Advancing land, water, and waste stewardship

Accelerating progress: A phased approach to land, water, and waste management

Addressing the complex challenges of land, water, and waste management is important to executing a sustainable and equitable energy transition. A tri-phased scaling strategy can be considered, each building upon the previous one to create a roadmap for sustainable land, water, and waste stewardship.

Phase 1: Increasing efficiency within the current project or asset footprint

This phase focuses on efficient land use, water optimization, and safe waste management at an individual level.

Key focus areas should include:

• Maximizing land efficiency: Repurposing retired coal plants, brownfield sites, closed landfills, mine land, and other underutilized areas into solar farms or battery storage facilities can help reduce pressure on land development. For instance, Vistra Corp. plans to convert retired or to-be-retired plant sites into up to 300 MW of solar-generation facilities and up to 150 MW of battery-energy storage systems across central and southern Illinois.⁷ Additionally, more than 10,000 closed and inactive landfills are present in the United States, which could host an estimated 63 GW of solar capacity, while only 500 MW has been installed.⁸ Solar rooftops and carports also offer the potential for energy integration. Cities can optimize land use by implementing solar panels atop buildings and parking lots or on closed landfill sites. Finally, innovations in spatial mapping technology can help identify ideal project sites, minimizing the impact on ecosystems and maximizing land efficiency.
• Optimizing water consumption: While renewable energy technologies such as solar and wind are significantly less water-intensive than fossil fuel power plants,⁹ thermal and nuclear power plants can conserve precious freshwater resources by shifting to brackish water, greywater, or recycled water for cooling applications. Further, integrating smart sensors and IoT technologies into water-intensive energy production processes can allow companies to pinpoint leaks, optimize usage, and reduce waste. Upgrading to closed-cycle cooling and water-efficient technologies could also significantly reduce water consumption. For instance, Southern Company cut water withdrawal by 90% from 2007 to 2022 by adopting closed-cycle cooling and lower-water-intensive technologies.¹⁰ Further, decentralized and modular wastewater treatment solutions offer innovative ways to boost recycling efficiency and replenish existing water supply.
• Managing waste efficiently and safely: The energy transition is expected to generate new waste streams, including spent batteries (which could potentially reach 150 million units by 2035¹¹) and retired solar panels. Effective waste management systems often require collaboration across the supply chain, consumer education, and streamlined collection and processing for higher recycling rates. Technological advancements like automation improve sorting efficiency and safety, as demonstrated by WM’s work with artificial intelligence (AI) in recycling, which reduced miscategorized waste by 20%.¹² Additionally, extracting valuable materials from end-of-life energy assets, often with the help of robotics to improve worker safety, can help maximize their value and close the loop. Finally, preventive strategies such as designing products with new materials that enhance circularity or composting are also gaining ground. For instance, carbon-fiber turbine blades’ energy and carbon payback period is 5% to 13% lower than those of market incumbents.¹³ And using digital tools for predictive maintenance can significantly reduce waste generation.

Phase two: Integrating solutions for a synergistic approach

This phase advances integrated sustainability, maximizing synergies across land, water, energy, and waste; quantifying challenges; and driving cost-effective strategies for sustainable economic growth.

Key focus areas should include:

• Advancing systemic innovation with integrated resource efficiency solutions: Prioritizing data collection and analysis could help quantify resource usage and environmental impacts for better decision-making. Advanced monitoring technologies and real-time analytics can help inform decision-making, enabling the scaling of successful models and unlocking of new economic opportunities. For instance, advances in manufacturing have enabled the average wind turbine rotor diameter in the United States to reach around 130 meters in 2022, which contributed to a 350% increase in the average capacity between 1998 and 2022. Consequently, higher-capacity turbines have reduced the need for additional turbines to generate the same amount of energy output, thereby also reducing land usage.¹⁴
• Creating waste-to-value systems: Waste-to-energy technologies drive resource efficiency by transforming waste streams into valuable resources. This shift helps foster industrial symbiosis—waste from one process becomes a resource for another, generating economic benefits by reducing disposal costs, lowering environmental impact, and creating a more sustainable energy supply. For instance, repurposing biomass ash for construction, converting used cooking oil into biofuel, and generating carbon-negative gas from food waste reduces waste and creates new energy sources. In some cases, offtake contracts for the output, combined with tax incentives, can help offset project costs. Projects like the United Arab Emirates’ waste-to-energy plant that can convert 300,000 tons of nonrecyclable waste into 30 MW of energy demonstrate scalability.¹⁵
• Leveraging innovations for value chain efficiencies: This often requires rethinking how resources are used across entire value chains. For example, enhancing solar panel efficiency from 13% to 20% is estimated to reduce the land requirements by more than half, which could also reduce the waste generated at the end of useful life due to fewer solar panels being needed.¹⁶ Similarly, developing lightweight, recycled-content building materials can reduce construction waste and optimize urban land use.¹⁷ Water usage in high-demand industries, such as oil and gas, could benefit from centralized recycling networks that combine and recycle the water streams from multiple well sites, significantly reducing freshwater extraction and wastewater discharge. For instance, despite a 325% growth in oil production in the Permian basin, ground water usage in Permian is expected to decrease by 37% by 2030 compared to 2017.¹⁸ Innovations can extend beyond physical assets. Integrating advanced digital tools for predictive maintenance and materials optimization can help to reduce waste and conserve resources throughout the manufacturing and production stages.

