The Woolcock Institute of Medical Research

Moving home always creates waste, especially when that home is a world-class research and medical centre the size of the Woolcock.

But right from the start, the Woolcock relocation team were determined the move from Glebe to a new state-of-the-art facility in Macquarie Park would be as environmentally friendly as possible.

And their efforts have been a success, with more than 32 tonnes of material saved from landfill during the move.

According to Woolcock Deputy Director Brett Toelle, the relocation team worked to minimise waste in big and small ways.

“We took a great deal of effort to be as environmentally friendly as possible during our relocation,” Associate Professor Toelle said.

“We had a ‘Woolcock Whatnots’ area to try and give unwanted items a second life, and for surplus items of value we also had raffles for staff and students.

“But the biggest impact was through bringing in a relocation company that specialises in sustainability.”

The Woolcock signed up to Egans’ Wise office furniture program, which organises the sustainable disposal of unwanted business furniture, fittings and equipment. Egans works with a circular economy model that aims to avoid landfill through resale, recycling or donation of business assets.

According to Egans’ final report, 498 Woolcock items were able to be reused and 2060 items were recycled. In total, 32,400kg of material, 65% of the unwanted items, were saved from going to landfill.

“We are really happy we could make the move in an environmentally sustainable way and were able to keep so much material out of landfill,” Associate Professor Toelle said.

“Once we’d made it a priority, it wasn’t too difficult to achieve a good outcome. We hope that this encourages other organisations to consider the importance of dealing with their waste responsibly.”

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