Sustainability at Oasis

We are committed to reducing the environmental impact of our business. Here’s a short list of some of the initiatives we’re taking to do this.

OASIS | loop

Packaging is a necessity for all the food products that we sell. Oasis | loop is our initiative to choose packaging that can be refilled or reused & ultimately recycled.

In choosing the best packaging, we pay attention the environmental impact of the packaging across at all stages of its life, from its production, to its transportation and storage, its use and its potential re-use, and then ultimately to its recyclability.

You’ll start to see the OASIS | loop logo on different packaging around the store. It’s your sign that the packaging is intended to be re-used or re-filled, and then recycled at home or returned to store for recycling. As much as possible, OASIS | loop is our way to reduce the amount of materials going to landfill.

You’ll also start to see guides on various products letting you know that you can refill the original container that came with the product from the Oasis bulk foods department.

Oasis X Reground

We have partnered with Reground to provide in-store soft plastic collection. Plastic collected gets sent to Close The Loop. Their state-of-the-art processes allow for the plastic to be combined with recycled glass and toner from waste ink cartridges to make a material that replaces bitumen in the production of asphalt. Thereby removing the need to use non-renewable fossil fuels in the construction of our roads and giving materials a chance at a second life.

Another advantage of partnering with Reground is that they collect our used coffee grounds from our cafes and provide them to community gardens, local gardeners, the Melbourne Zoo and other enterprises for them to use in making compost.

Packaging

We have moved away from single use plastic packaging across many different areas within the store and where we are using single use plastics, we now have systems in place in our stores to collect that plastic and recycle it. Read below and see the reduction in plastic waste our various initiatives are having -

Transitioning all our café takeaway food packaging to renewable and bio-degradable materials, mostly sugarcane pulp, paper, cardboard and PLA. Estimated to reduce plastic waste by 500kg per year.

Eliminating plastic drink packaging from drinks sold in the café – moving to glass and aluminium packaging only. Estimated reduction of 60,000 plastic bottles per year or about 1500kg of plastic.

Transitioning to cardboard packaging for our pre-packed boxes of desserts, Archie’s Bites, snacks etc… 1200kg per year reduction in plastic.

Transitioning to glass packaging for our chai range and tea range 200kg per year reduction in plastic.

Changing the material used in our stand-up pouches to a fully recyclable material (previously it was made from a dual polymer material meaning that it could not be recycled). This will divert 2000kg of plastic per year from landfill.

Our new spice shakers use 11% less plastic than the tubs they’re replacing and are refillable multiple times from our bulk spice pouches. Combining the reduction in plastic used and the plastic saved by refilling from a bulk pouch, we estimate a 200kg per year reduction in plastic.

Overall we estimate there’s a 5,600kg per year reduction in plastic use from these initiatives.

Technological innovation

At our Fairfield store we have installed a state-of-the-art combined refrigeration and air-conditioning system. This system uses a natural refrigerant, carbon dioxide gas, for its operation. The biggest advantage of using this gas is that any gas leaks that may occur over the life the system (leaks are inevitable in all commercial systems as they age) will not have any contribution to greenhouse warming. Compared to an equivalently sized system running on conventional hydrofluorocarbon gas, our system will avoid the emission of 2,000 tonnes of CO2-equivalent gas over its twenty-year lifespan.

Another major plus of this system is that we reclaim heat from the refrigeration system and use it to heat the shop in winter and dehumidify it in summer. This results in a net reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 500 tonnes of CO2-equivalent gas over its twenty-year lifespan

We have invested in a new heating system at out Murrumbeena store that over the course of its life will avoid the emission of 1000 tonnes of CO2-equivalent gas over its twenty-year lifespan compared to the previous unit.

Reducing Food Waste

Sometimes the simplest things have the biggest impact. We divert as much food from landfill by collecting it and giving it to our mother so she can feed her flock of chickens.

Left over bread also gets donated to charitable organisations.

We source fresh-cut produce from suppliers who are able to divert food scraps from landfill by supplying the food scraps to farmers who then feed them to their livestock, and also by supplying food scraps to pet food manufacturers who incorporate them into pet food.

Overall, we estimate that up to 20 tonnes of food scraps are diverted from landfill each year.

We recycle waste oil from our fryers to make biodiesel. Used oil is collected on site, after it’s picked up it gets refined into biodiesel that’s mostly used to operate farm machinery to produce more oil. It’s a great example of closing the loop on food waste. We estimate that we recycle 10,000 litres of oil per year.

If you’re in the sustainability space and think we’d jointly benefit from working together, we’d love to hear from you at sustainability@oasisonline.com.au

Together, let’s go on this journey and make a difference.

Sustainability at Oasis

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