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Transwestern Commercial Services Honored for Environmental Leadership

Release Date: 08/07/2006
Contact Information: Mike Frankel, 215-814-2665 & Joan Schafer, 215-814-5143

PHILADELPHIA - In a ceremony today in Bethesda, Maryland, Transwestern Commercial Services became an official partner in a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency program to conserve natural resources.

Transwestern Commercial Services is the first facilities management company in Maryland to enroll in EPA"s voluntary National Partnership for Environmental Priorities program. The program challenges businesses and manufacturers to become more environmentally aware and to adopt a resource conservation ethic that results in less waste, more recycling, and more environmentally-sound products.

“There is a national initiative underway called the Resource Conservation Challenge, which encourages companies to find flexible, yet more protective ways to conserve our valuable resources through waste reduction and energy recovery activities that will improve public health and the environment,” said Maria Vickers, EPA"s Deputy Director of the Office of Solid Waste. “Today, Transwestern has stepped up to the plate by committing to develop a comprehensive mercury recycling program for all their facilities in the mid-Atlantic region.”

Transwestern is the first property management company in the country to actively support EPA by obtaining specific data on paper recycling and construction and demolition waste from the facilities they manage.

As a new waste minimization partner, Transwestern has been voluntarily finding new and better ways of making the buildings they manage ‘greener.’ Specifically, they will establish a policy to recycle 100 percent of fluorescent lamps, ballasts, and batteries used in each of their participating facilities.

The buildings that property and facility management companies manage generate many different kinds of waste including, spent fluorescent lamps and other mercury containing wastes. Mercury is a neurotoxin which can negatively impact on human health. Especially sensitive to the effects of mercury exposure are children and pregnant woman.

Other wastes routinely generated by these facilities are nickel cadmium batteries, paper and food waste, electronic or e-waste and construction and demolition waste from building construction and renovations. Therefore, there are many opportunities for this sector to support the Resource Conservation Challenge.

For more information on the Resource Conservation Challenge go to: https://www.epa.gov/rcc/.

For more information on the National Partnership for Environmental Priorities go to: https://www.epa.gov/epaoswer/hazwaste/minimize/partnership.htm.