Phase three: Scaling circular solutions through collaboration

This phase focuses on embracing and extending circular economy principles across industries and resources.

Key focus areas should include:

• Incorporating circular design principles: While waste-to-value systems are important in helping to address the current resource crisis, a truly circular economy demands a fundamental upstream shift in how we design, produce, use, and recycle goods, challenging traditional linear consumption patterns. This involves minimizing resource consumption from the start, extending product lifespans, and ensuring recyclability at the end-of-life stage by designing for disassembly and implementing extended producer responsibility. For instance, while degraded EV batteries may no longer be suitable for vehicles, they retain about 70% to 80% of their original capacity and can be utilized in applications with lower energy and power requirements, such as energy storage stations or communication base stations.¹⁹ Further, circular design aims to prevent waste generation. For instance, recycling one ton of steel can save 1.4 tons of iron ore, 0.8 tons of coal, 0.3 tons of limestone and additives, and 1.67 tons of carbon dioxide. Embedding circularity can curtail virgin material extraction by up to 30%.²⁰

Advanced recycling attracts investment through offtake agreements across industries, highlighting a growing demand for sustainable materials. Collaboration across industries, startups, and academia can drive innovation and expertise in circular solutions and increasing project economics. For example, partnerships between Eastman and academic institutions have yielded research projects focused on replacing traditional plastics with compostable alternatives and reducing waste generation and landfill requirements.²¹

• Forging cross-sector collaborations: Embracing cross-industry collaboration is an important part of scaling sustainable land, water, and waste solutions. About 80% of the climate mitigation opportunity from the land sector in the next decade is expected to depend on transforming agriculture, diets, and food waste.²² Partnering with sectors like agriculture and implementing water-saving irrigation that integrates nutrient-rich waste streams can enhance land use and boost agriculture productivity. Cross-sector collaboration is also being fostered through initiatives such as “100 Million Farmers,” which aims to restore the soil health of more than 14% of the total EU agricultural land, while adding up to EUR 9.3 billion annually to farmers’ incomes by 2030.²³ Another such initiative is “First Movers Coalition,” which leverages offtake agreements to support an annual demand of US$16 billion for emerging climate technologies and 31 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MMTCO₂e) in annual emissions reductions by 2030.²⁴ Additionally, integrating renewable energy with water and waste through concepts such as a microbial fuel cell, which harnesses bacteria in organic substances such as wastewater or manure, can help generate electricity and simultaneously purify water.²⁵

Further, collaborations with smart city initiatives can offer avenues to integrate renewable energy production into urban environments, utilize smart water management technologies for waste reduction, and improve urban waste sorting and recycling to create valuable compost for agricultural use.

This tri-phased scaling strategy can help in a more sustainable and equitable energy transition. Figure 1 outlines how fostering synergies and minimizing trade-offs between land, water, and waste management can create a responsible and holistic path toward a greener future.

The tipping points of change: Important factors in advancing land, water, and waste stewardship

Four enablers could be key to unlocking the energy transition pace in land, water, and waste management.

