The Open Standards Consortium for Real Estate (OSCRE) is tackling the third element of its planned trio of environmental management standards. With frameworks for consistently tracking and reporting energy and water data in place, the global industry organization is now exploring how best to manage data related to solid waste generation and diversion.

The effort has been launched as real estate operators and their suppliers come under regulatory pressures in many jurisdictions to minimize waste output, ensure maximum recovery of recyclable materials and assume more responsibility for the end-of-life management of the packaging and products they’re delivering to the market. Building operators face stricter rules for separating recyclables and organic waste in tandem with rising monetary penalties for non-compliance; suppliers increasingly come under extended producer responsibility (EPR) provisions; and there is a demand all round for accurate waste audits and reporting.

“There isn’t one single set of new waste rules. The rules and the fines depend heavily on where you are and what kind of waste you’re talking about — household, commercial, construction, hazardous, food waste, recycling contamination, etc.” OSCRE communications observes.

That’s galvanizing the need for consistent, defensible proof of performance that can be presented to regulators, used for corporate governance and communicated to investors, clients and the general public. OSCRE will outline the scope of its new waste data standards project in an upcoming webinar.