow the natural contours of the site, minimized lawn space and a roof drainage system that follows the natural water flow patterns. Deed restrictions control the use of fertilizers and pesticides. Edward Himlan, executive director of the Mass. Watershed Coalition, says Bridle Cross is a "great example" of the low-impact development strategies his and other such groups in Central Mass. are working to promote. Bovenzi, he says, is a leader in innovative, conservation-oriented development whose projects "just get better and better and better." Himlan points out that the EPA recently honored Bovenzi’s effort with an award for protecting Leominster’s drinking water.

Bovenzi is pleased with the Bridle Cross Estates design because his company was able to protect the watershed, provide ample buffer areas around environmentally sensitive area and preserve the rural character of the area. He is also happy with the mix of residents, from many different incomes and professions, who have bought homes there. The project generated more than $1 million in Fitchburg tax revenue. And, Bovenzi says, it shows that such open-space preservation can be achieved without government subsidies and while still making a reasonable return. "We demonstrated it could be done. We’re making an acceptable return and we’re proud of the project."

When asked if other developers could donate 75 to 90 percent of building sites for open space and still make money, he says they could, depending on the project. It’s not a matter of math, but of a whole set of values beyond the numbers, he insists. If a developer can pay off the land costs and make money on building the homes, then there is room for setting aside land.

Some days, Bovenzi says, he can make the argument that the whole building site should be protected. But then, he says, if no housing is built, it will create more political and economic pressure against preservation. "We have a responsibility to protect open space," he says. "We also have the reality that housing is a necessity."

Despite the difficulties in creating open space in development projects, Bovenzi says he will do more projects like Bridle Cross Estates. While developers often complain that regulations are stacked against them, he says, the rules are actually "stacked against preservation. At the end of the day, the project gets done."

Micky Baca can be reached at mbaca@wbjournal.com

Devens goes from khaki to green

Public/private partnership benefits former army base

By christina p. o’neill

The aerial photos on the wall tell the story best. They show all of Devens’ 4,400 acres in shots from 1996, 2002 and 2004. You can practically see the former army base grow, with new industrial and residential buildings, plus a retail/hotel center. But the most dramatic visual change is the parade field, one of the bigger patches of land. In 1996, it’s brown. By 2004, it’s vivid emerald green. So are soccer fields and other land tracts. Not bad for a Superfund site.

The Devens parade field is only the most literal interpretation of the "green" program called EcoStar. Since its launch last year, EcoStar has already attracted state, federal and international attention as a role model of how sound ecological practices can save both resources and money. That’s why the Worcester Business Journal is recognizing the EcoStar program as an example of a successful public/private partnership.

In 2003, the Devens Enterprise Commission created the EcoStar Steering Committee to set environmental standards and launched it in 2005. "We’re building Devens day by day as we go," says Charles Duval, public works manager for the Devens Enterprise Center. "The thought line was, can you make life better by sharing resources?"

Peter Lowitt, director of the Devens Enterprise Commission, says the steering committee learned that businesses wanted an environmental program that gives recognition, first and foremost - a branding and logo program that would attract customers. Research has shown that when given a choice of two products priced roughly the same, but with one of them environmentally friendly, "people will buy the green one," he says.

The DEP Solid Waste program staked the EcoStar program with a $10,000 grant, and the Devens Enterprise Commission has underwritten program development for the past two and a half years at $15,000 annually. Intel Corp. provided additional funding. But this doesn’t begin to count the investment of person-hours into the effort.

One company’s trash is another company’s treasure

Today, 18 of the 80+ businesses at Devens are members of the EcoStar program, a voluntary effort. The ways in which each company participates varies by industry - they may adopt conservation practices for energy, water, or management practices for solid waste. With the latter, one company’s waste stream can be another company’s raw material source, saving both purchase and disposal costs. For example, Parker-Hannifin Corp.’s waste oil is used to heat a greenhouse, and bioprocessing waste from Novo Nordisk is used in landscaping to make the grass greener. A comprehensive solid waste management and recycling program is under development for Devens companies, residents and schools.

