Best Buy’s quest to achieve “zero-waste” status throughout its distribution facilities has evolved over the years, to the point of encompassing multiple activities, teams of dedicated employees, and formal certification of its efforts.

Tim Dunn has served as Best Buy’s head of environmental sustainability for more than 15 years. And the consumer electronics and home appliance retailer has had a waste-diversion program in place for over a decade. “Recycling equipment in our stores and supply chain facilities just makes sense for the business and the environment,” he says.

But washing waste of out of the system is an effort that has grown in ambition and scope. A formal program was started internally in 2020, focusing first on Best Buy’s reverse-logistics center in Los Angeles. Within a year, the retailer had set a target of certifying all of its distribution facilities as zero-waste sites by 2025.

Confirmation of the company’s efforts comes from the Total Resource Use and Efficiency (TRUE) program for zero-waste certification. It was established by Green Business Certification Inc., the same organization that developed the LEED rating system for identifying “green” buildings.

TRUE certification means that each location diverts more than 90% of its waste from landfills. To date, more than 20 Best Buy supply chain facilities, representing 69% of the total, have earned that designation, according to Dunn.

At Best Buy, TRUE serves as a template for how to do multi-site certifications. To that end, the retailer has partnered with the rating organization for the past three years.

TRUE certification is based on metrics such as rate of waste diversion, with regular audits to ensure that the business in question is continually improving its performance. Dunn says Best Buy relies on third-party auditors, which then submit the data to TRUE for evaluation. “In all practical senses,” he adds, “it’s a certification that we have to line up with.”

The TRUE rating is divided into a series of achievement levels, beginning with “certified,” then elevating to “silver,” “gold” and “platinum,” each tier earning the business additional points. Categories that are individually graded include redesign, reduce, reuse, compost, recycle, zero-waste reporting, diversion, zero-waste purchasing, leadership training, zero-waste analysis, upstream management, hazardous waste prevention, closed-loop system and innovation.

For Best Buy, defining the problem at the outset was crucial. What, for that matter, constitutes “waste”? Dunn says Best Buy digs through all of its garbage — including food, cardboard, Styrofoam, broken pallets and damaged equipment — to determine what can go into recycling streams. The effort even extends to trash cans in the employee break room, with materials sorted into appropriate color-coded bins.

Plastics can be a controversial issue when it comes to waste reduction; just because a given material sports one of those embossed numbers inside a triangle doesn’t mean it’s suitable for recycling. Best Buy sorts according to resin type, then works with a plastics recycler to enable a “clean stream.” At the same time, Dunn says, the company is transitioning away from the use of certain plastics altogether, in favor of compostable materials.

Best Buy also has an extensive recycling program for electronics. “We are one of the nation’s largest collectors of e-waste,” Dunn asserts. “We like to say we make recycling as convenient as buying [for consumers].”

Getting to zero waste in a complex consumer-products supply chain doesn’t happen overnight. Dunn says it took about two years to qualify the first distribution facility, although the process accelerated at subsequent locations. Now, “it takes about a year from the time a facility comes onto the map for a zero-waste program, from point of identification to certification.”

Key to the effort is the assigning of “green teams,” usually consisting of between three and five employees at each supply chain facility. They are recruited into the program, often by field leaders, then are trained in zero-waste techniques. (Service is voluntary, and doesn’t involve additional compensation.) Green team members promote best practices on a monthly basis at the distribution centers, including suggesting the adoption of materials that are easy to recycle or compostable.

Best Buy continues to pursue its goal of certifying all facilities by the end of 2025, aiming for a waste-diversion rate of 90% or better across the board. “It comes back to the effort of how to identify ways to reduce total materials,” Dunn says, adding that the retailer plans “quite a few initiatives in the next few years for how we reuse materials, and keep them out of landfills.”