ABI Interiors’ Green Team Plants for the Future

As a business initially established on the Gold Coast, Australia, we have a personal and profound perspective of Australia’s diverse environment. Between our endless coastlines, hinterland ranges, and nearby open plains, our passion for seeing Australia’s beautiful landscape preserved runs deep in our ethos. 

As we continue to expand further across our country, New Zealand, and the UK, our passion to see our overall global footprint decrease is as strong as ever, and we’ve taken some pretty big steps in achieving long-term sustainability.

A few key highlights since the launch of our new headquarters in Carrara, Gold Coast, include achieving Net Zero through solar panel installation, opting for hand dryers over paper towels in bathrooms, and introducing separate bins across all our locations for recycling, organic waste, and landfill in line with Earth Day 2024's theme: Planet vs. Plastics, which focuses on reducing plastic waste. Additionally, we're working towards ensuring 100% recyclable packaging for all our orders.

However, perhaps one of our proudest achievements is the efforts taken by our Procurement and Logistics team, managing to more than halve our air freight carbon emissions from 1,159kg / 5,806.48kgCO 2 in May 2022 to 551 / 2,761.87kgCO 2 in May 2023, simply by improving our shipping processes to rely less heavily on air freight and more on sea freight — which is an incredible 52.4% decrease!

 This year, we’re thrilled to announce that we have more than halved our emissions again from our previous year’s incredible achievement, with a 51% decrease at 272.35 (1368.64 kg CO 2) for May 2024.

Much of this is thanks to establishing our Green Team — a group of committed employees who generously volunteer their time to promote sustainable practices within our company and positively impact our community through diverse outreach efforts.

“The creation of the Green Team was a way for employees to have a seat at the table when it came to sustainable practices at ABI Interiors,” says Green Team leader Jasmine. 

“It's volunteer-based and open internationally to our New Zealand and UK team as well. We all learn and contribute ideas — big and small — and then pass on our findings to the rest of the company to create more transparency around all the good things happening behind the scenes.”

When building our HQ, a primary objective was to establish a dedicated outdoor area filled with native plants, trees, and garden beds, offering a haven amidst the predominantly industrial surroundings. While aesthetics were important, our primary focus was increasing the natural habitat to support and nurture wildlife, particularly native bees, by integrating indigenous flora.

Further enhancing our outdoor area was the concept of a volunteer-driven, community herb and vegetable garden aimed at providing fresh seasonal produce for our staff and facilitating composting of food waste. 

“We see this initiative not just as nurturing staff well-being and fostering community spirit,” says Green Team member Elise, “but also as sowing the seeds for a greener, more sustainable future.”

“It's also a great opportunity for employees to step away from their desks for a few minutes,” responds Jasmine (pictured above), “which, I think, is just lovely for our mental health.”

In celebration of Earth Day 2024, a few of our Green Team members made this idea a reality, planting the first of our seasonal produce in our community garden on Thursday, 18th April. 

“The Veggie garden has been a long time coming. It's something we proposed at one of our very first meetings, and it's super exciting to see it come to life,” says Jasmine.

In what ways could you promote a greener future for your workplace, household, or community?