The greening of Devens

Not only are the 13 soccer fields at Devens greener - they get that way with far less water and fertilizing chemical use than traditional methods. The base’s Public Works Department, another enrollee in the EcoStar initiative, is eager to teach area landscapers about a methodology which has saved the base millions of gallons of water and tens of thousands of dollars.

The sandy terrain at Devens doesn’t naturally lend itself to sustaining grass. The ecological challenge for Duval and assistant public works manager Mike Cabral was to create topsoil without using topsoil. The solution: Biocompost, made up of decomposed wood chips, yard waste, gelatin and other biosolids that absorb and retain water. While the biocompost is only a quarter-inch thick, it creates a stress-resistant surface that’s friendly to grass and earthworms but not to weeds. "The guys tell me they can hear it growing," Cabral says.

Savings on water and chemicals have been dramatic. In 2001, before the program began, Devens used three million gallons of water and spent $75,000 for chemical fertilizer, and the turf was seeded three or four times a season. Now, water use is down to 600,000 gallons and spending on fertilizer was $28,000 in 2005. Another savings: while chemical fertilization makes grass grow too fast, biocompost creates a robust but slower-growing grass, requiring less staff time and energy to maintain.

Thinking outside the box

Ronald McGuigan bought into the EcoStar program from the beginning. He’s Southern Container’s general manager at the Devens facility, a role which made it easy for him to get other employees involved. The Devens facility, which employs 105, is one of nine packaging plants operated by the Hauppage, NY-based parent. At Devens, Southern Container’s EcoStar endeavors include simple things such as recycling cans, white paper, and waste cardboard. Broken pallets go back to the vendor for rebuilding.

"Every time something goes into the waste stream you have to pay to take it away," says McGuigan. All but 2 percent of Southern Container’s product ends up being recycled into more product. It recycles 100 percent of its waste and its customers recycle high amounts of theirs. It’s not just for the green, he says - it’s becoming competitive. "As a supplier, if we don’t help customers reduce waste to levels they need, someone else will," he says.

McGuigan has also brought two senior year WPI engineering students into the EcoStar program. Chris Bartlett and Craig Vanis have built their Major Qualifying Project on improving operations at Southern Container, Their suggestion that boilers be run continuously but on low-fire in off-peak times, rather than being shut down every weekend, has resulted in fuel savings because the boiler uses less gas on low fire.

Tangible benefits

Eglomise Designs Inc. makes commemorative items for colleges, sports teams and the children’s market. Its mirror clocks are sold through high-end retailers. Owner Martha Demerjian says the company gives high-quality paper stock to schools to use for art projects (she invites interested schools to contact her; see "Web resources"), and recycles as much of its incoming packing materials as possible. It uses scrap mirror instead of lead to weight the bottom of its commemorative clocks. Additionally, when the high quality wood frames it uses for the mirror clocks don’t pass inspection, they’re cut down and made into smaller sizes which are sold to the general public for a few dollars a piece one or two times a year.

Demerjian, who not only works at but lives at Devens, says that though she sees the enrollment process for EcoStar as a "chip by chip process to get people on board," she also thinks there’s tangible economic benefit to having a comprehensive environmental program in place. In addition to the cost savings of using recycled material instead of buying new, there’s the increase in value in property value at Devens that she feels reflects the high quality of the land use initiatives.

Getting the word out

The next step will be to get the word out to the surrounding communities about how they, too, can participate in the EcoStar process. Heidi Ricci, senior policy specialist at Massachusetts Audubon and a resident of Shirley, says she thinks Devens would have gotten more participation in a recent hazardous waste collection day from Shirley residents if it had publicized it more. However, "I’ve been impressed by what they’ve done so far," she says. "It’s not just green stamp of approval that gives the company good press. I think there can also be some real benefits."

McGuigan expresses a similar sentiment. "There are million-dollar speeches, but if no one asks you to give them, you never get paid," he says. "We need to be able to market better the value of the enterprise."

But the program has already contributed to positive change. Its initiatives, states Lowitt, "have reduced the mental distance between firms at Devens. Many of the firms now see themselves as part of a system of industries."

Devens is still listed as a Superfund site but with cleanup almost complete, will soon seek removal from the list. "EcoStar is a journey in the right direction," McGuigan says. "You can’t judge by speed. You have to judge by impact."