Finance

The current value of the additional investments expected to be needed until 2030 to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal of achieving universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all is approximately US$1.7 trillion.²⁶ This is about three times current investment levels.²⁷ However, nature-positive investments and programs can help fuel economic growth, with the potential to create 395 million jobs globally by 2030 and add trillions to global GDP.²⁸ Therefore, funding is important for implementing preventive and restorative land, water, and waste management practices. The following can help in making this a reality:

• Embracing innovative financial mechanisms: Long-term offtake contracts help to bring down costs amid market and price uncertainty, and additional financing mechanisms are emerging to help mitigate risks and spur investment. Some investors are using a portfolio approach, such that riskier projects in the portfolio may be offset by investments in proven technologies like wind and solar. Other companies are pursuing a value chain strategy in which risk sharing with partners can play a role. “Pay-As-You-Throw” programs directly help incentivize waste reduction by charging homeowners for the trash they throw away and providing funds for recycling infrastructure.
• Pooling resources through international partnerships: Smaller entities can collectively pool resources and expertise, addressing investment needs and benefitting from shared knowledge through collaboration. For instance, the technical and financial cooperation provided by Hamburg Wasser and Netze BW helped Tanzania’s Kahama Shinyanga Water Supply & Sanitation Authority better manage its water supply network to facilitate a quick response to water loss issues.²⁹
• Leveraging fiscal policies: Effective financial strategies, such as implementing landfill taxes and fostering public-private partnerships, can significantly enhance waste management. For instance, Netherlands Waste Management Partnership sets targets for reduced landfill use and increased waste recovery with support from government incentives.³⁰ Similarly, the United States incentivizes renewable natural gas production from landfills through renewable energy credits. This approach is designed to help drive revenue generation while diverting waste and promoting sustainable practices. Western Virginia Water Authority and Roanoke Gas Company recently entered into a partnership to create renewable natural gas for vehicle fuel use, and both parties share the revenue from the sale of generated renewable energy credits in spot markets.³¹

Technology

Bringing more efficiency in the management of land, water, and waste could hinge on the development of novel technologies. Current systems face challenges in material tracking, recycling efficiency, and infrastructure optimization. Innovative tech solutions can help address these issues in various ways, including the following:

• Ensuring traceability for sustainable supply chains: Technologies like blockchain, RFID tags, or QR codes can help enable secure materials tracking throughout waste streams and the recycling process. This enhances supply chain transparency, allowing for ethical verification of waste processes, origin tracking of recycled materials, and data-driven optimization of collection and recycling systems. Plastic Bank, for example, leverages blockchain technology to support the informal recycling industry by offering money in exchange for plastic. As of January 2023, the organization had collected around 72.1 million kilograms of plastic waste while financially supporting 28,800 community members who collect it.³²
• Fulfilling material demand through technology innovation: Around 30% to 40% of rare earth mineral demand in the United States, China, and Europe could be met through reuse or recycling strategies by 2050.³³ Technologies like computer vision, robotics, and AI-powered data analysis have the potential to recover high-demand rare earth minerals like neodymium and dysprosium. These systems can help reduce reliance on environmentally intensive primary mining by accurately identifying and sorting electronic waste components.³⁴
• Optimizing predictive infrastructure: AI can analyze real-time data on waste generation, collection patterns, and traffic to predict future needs and optimize collection routes. Digital twins can allow for virtual simulations, testing different scenarios to strategically locate recycling facilities and waste bins for maximum service efficiency and community responsiveness. Geographic information systems can map demographics and waste disposal patterns alongside AI-driven insights and digital twin simulations, enabling data-driven decision-making for more optimized waste management infrastructure.
  

Talent

Shifting to a circular economy is expected to create as many as 8 million new jobs by 2030.³⁵ However, skill shortages, an aging workforce, and competition from other industries could affect the talent market. The following can help to meet future job demands:

• Empowering informal workers: Unlocking the potential of the informal sector could be crucial. This vast segment of the workforce—nearly 60% of the world’s workforce—often drives resource recovery and recycling. Organizing these workers into cooperatives and associations can improve their working conditions and livelihoods and yield positive results across various sectors. Organized waste pickers in Brazil, India, and Tanzania demonstrate the power of organization: They secured better working conditions and recognition than unorganized waste pickers and, in some cases, may earn higher incomes than the national minimum wage. For instance, organized waste pickers earn an average of US$108 per month in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 40% higher than the national minimum wage for formal employment.³⁶
• Transferring skills, retraining, and retaining: The shift toward sustainability is expected to inevitably reshape certain industries, leaving workers in sectors like coal mining facing potential job losses in some regions. The 57% job decline in the US coal sector from 2011 to 2021 underscores the urgency of reskilling and retraining to help ensure these workers aren’t left behind.³⁷ In Taranto, Italy, more than 4,300 former steel plant workers are finding new opportunities in clean energy and the circular economy.³⁸
• Boosting academia-industry synergy: Universities and industries are increasingly collaborating through consortiums (see sidebar, “The Center for Energy Workforce Development Consortium”) or on specific programs to train the workforce. Maastricht University and the Chemelot Circular Hub’s partnership offers a circular engineering bachelor’s degree program and dedicated “circular space” to equip students with the skills needed for the circular economy. This initiative demonstrates a model for creating a workforce ready for sustainable industries.³⁹

Business models

Improving the management of water, waste, and land could require fostering sustainable business models that prioritize efficiency and innovation while enhancing companies’ profitability.

