Case study
Scaling mandate compliance across 9 Austin multi-family properties.
How a premium multi-family property manager achieved seamless URO compliance and near-zero contamination while generating investment-grade ESG data across a diverse 9-property portfolio.
Project snapshot
Industry: Multi-family residential | Location: Austin, TX
9
Premium properties
16,539
lbs.
Diverted annually
Exceptionally low
Contamination rate
100%
Weight-based weekly data
Background
The customer manages 9 premium multi-family properties in Austin, Texas under the AMLI Residential portfolio. Navigating Austin’s Universal Recycling Ordinance across properties with varying architectures, from high-rises to garden-style communities, the property manager needed a scalable, data-driven waste program that met local requirements without overburdening on-site management staff or overwhelming existing infrastructure.
The challenge
Municipal mandates & contamination
Austin’s Universal Recycling Ordinance requires multi-family properties to provide dedicated compost capacity. However, high resident turnover often leads to contamination and missing bins in unsecured areas.
Unverifiable volume estimates
Legacy waste haulers provide volume estimates that are impossible to verify, leaving corporate sustainability teams without the hard data required for accurate ESG and utility reporting.
High resident turnover & contamination risk
High-turnover multi-family environments create persistent contamination challenges. Traditional haulers have no mechanism to monitor or address sorting errors across the portfolio.
Fragmented portfolio logistics
Managing waste compliance across 9 properties with varying architectures makes portfolio-wide visibility and consistency nearly impossible with a traditional hauler.
Moonshot's response
Compliance & strategic site implementation
To combat missing bins and third-party hauler interference, Moonshot performs a site-specific audit for each property to determine optimal drum placement and ensure mandate compliance. Our containers feature dual-language, high-visibility lid stickers and are positioned for manual accessibility, eliminating the need for disruptive truck-arm clearance.
Investment-grade tracking
Deployed the Commercial Diversion Dashboard, giving national operations teams exact, pound-for-pound metrics broken down by individual property and updated weekly — ready for export at any audit.
Proactive photo-audit program
Deployed weekly photo-audits to monitor waste streams across all 9 properties. Only 34 minor contamination instances were recorded across the entire portfolio. Moonshot integrates directly with on-site Community Experience Managers to coordinate resident education and sustainability events.
Scalable portfolio infrastructure
Moonshot’s clean drum swaps work across diverse building types, eliminating odors, pests, and access challenges. One centralized program. Nine properties. One dashboard.
Results
Most property managers treat the composting mandate as an inevitable cost center, but this partnership reframed it as a multi-dimensional value engine. Since October 2024, the 9 AMLI locations have successfully diverted 16,539 lbs. of total waste — equivalent to 10,439 miles undriven and 10,200 lbs. of CO₂ saved. This fully verified volume was processed at TCEQ-permitted industrial compost facilities, offsetting the carbon sequestration equivalent of an 829-tree forest.
Through weekly photo-audits and direct coordination with on-site Community Experience Managers, Moonshot recorded only 34 minor contamination instances across all 9 properties — an exceptionally low rate for a high-turnover residential portfolio. National operations teams now have a single, exportable dashboard reflecting real-time performance at every individual property.
Before Moonshot
✗ Unverifiable volume estimates that hinder national sustainability reporting
✗ High risk of resident contamination due to turnover and lack of visibility
✗ Fragmented waste compliance treated strictly as an operational cost center
After Moonshot
✓ Real-time, weekly-updated dashboard analytics providing investment-grade ESG data broken down by individual property
✓ Near-zero contamination driven by continuous weekly photo-audits and proactive community engagement
✓ Centralized, highly scalable portfolio operations that generate traceable environmental ROI
"Moonshot doesn’t just help us meet city mandates; they provide the exact, property-level diversion data we need for our national sustainability reporting. The dashboard visibility and their proactive resident engagement make managing nine diverse properties incredibly seamless."
— Leadership, AMLI Residential
Why multi-family properties choose Moonshot
Audit-ready ESG data
Our Commercial Diversion Dashboard updates weekly, providing national utility and sustainability directors with exportable, pound-for-pound metrics broken down by individual property.
Proactive contamination control
Unlike traditional haulers, we don’t blind-dump. We utilize weekly visual audits and coordinate directly with on-site Community Experience Managers to keep streams pristine without punitive fees.
Scalable infrastructure
From high-rise basements to accessible alleyways, Moonshot’s clean drum swaps eliminate odors, pests, and the need for heavy truck-arm clearances.
Quick FAQs
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Yes. Moonshot designs portfolio-level programs with individual property data and consolidated portfolio reporting.
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Our program is designed to meet Austin’s URO requirements, with the infrastructure and documentation needed for city compliance verification.
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We provide a Commercial Diversion Dashboard with pound-for-pound, weekly-updated data broken down by individual property for seamless corporate sustainability reporting.
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We utilize weekly photo-audits and partner with on-site Community Experience Managers to provide targeted education, keeping contamination rates exceptionally low.
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Yes. Moonshot’s clean drum swaps to eliminate odors and pest risks common in urban multi-family environments.
Contact Moonshot Compost to design a circular, data-driven waste solution for your multi-family portfolio.
Serving multi-family properties across Austin, Dallas–Fort Worth, Houston, and Waco with food waste diversion programs that support resident participation, on-site operations, and sustainability goals.