Christina P. O’Neill can be reached at coneill@wbjournal.com

Web resources:

• Devens Enterprise Center:

www.devenscenter.com

• Devens Enterprise Commission:

www.devensec.com

• Eglomise Designs Inc.:

www.eglomisedesigns.com

• Southern Container Corp.

www.southern-container.com

Reclaiming the Assabet

Water recycling system forms the centerpiece of water conservation efforts at Intel Massachusetts

By kenneth j. st. onge

Intel Corp. in Hudson is sparing several hundreds of millions of gallons of water from the Assabet River through a unique reclamation system to recycle the ultra-pure water used to rinse its silicon wafers.

The program has helped the Santa Clara, CA-based company reduce its water usage per wafer in Hudson by more than 40 percent, despite increasing its production nearly five-fold in as many years.

The use of that system has been the point of a spear in Intel’s broad attempt to push sustainable manufacturing, guide environmental practices and work with outside groups to ensure the health of the Assabet River and the growth of the company in Hudson.

"This is not a standard Intel system," says the plant’s water engineer, Mike Wood. "We took it upon ourselves to install it because of our concerns for maintaining good water quality. We adapted the reclamation system and added to it to make sure we follow the same philosophy and meet the manufacturing requirements for Intel."

The pioneering efforts at the Hudson plant have been so successful that the company is looking at the system as a potential addition for other plants by making it a standard system in its manufacturing process, says Tom Sullivan, environmental and health safety manager.

How it works

Silicon wafers by design are temperamental devices and require the technological equivalent of walking on eggshells to fabricate. Hair, dandruff or other particles can pose major threats to the six-week production process. The environment where they’re manufactured reflects this.

Workers inside the fabrication room wear anti-static white suits and breathe through hip mounted filters as they walk from "tool" to "tool" — the series of boxy, stainless steel devices that fabricate silicon wafers used to make chips. The only illumination comes from the tangerine-colored lights that, like their darkroom siblings, protect the precious material from developing incorrectly.

Waffled floors suck air from the room, continuously filtering it for tiny particles before blowing the air back in through the ceiling.

Ultra pure water reclamation works similarly. Water is first taken in from the town and through a complex process is filtered and purified from microscopic particles — any of which could damage the chips as acid is rinsed from them. Although many semiconductor manufacturers have similar systems to wash their wafers, Hudson’s is unique because it catches that rinsing water and sends it back to be re-filtered.

"Recycling the water we get from the factory makes sense because it’s cleaner than the water we get from the town," Wood says. "For me to bring it back up to ultra pure quality actually takes me less to do. And any water from the process that I can’t recover goes to secondary uses, like the scrubbers or cooling tower."

By the numbers, the system saves $100,000 a year, but the savings are less important, says Sullivan, than what reclamation allows them to do: Ramp up production with a fraction of the same amount of water per unit.

When the system went online in 2000, Intel had used 2352 gallons of water per production unit; by 2005 that had dropped to 740 gallons per unit.

"It lowers our impact on the environment, which has always been one of Intel’s goals," Wood says.

Impact extends beyond factory walls

Intel’s overall aim is to minimize not only water usage but also the environmental footprint the factory leaves, Sullivan says. Reaching that goal will help to grow the manufacturing capacity of the factory.

So the Hudson plant and its employees have also spearheaded initiatives outside the walls of the factory to foster stewardship by the community of all of its resources.

The big part of that initiative was the establishment of the $1.5 million Intel Assabet Watershed Fund in 2002, which has paid for ground water recharge projects in Hudson, Shrewsbury and Westboro.

For the last seven years, the company has hosted an annual SuAsCo conference, a forum to discuss the state of the watershed, which includes the Sudbury, Assabet and Concord rivers.

"The company is very concerned about water quality and we have been working with them a long time to find ways of addressing it here," says Julia Blatt, executive director of the Organization for the Assabet River. "When they realized they were going to use more water, they decided to do something responsible about it."

That pro-active approach to working with outside groups earned the company the respect of its watershed neighbors, Blatt says.

