Ryman Healthcare currently operate 38 premium retirement villages nationwide through New Zealand. These architecturally designed villages situated on large grounds offer their residents quality of life with a full range of services for aged care.
Ryman was founded in 1984 and has become one of New Zealand’s largest listed companies. The company owns and operates 45 retirement villages in New Zealand and Australia which are home to more than 13,200 residents and the company employs 6,700 team members.
Ryman villages offer a choice of independent and assisted living options as well as resthome, hospital and dementia care all on one site.
They also include beautiful gardens, indoor pools, cafes and movie theatres.
With a large forward plan for new developments and strong sustainability goals, Ryman was looking for a provider who could not only help them reduce their construction waste for new developments, but also provide an ongoing service for all their general waste, hazardous waste and recycling needs to their sites nationwide.
Waste Management has been working with Ryman Healthcare since 1996. We provide a full suite of services, including collections for general waste, recycling, and organic (food and green) waste. Our services even extend to storm water drainage and maintenance. In addition, Ryman needed continuity from a supplier that would be in line with their environmental and sustainability policies.
As a nationwide company, we have been able to meet the many needs of this premium aged care provider and the relationship between both parties has developed into a true partnership approach.
Challenges
One challenge around the building of new Ryman villages was ensuring the right amount of space is given to waste services. In some regions, space is at a premium and waste services are often not designed into the blueprints, making it hard for our trucks to access bin locations for waste collection.
Solutions
Waste Management has worked closely with Ryman Healthcare to really understand their business and work with them on providing bespoke, flexible solutions.
Most of their sites have medical waste requirements. Our Technical Services division stepped in to provide handling and processing services. We have also worked with them on implementing source separation solutions for their new build programme which included working alongside their construction teams as well as ongoing collections to the operations of their villages.
For their landscaping requirements, Waste Management supplied compost and mulch to support some of their developments around the country. Working with Living Earth a special blend of compost was created that was heavy enough to prevent being blown by the wind.
Waste Management also implemented a bespoke green to our palette of paint colours that could be applied to their greenwaste skips. This made the skips blend into the background of the villages landscaping.
Outcome
With a whole range of services and touchpoints, the relationship between Ryman Healthcare and Waste Management distils down to trust, transparency, and dependability.
We have acted as a trusted advisor for their sustainability procurement, saving them costs and helping them make decisions with real impact.
Bin lifts per year
Waste streams we manage
Diversion rate from landfill
Recycling per annum
Waste Management continues working with Ryman Healthcare on future initiatives and are continually problem solving as the waste landscape changes. We pass on innovations we learn and keep them up to date with global trends and changes with legislation.
Waste Management continues to meet our needs across our business. In testing times, Waste Management are a trusted partner.
Philip Mealings
Head of Financial Shared Services
