Waste Management, Inc.

Hello. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to WM's first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are on a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask the question during this time, you will need to press star 1 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 1 again. I would now like to hand the conference over to Ed Eagle, Single Director of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Thank you, Tawanda. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us for our first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. With me this morning are Jim Fish, President and Chief Executive Officer, John Morris, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, and Davina Rankin, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. You will hear prepared comments from each of them today. Jim will cover high-level financials and provide a strategic update. John will cover an operating overview, and Davina will cover the details of the financials. Before we get started, please note that we have filed a Form 8K this morning that includes the earnings press release and is available on our website at www.wm.com. The Form 8K, the press release, and the schedules for the press release include important information. During the call, you will hear forward-looking statements, which are based on current expectations, projections, or opinions about future periods. All forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Some of these risks and uncertainties are discussed in today's press release and in our filings with the SEC, including our most recent Form 10-K. John will discuss our results in the areas of yield and volume, which, unless stated otherwise, are more specifically references to internal revenue growth, or IRG, from yield or volume. During the call, Jim, John, and Davina will discuss operating EBITDA, which is income from operations before depreciation and amortization. Any comparisons, unless otherwise stated, will be with the first quarter of 2022. Net income, EPS, operating EBITDA and margin, and operating expense and margin results have been adjusted to enhance comparability by excluding certain items that management believes do not reflect the fundamental business performance or results of operations. These adjusted measures, in addition to free cash flow, are non-GAAP measures. Please refer to the earnings press release tables, which can be found on the company's website at www.wm.com, for reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measures and additional information about our use of non-GAAP measures and non-GAAP projections. This call is being recorded and will be available 24 hours a day beginning approximately 1 p.m. Eastern Time today. To hear a replay of the call, access the WM website at www.investors.wm.com. Time-sensitive information provided during today's call, which is occurring on April 27, 2023, may no longer be accurate at the time of a replay. Any redistribution, retransmission, or rebroadcast of this call in any form without the express written consent of WM is prohibited. Now I'll turn the call over to WM's President and CEO, Jim Fish.

Thanks, Ed, and thank you all for joining us. We're off to a solid start in 2023 with first quarter results delivering on our expectations and keeping us on track to achieve our four year guidance. First quarter revenue grew 5% with continued strong organic growth in the collection and disposal business of 7%. We're pleased with these results, particularly when you consider the impact of West Coast weather disruptions on our operations. With that said, our first quarter performance was basically on our budget And our strategic priorities of maintaining strong price discipline, permanently reducing our operating and SG&A cost structure through business optimization, technology and automation, and leveraging our sustainability platform for growth are right on track. Executing on these priorities will produce the robust short-term and long-term financial performance that we've projected. As you heard at our Sustainability Investor Day at the beginning of the month, we're very enthusiastic about how the growth in our renewable energy and recycling businesses strengthens WM's compelling investment thesis. We expect the investments that we're making over the next several years to provide meaningful operating EBITDA and free cash flow growth with impressive returns. We remain on track to bring online two new renewable natural gas facilities and seven newly automated material recovery facilities by the end of the year. We're also opening one new MRF in 2023 in the greater Toronto area which positions us strongly in the largest growth market in Canada. Even as these important parts of our operations grow, our solid waste business will continue to make up the lion's share of our earnings, projected to generate roughly 85% of operating EBITDA in 2026. As a result, our focus on optimizing performance and reducing costs in the solid waste business through technology and automation is critically important and will serve to further separate us from our competition. One excellent example of this is the expansion of our customer self-service capabilities, where we've reduced our call center department costs in the first quarter by more than 20% compared to last year, while at the same time maintaining or improving our net promoter scores in the commercial and industrial lines of business. So far in 2023, the WM team continues to deliver strong performance. The investments we're making set us up to further differentiate our industry-leading asset network and capabilities. When you combine this strategic positioning with the essential nature of our service, our diverse customer base, and our recurring revenue streams, it provides confidence in our ability to continue to reach our strong financial projections over the long term. For the remainder of 23, our outlook remains consistent with the full year guidance provided at the beginning of the year, including adjusted operating EBITDA growth of 7% at the midpoint, and between 40 and 80 basis points adjusted operating EBITDA margin expansion driven by our collection and disposal business. In closing, I want to thank the 49,000 people behind WM's success this quarter and every quarter. Without this team, none of this would be possible, and I'll now turn the call over to John to discuss our operational results for the quarter.