Building relations with Hudson

Without question Intel is the biggest user of town water and producer of wastewater, says Hudson Executive Assistant Paul Blazer. As such, the company and its main water supplier need a strong working relationship.

Reclamation is just a part of the efforts Intel has undertaken to ease the burden it could create for the town’s water. Another is the program started five years ago to remove phosphoric acid and other chemicals from wastewater that it sends to Hudson’s treatment plant.

In 2002 the company gave more than 1,000 water-saving kits to Hudson residents that included reduced flow showerheads and faucet adapters. The town’s water department helped distribute them.

Through the watershed fund, Intel invested $476,000 to build in Hudson a state-of -the storm water management system.

"Intel’s efforts have been a big benefit for the town," Blazer says. "There’s a common interest around this: For Intel it’s an environmentally sound practice that lowers their water costs. For the town, it helps us greatly with regulatory issues since we can only draw so much water. It’s been a good arrangement for everybody."

Another big part of what their leadership involves is outreach programs in Hudson, says Bob King, who oversees the plant’s environmental regulations programs.

One such effort was the construction of a boardwalk over a wetland at Forest Avenue School to allow students to study water discharge without jeopardizing the area.

"We work with the schools to show the community what we’re doing and how and why we’re doing it," King says. "We do electronic waste recycling programs and invite people in. We work with seniors. In Sept. we pitch in to do the Assabet River cleanup where Intel employees get in there and yank out tires and other things. It’s just returning something to the community."

Plant to set gold standard

The efforts at the plant will soon set the gold standard for similar chip-making facilities across the country: Intel Massachusetts has recently been accepted into the Environmental Protection Agency’s Performance Track program, says Intel’s Sullivan.

As part of that effort, the company will submit its performance goals in four key environmental management areas — water conservation, energy use, solid waste and chemical waste. For the next three years, the company will give annual updates against those goals to see how well they can be met.

It will also work with outside companies to showcase their environmental efforts and demonstrate more efficient and less wasteful production methods.

"But it’s really just a continuation of what we’ve been doing," Sullivan says.

Staff Writer Kenneth J. St. Onge can be reached at kstonge@wbjournal.com

Computers: Environmental enemy #1

Metech Group handles a deluge of electronic wastes

By jeffrey t. lavery

Worcester’s Metech Group is making a market out of what has become one of the nation’s biggest environmental worries: computer trash.

The company is offering its many Fortune 500 clients the opportunity to not only have computers, servers, copiers, and cell phones recycled safely, but also to have peace of mind. Any device recycled at Metech is guaranteed to stay out of landfills, and to be wiped clean of any data.

The potential market is enormous. Electronic equipment leads the way as the most rapidly growing waste problem in the world, says the Product Stewardship Institute, a Boston-based not-for-profit group. More than 60 million computers became obsolete in 2004 alone, as companies upgraded equipment and consumers took advantage of lower prices for consumer electronics.

Operations on both coasts

After starting in the early ‘70s with recycling precious metals like gold and silver, Metech expanded its focus in the early ‘80s to include electronics. Now, between its Worcester and Gilroy, CA plants, it recycles 64,000 lbs. of material daily.

The high-tech equipment that the company processes contains a variety of hazardous substances, including lead, lithium, cadmium and mercury. If a computer monitor cracks open in a landfill, these dangerous ingredients can poison the environment.

Metech Group offers its customers the assurance that their product will not only meet its demise, but in an environmentally sound way. Clients range from local law offices to the kingpins of data storage and telecom industries. These patrons do business through Metech with the understanding that when an independent shipping company picks up their computer system, it will soon be on a Metech truck to be destroyed either in Worcester or at its Gilroy facility. The Worcester site, off Route 146, primarily handles deliveries for customers east of the Mississippi.

The process goes like this: Workers stack the circuit boards, monitors, mice and cell phones on wooden pallets. Batteries are removed and properly disposed of, and if the customer has asked that a specific part be salvaged, such as a laser, Metech will remove it and ship the device back. The client, who is billed for the labor, will either re-use the part or stock it on their shelves as a replacement. Devices capable of storing data are cleansed of every shred of information, and are then either resold or destroyed.

