We are excited to announce the opening of our new waste-to-energy facility in Quartzsite, Arizona.
We are excited to announce the opening of our new waste-to-energy facility in Quartzsite, Arizona.

Governance Committed to ensuring our business is conducted in environmentally and socially responsible ways.

Integrity is a core value at VLS. We engage in open, honest and fair dialogue; hold ourselves and others accountable; and listen with the intent to learn. Compliance is foundational to our ability to deliver environmental solutions in a safe, clean and reliable way, and we remain committed to complying with all applicable federal, state and local laws and regulations everywhere we do business. These principles guide the way we run our business and build relationships with employees, communities and other stakeholders, as well as manage our environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. 

Integrity and Social Reponsibility

Board Oversite

The VLS Board of Directors (board)  is committed to sound corporate governance. The board sets the tone and direction for our ESG efforts and insists on continuous improvement in ESG performance. To reinforce these expectations, the board assigned executive responsibility for ESG to our General Counsel and Head of ESG, who reports to our Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The senior leadership team – including the CEO, Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) and General Counsel and Head of ESG – closely monitors our ESG goals and initiatives and updates the board quarterly on EHS metrics, compliance and other ESG-related matters. 

Enterprise Risk Management

Managing enterprise risk is the responsibility of VLS management, with oversight from our board. Each VLS location maintains its own risk register that prioritizes its primary risks, describes mitigation strategies and assigns responsibility for risk ownership. These site risk registers are reviewed and adjusted based on current and emerging risks. 

Governance Policies and Practices

To be an exceptional solutions provider, we maintain policies and Standards of Conduct to guide our business practices. All are detailed in our Employee Handbook and help us create a work environment that promotes job satisfaction, responsibility, ethics and value for our employees, clients and other stakeholders. Employees are required to acknowledge they have read the handbook and understand its contents when they receive it.   We prohibit retaliation for reporting violations or initiating or cooperating with a related investigation. We plan to revise our code of ethics and add it to the handbook in 2023.

Management of Legal and Regulatory Compliance

We operate in highly regulated industries and comply with all applicable federal, state and local regulations.  Compliance helps us safeguard our workplace, prevent pollution and air emissions, work constructively with government agencies and limit business liability.

Compliance Organization

Compliance Resources

Inspections & Audits

Incident Reporting

Regulatory and Permitting

VLS complies with significant regulatory and permitting requirements from about 50 federal, state and local agencies, and voluntarily complies with ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange). 

Cyber Security

For VLS to remain a high-growth, sustainable enterprise, our networks, technology and data must be secure.

Our cybersecurity framework, roadmap and related policies help us execute our business strategy and deliver solutions in a secure and reliable manner, while managing risk effectively, mitigating security threats and preventing incidents.

Our Vice President of Information Technology (IT), who reports to the CEO, updates the board on our cybersecurity program, progress and issues. 

The VLS cybersecurity program is guided by policies for data protection, endpoint security, identity and access management, network security, physical security, and security awareness and training. These policies meet or exceed the requirements to maintain our cybersecurity insurance policy. VLS employees, contractors and third parties involved with delivering our services are responsible for complying with all of our cybersecurity policies.

Employees receive cybersecurity awareness training during onboarding, and in 2022 started monthly cybersecurity training with end-of-course testing. 

To prevent threats, we employ a variety of measures, such as firewall technology, data encryption, VPN (virtual private network) and multifactor authentication, systems monitoring to identify threats and annual penetration testing. We aim for continuous improvement in our cybersecurity measures.

Performance

In 2022, VLS made progress on the IT and cybersecurity goals we set in 2020, while successfully integrating four acquired companies into our IT infrastructure and mitigating threats. We experienced no major or minor security incidents. We conducted an internal IT audit in December 2022 and are addressing the findings. We are continuing to strengthen our cybersecurity program in 2023 to accommodate ongoing growth by adding dedicated staff resources, as well as evaluating key performance indicators to measure our results.

ESG Press Release

View Press Release

2020 Sustainability Report

View 2020 Report

2021 Sustainability Report

View 2021 Report

2022 Sustainability Report

View 2022 Report

Learn More About VLS

To learn more about what VLS service is right for you, or to speak with someone to customize a program to help you achieve your environmental goals, contact VLS Environmental Services.