• Outsourcing water management services: Industries and municipalities could leverage specialist third-party companies to provide comprehensive water management solutions, from treatment to recycling and responsible discharge. This can help streamline the wastewater management process and improve customer engagement. For instance, the town of Smithfield in Rhode Island is working alongside third-party companies and has achieved US$100,000 in savings on a small disinfection system project.⁴¹
• Building shared-economy business models: This model shifts the focus from ownership to usage by offering unused assets to be used in an optimal manner and minimizing wastage. With nearly 92 million tons of textile waste generated each year and only 1% of clothes recycled into new garments, the product-sharing business model can help reduce landfill waste and avoid emissions.⁴² Textile resale, rental, repair, and remaking are expected to amount to US$700 million by 2030.⁴³ Such business models can expand to other products, such as heavy machinery and headphones.⁴⁴
• Encouraging downstream participation in conservation practices via ecosystem payment services: Downstream industries could become involved in supporting water and land conservation efforts through ecosystem payment services in which downstream operators pay landowners or upstream operators for the ecological services their land provides, such as carbon sequestration, water purification, and biodiversity conservation. This approach aligns with the concept of extended producer responsibility, encouraging downstream industries to take a more active role in mitigating the environmental impacts associated with their value chains.

Three pivotal architects: Policymakers, companies, and consumers play a distinct yet interconnected role in land, water, and waste management

The path toward responsible land, water, and waste management should involve a collaborative effort from policymakers, companies, and consumers. While each architect plays a unique role, it’s important for their actions to align toward sustainable objectives. The core of this collective endeavor should include acknowledging the mutual dependence among these stakeholders and confronting challenges through unified solutions. Focusing on the following can help drive progress:

• Incentivizing scaling of recycling operations: Scaling recycling operations often requires significant upfront investment, posing challenges for smaller operators. Targeted policy support can help speed up recycling expansion efforts. For instance, loan programs such as California’s Recycling Market Development Zone program offer loans and assistance to businesses recycling waste into products and are within the Recycling Market Development Zone (an area covering roughly 88,000 square miles of California from the Oregon border to San Diego).⁴⁵
• Improving worker safety: Equipping and educating informal workers with proper safety gear and procedures could help enhance the quality and safety of waste management processes. Such measures should also be complemented by legislation promoting worker safety through standardized processes. For instance, California’s policy initiatives, such as those covering battery stewardship, seek to enhance worker safety through standardized battery recycling processes.⁴⁶
• Supporting demand creation for circular products: A collaborative effort between policymakers and businesses could help shift consumer preference toward circular products. Some policy support mechanisms can potentially stimulate initial demand, such as public procurement contracts and offtake agreements focused on sustainable products, such as the Environmentally Preferable Purchasing program in the United States,⁴⁷ and demonstrating responsible production practices through certifications like CE.⁴⁸ In another instance, the city of Amsterdam partnered with local recycling shops to resell reusable wood to customers at a 40% discount.⁴⁹ Additionally, companies can help drive adoption by prioritizing recycled materials—for example, Apple’s commitment to recycled cobalt in batteries.⁵⁰
• Incentivizing bundled conservation: Energy and water conservation programs can be powerful tools to optimize resource use and support a more resilient infrastructure. Collaborations between utilities and water agencies, offering incentives like rebates for efficient appliances, can significantly boost participation and yield greater savings than independent initiatives. For example, PG&E’s partnership with Californian water agencies (such as California American Water) to give a rebate for high-efficiency clothes washers resulted in improved consumer participation—which increased 63% at PG&E and 30%—and quantifiable water savings of 4.6 million gallons annually and total embedded energy savings of 8,028 kWh.⁵¹
• Empowering communities for sustainable water management: Effective water resource management thrives on community involvement. Community-driven restoration models, such as water funds supported by downstream users, empower local communities to lead projects that improve water quality and availability. The Rwandan government’s collaboration with the Alliance for Restoration of Forest Landscape Ecosystems demonstrates the potential of inclusive models to promote land restoration, boost community ownership, and offer socioeconomic benefits for farmers.⁵²