During this process, Metech has established strict ground rules for protecting its workers. When products are destroyed, dust particles are released. The machines used by Metech incorporate dust collectors, which capture the particles and filter it out to a canister. Like everything at Metech, with the sole exception of cafeteria waste and some foam mixtures, even the canister itself is recycled, says Gardner. Further, employees undergo extensive training and wear protective gear such as $1,000 respirators. Air quality tests are done regularly, and employees undergo periodic blood tests to detect any traces of toxic substances.

"It’s the employees’ health first, before we worry about returns to shareholders," says John Silvestri, VP of operations.

Farther down the waste stream

While almost every shipment goes to an outside facility for further recycling, Metech enforces strict requirements for its downstream suppliers, each of which undergo an environmental audit by Andrew McManus, Metech’s environmental manager. "Our customers want to know that whoever we’re shipping parts to has also been audited and is in compliance," says Silvestri. "It’s a system of checks and balances on both ends."

That attitude provides assurances to customers, such as Certified Parts Warehouse, a Dover, NH retailer of spare parts to companies that provide service on IBM equipment. "It’s not just about finding who can do the job the cheapest, but also about who can allow you to send equipment out the back of your building, and not have to worry about it showing up someplace it shouldn’t," says Tom Manero, chief operating officer.

Metech’s doors are open to all its customers, a further testament to the company’s confidence in its work. Customers are free to audit Metech, typically sending company reps to watch their devices undergo data wiping and destruction. Metech also offers reports that list, in detail, the initial weight of customer shipments and the breakdown of all the substances found in the process.

Such practices form the essence of the company’s Accountable Resource Management system, a comprehensive program that defines all of its operations. The platform implies that Metech will hold itself, and its suppliers, responsible for providing safe harbor for its clients’ discarded materials. Metech’s background in precious metals helped further enhance its goal of pulling every last shred of valuable material out of recycled goods, reporting the value back to its customers, and recycling the rest.

"Because we were in precious metals, accountability was very important to us," says Jim Gardner, business development manager at Metech. "We’re going to guarantee the materials are recycled in an environmentally correct manner."

Tech junk powers booming market

All signs point to a steady demand for Metech’s services. A recent CIO Magazine Tech Poll found that information officers expect IT spending increases of 8.6 percent during the next 12 months. Those companies will be removing old equipment to install the latest processors and perform other upgrades.

"Manufacturers are building computers with fewer precious metals, and driving the costs of computers down," says Sam Advani, president of Metech. As a result, Metech’s volume will increase 100 to 200 percent over the next year.

The Product Stewardship Institute also points to a battle raging over whether or not manufacturers should incur the cost of recycling. Recent bills passed in Washington State and Maine require manufacturers to pay for recycling costs, or in Washington’s case, to have the option of buying the product back. Metech’s Advani sees more opportunities because of this type of legislation.

"You have to try and hit those high population centers," says Advani. "Right now would be a very smart time to set up a satellite recycling facility in Washington."

Jeffrey T. Lavery can be reached at jlavery@wbjournal.com

Genzyme gets wise about waste

Percentage of recycled materials has more than doubled since 2001 at its Framingham operations

By lawrence d. maloney

For 25 years, scientists at Genzyme have waged war on diseases ranging from cancer to rare genetic disorders. For 5 years, the company has fought another intensive battle, this one against the mountain of solid waste that piles up each day all across its operations.

As part of an overall corporate environmental campaign that ranges from "green buildings" to ridesharing to conservation projects, Genzyme’s growing Framingham operation in particular has built an impressive track record in the reduction and recycling of solid wastes.

The key: Partnering with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in its voluntary WasteWise program, which since 1994 has helped more than 1,300 companies, institutions, and other organizations curb the flood of solid materials that get dumped into landfills.

"Before we joined WasteWise in 2002, we were recycling less than 20 percent of waste from the four Framingham buildings initially selected for the program," notes Joan Boegel, associate director of Genzyme’s Environmental Affairs Department. "Last year, we recycled nearly 40 percent."

In the process, Genzyme Framingham won the EPA’s coveted WasteWise Partner of the Year Award in 2004, one of many environmental honors that the Massachusetts-based biotech company has earned since the start of the decade.

