CASE STUDIES

Typically a tenant leases a vacant space with no internal walls or workstations and sets about designing and constructing its own unique office environment. At the end of the lease the space is returned to its pre-lease condition ready for the arrival of the next tenant. This process, often referred to as "churn", is one of the biggest sources of waste from the property industry. As such, it presents a significant opportunity for landlords and tenants to work together to reduce environmental impacts. As part of the re-leasing of 255 Elizabeth St, Sydney we had the opportunity to work with fitout contractors FDC and Eastview to maximise recycling of all waste from the stripout, demolition, makegood and subsequent preparation of four floors (7,383m²).

To ensure this was achievable the tender specification also included a reporting section setting out a system for determining, reporting and verifying the volume /mass of waste re-used on-site, recycled off-site and disposed to landfill on a monthly basis.

The contractor was required to:

1. Focus on the elimination of waste as the priority.
2. Identify and communicate responsibilities for waste minimisation to staff contractors and suppliers.
3. Educate and inform personnel about the reasons for waste reduction and provide training in support of this communication.
4. Conduct an analysis of the projected waste profile.
5. Integrate cost-control, reporting and monitoring of waste minimisation throughout the course of the project.
6. Make arrangements for site separation of materials and contractor collections.

On completion of the works, we verified dockets and declarations that showed 307.61 tonnes of waste had been either reused or recycled with only 15 tonnes sent to landfill. This represented a diversion rate of more than 95 percent.

* Other waste includes items such as redundant or non-functioning hardware, non-recyclable materials or items where disassembly processing is not feasible.