Fourth-annual AMLI Sustainability Index FAQ

We are grateful to the record 4,891 AMLI residents who completed AMLI’s fourth annual AMLI Sustainability Index survey. The high response rate demonstrates our residents’ keen interest in our communities’ healthy building features.

As the results poured in, we saw several residents asking a few questions that kept cropping up again and again. We'd like to address a few of those here. If you need further information or have more questions, we recommend contacting your community's leasing team.

What green features are at my AMLI community?

One of the most common requests from residents was about the green features at their AMLI community. The specific green features at your community can be found at the bottom of your community's overview page on AMLI.com. You can also check out our Green Home Guides near the bottom of our Sustainability page for information about green features in your region. If you're interested in the sustainability commitments AMLI is making throughout the country, you can read our 2019 Corporate Responsibility Report or check out the sustainability page of AMLI.com.

How will AMLI use the survey results?

By learning what matters to you we can focus our energy on your priorities and make our sustainability program meet your needs. This helps us design better buildings and improves the sustainability initiatives already at your community. We also share the survey results within the apartment industry at-large. Sharing your feedback demonstrates the importance of sustainability and helps the entire housing industry raise the bar for healthy, environmentally-friendly homes.

What can be recycled at my community?

We believe recycling is important and we want you to feel confident you are recycling right. All of our community recycling programs accept:

• Clean paper
• Flattened cardboard
• Paper cartons
• Metal cans
• Plastic bottles and jugs

For specific information about glass recycling and other hard to recycle items, check out the waste signage at your community or our Green Home Guides on our Sustainability page.

Recycling at Atlanta communities

Glass is a challenging material to recycle since broken glass can be dangerous for employees at recycling facilities and can damage other recyclable materials. We're evaluating options for adding glass recycling to our Atlanta communities, but currently our waste hauler does not accept glass. If you're interested in recycling glass and other hard to recycle materials CHaRM is a great recycling center in Atlanta that is specifically designed to help recycle glass, batteries, electronics, and other hard to recycle materials.

How is AMLI committed to sustainability?

For over a decade, we have been building all our new construction to achieve LEED Silver certification or higher. Using an independent, third-party certification ensures we are meeting high standards for sustainable design and construction. This certification is comprehensive and covers initiatives related to location, site management, energy efficiency, water use, sustainable materials, indoor air quality and innovation. By achieving LEED certification on all our developments, we can provide healthier homes, lower utility bills and a better environmental impact.

Our commitments to sustainability are not finished at construction. We have partnered with the EPA to understand the energy impact of our communities and measure our energy efficiency improvements. After a building is fully occupied, we're able to track available energy data and measure how the total energy use of the building compares to energy use in similar buildings. The EPA also awards ENERGY STAR certification to the top 25% of most efficient buildings. We're proud to have 29 ENERGY STAR certifications and plan to achieve certification at even more communities. If you're interested in learning more about our other goals and commitments, you can check out our 2019 Corporate Responsibility Report or ask our staff for more details.

Why can't we recycle plastic bags?

We'd love to offer plastic bag recycling, but they're prohibited by waste haulers and many recycling facilities. Easy to tear plastics like plastic bags can jam or break equipment at recycling facilities. If you're interested in recycling this material many of the stores that distribute plastic bags also collect these so that they can be recycled with a separate process specifically designed for these materials. You can also check Earth 911 to learn about other centers for hard to recycle materials in our area.

What if my community has valet waste pickup?

For communities with valet waste where recycling in plastic bags is required, we’re currently working with our valet waste providers and evaluating other solutions. Thank you for your feedback on this issue!

AMLI will continue to prioritize sustainable practices that are pragmatic and meaningful to make sure our communities’ features are aligned with our residents’ desires. In each of our surveys, we see residents expressing an increasing sense of urgency. That is a great motivator for AMLI to keep its foot on the sustainability accelerator.

Check out these results of the 2020 AMLI Sustainable Living Index!