Taking stock of the problem

Although a secure shredding / recycling operation for confidential documents had been in place in Framingham for years, becoming a WasteWise partner created the structure for a much more comprehensive program. The first step, as Boegel explains it, was a thorough assessment of the waste stream from the four target buildings enrolled in the initial 3-year effort.

A summer intern, funded by

the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP), helped jump start that assessment process, which included walkthroughs of facilities and discussions with employees on the types of wastes generated, how those materials were being managed, and what could be done to do the job better. Boegel and her team went so far as to accompany the firm’s waste management vendor, E.L. Harvey, to their Westboro transfer station, where they analyzed wastes to see how much of it should have been recycled.

At the end of the assessment process, the Environmental Department got together with employees from the target buildings and formulated three-year goals for recycling, waste reduction, and buying recycled content, as required by WasteWise guidelines.

Vital to this effort was the establishment of the Framingham Recycling Center at the 74 New York Ave. warehousing facility. The operation, headed by Senior Environmental Associate Don Crookes, employs two full-time day porters who collect waste each day from participating buildings and truck it to the center. Among the materials collected: batteries, cardboard, cell phones, glass, paper, plastics, toner cartridges, and Tyvek lab coats, coverall and shoe covers. In addition, grass clippings and landscape wastes are sent to a composting facility.

At the recycling center, workers segregate the materials and use compactors on cardboard and plastics. E.L. Harvey takes the compacted materials to its transfer site for eventual delivery to processors. Another vendor, Shred It, routinely sends a truck to the recycling center to shred waste paper and then transport the material to processors. As for other collected materials, Genzyme sells Tyvek garments to an Indiana company that refurbishes them for non clean-room uses. Proceeds go to environmental causes in Massachusetts, such as the Chelsea Creek Restoration Partnership. Similarly, Framingham schools reap the benefits from used toner cartridges and cell phones that Genzyme donates to FundingFactory, which awards points for such donations that can be used to buy school equipment.

Genzyme also keeps careful track of all wastes collected. Porters record the source, type and quantity of the materials they have gathered on log sheets for entry into an electronic database, which shows both the type and weight of waste collected from each building. This data is essential both for the annual reports that Genzyme Framingham files each year to the EPA, as well as for evaluations sent to managers and employees of each participating building. "This can be a wakeup call to employees in buildings that may not being doing as well," notes Erin Emlock of Genzyme public affairs.

Clear signs of progress

At a time when Genzyme has recorded consistent annual gains in production and sales in becoming a $2.7 billion worldwide company, the WasteWise campaign has helped Genzyme Framingham trim solid wastes from 1,522,157 pounds in 2001 to 1,304,413 pounds in 2005.

In the first year that Genzyme Framingham submitted its report to the EPA, the company earned an Honorable Mention in WasteWise’s awards program. Then, in 2004, it won a WasteWise Partner of the Year Award.

Says Greg Cooper, an official with MassDEP’s Bureau of Waste Prevention: "We hope other industries will follow Genzyme’s lead and recognize that a clean environment translates into good business sense for Massachusetts."

Genzyme’s recycling center costs the firm more than $90,000 a year to operate, notes Rick Mattila, director of Environmental Affairs, though he adds that the company does realize savings from reduced hauling costs. Still, the company spends more than it is saving on this effort.

"It’s not a money-making operation," says Mattila, "and companies should realize that going in. But clearly it is the right thing to do."

Genzyme’s success with WasteWise in its first four buildings in Framingham has prompted the firm to expand the program for the 2006-2009 period to

the remaining eight buildings in Framingham, as well as to facilities in Cambridge, Allston and Westboro.

How far can the company go on recycling? "In theory, you would like to recycle 100 percent of your wastes," observes Mattila, "but much depends on whether or not there is a market for it."

Clearly, Genzyme has taken environmentalism to a whole new level. "In the early days, it was all about complying with government regulations," says Boegel. "Now, our efforts focus on voluntary programs and continuous improvement in every area of environmental performance—recycling, conservation, and green buildings."

Larry Maloney can be reached at lmaloney@wbjournal.com