Sustainable Business Profile — Oasis

“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.”

Sustainability highlights

Oasis has reduced their environmental impact through the following achievements and actions:

• Their own initiative — OASIS | loop helps reduce the amount of materials going to landfill by using packaging that can be refilled or reused and ultimately recycled at home or at the store.
• Guides on various products in-store, letting you know that you can refill the original container that came with the product from the Oasis bulk foods department.
• In-store soft plastic collection partnership with Reground. Plastic collected gets sent to Close The Loop where it’s combined with recycled glass and toner from waste ink cartridges to make a material that replaces bitumen in asphalt production, giving materials a chance at a second life.
• Coffee grounds are collected and given to community gardens, local gardeners, Melbourne Zoo and other enterprises to make compost.
• Moving away from single-use plastics by:
  • Transitioning to bio-degradable materials — mostly sugarcane pulp, paper, cardboard and PLA. Estimated reduction of 500kg of plastic per year.
  • Eliminating plastic drink packaging and moving to glass and aluminium packaging. Estimated reduction of 60,000 plastic bottles or about 1,500kg of plastic per year.
  • Transitioning to cardboard packaging for pre-packed boxes of desserts. Estimated reduction of 1,200kg of plastic per year.
  • Transitioning to glass packaging for chai and tea range. Estimated reduction of 200kg of plastic per year.
  • Changing to a fully recyclable material in stand-up pouches. Estimated reduction of 2,000kg of plastic per year.
  • Changing to refillable spice shakers that use 11% less plastic than the tubes before. Estimated reduction of 200kg of plastic per year.
• Divert as much food from landfill by collecting it and giving it to their mother so she can feed her flock of chickens.
• Leftover bread is donated to charitable organisations.
• Food scraps are supplied to farmers who feed their livestock and pet food manufacturers who incorporate them into pet food.
• An estimated 10,000 litres of waste oil from fryers is recycled into biodiesel that’s mostly used to operate farm machinery to produce more oil.
• Installation of a state-of-the-art combined refrigeration and air-conditioning system in the Fairfield store which uses a natural refrigerant — carbon dioxide gas, for its operation. This system will avoid the emission of 2,000 tonnes of CO2-equivalent gas over its twenty-year lifespan.
• Heat is reclaimed from the refrigeration system and used 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.
• Installation of a new heating system at the Murrumbeena store that will avoid the emission of 1,000 tonnes of CO2-equivalent gas over its twenty-year lifespan.

Want to make your business more sustainable?

If you have any enquiries about making your business more sustainable email us at Sustainablebusiness@gleneira.vic.gov.au or read more about sustainable business.