Our Environmental Policy

Our Sustainable Journey

Our commitment to sustainability derives from our Chairman, Tom Leone. Tom believes responsible business practices are crucial to the long-term successes of our company, our employees, our business partners, and the communities in which we operate.

As an advocate of environmental responsibility, Tom recognized the benefits of sustainable best practices long before they were commonplace, and in 2006, he first planted the seeds that grew into Curbell standing as a recognized leader in Business Sustainability.

Small Steps Make a Big Difference

Focusing on our facilities in Western New York, we started by simply reducing the amount of solid waste we sent to the landfill. This required us to overcome numerous hurdles including low volumes, mixed-value waste, local infrastructure constraints, storage restrictions, transportation concerns, and internal cultural barriers. However, in just two years, thanks to key partnerships and highly engaged employees, we were diverting 85% – 90% of our waste. We achieved this feat through reducing our consumption, recycling as much as we could, and reusing items wherever possible. Furthermore, in 2008, we achieved the status of zero-landfill by utilizing waste-to-energy incineration services for all of our solid waste output produced at our two WNY facilities.

Since accomplishing zero landfill, we introduced single stream recycling in February of 2017, further reducing our solid waste output.  Moreover, we have been able to recycle the majority of our manufacturing waste produced by our Curbell Medical site and we continue our quest for Curbell to become zero waste. Our achievements in business sustainability did not stop at the reduction of solid waste. We recognized our next greatest environmental impact was energy consumption; therefore, we addressed this by increasing our two WNY location’s energy efficiency. We did so by switching both WNY locations to LED lights and introduced a new building management system.  

Today, these sustainability programs provide numerous benefits, including tangible dollar-and-cent savings to our bottom line. But more importantly, these immeasurable values continue to help make Curbell a sought-after employer, a business partner of choice, and a respected leader in all of the communities we serve.

Commitment

“Our policy and pledge are derived from the commitment set forth by our Chairman and our CEO. They have driven our sustainability efforts and set in motion a process of continual improvement. Every year, often based on employee suggestions, we target areas of our operations for waste reduction. We are proud of our many successes, and we will continue to fulfill our role as a leader in sustainable business practices within our industries and many of the communities in which we operate.”

— Mark Shriver
     Director, Safety & Environmental Affairs

Sustainable Activities, Awards, and Acknowledgments

In addition to achieving Zero Landfill status, Curbell has been recognized both locally and nationally for our sustainable efforts. Business First Magazine recognized Curbell with awards for Sustainability and General Manufacturing Excellence. In addition, Curbell has been recognized by the WNY Sustainable Business Roundtable with a Gold Level environmental award, we received our third consecutive WasteWise Award from the EPA and we received the prestigious Environmental Champion award, which is the highest recognition presented to the public by the EPA.