Realising our sustainability objectives, accelerated by the pandemic

At Commercial Eyes we have a long history of focusing on reducing our environmental footprint in the way we deliver our consulting services.  For many years, our office was the first Melbourne high rise to receive the 5-star Green Star Office Design from the Green Building Council of Australia, with a 5 star NABERS water rating, 4 star NABERS energy rating, comprehensive waste recycling and other sustainability features.  We trained our staff on the importance of minimising waste and looked for opportunities to reduce our footprint.  

Although consulting services contribute a lot less than manufacturers and other organisations in our sector, government authorities and some of our clients required us to maintain some paper-based activities, including maintenance and storage of paper records for thousands of medical enquiries received each year, and submitting hard copies of applications to authorities. 

In 2020, the global pandemic accelerated the mindset shift that was required to virtually eradicate paper from our business.  With the rapid shift to lockdowns and working from home, we successfully removed over 90% of all paper activities from our work processes.  The use of validated electronic signature platforms was enthusiastically embraced and endorsed by us, and in short order this has become the dominant means to execute contracts.   We implemented the most comprehensive cloud-based document management system that can now securely store millions of documents, enabling us to meet our clients’ stringent requirements on privacy and data security across our network.  Regulatory and reimbursement authorities have moved to almost 100% electronic submission management.  We have invested significantly in online systems, including the Lorenz docuBridge platform, to enable this advancement.  An activity that was almost always conducted in person, at expense to all parties, were audits and inspections.  However in 2022, even company audits and TGA inspections moved to 100% online format, using the latest digital conferencing platforms we had all become proficient in.  Having successfully demonstrated with over 20 audits from 2020-2022 that these can be done as effectively and far more efficiently online has been a breakthrough for our clients and for us.

No longer bound to the office to operate our services, store documents, in 2022 we have relocated our global headquarters to a new dedicated office within a state of the art co-working space in the heart of Melbourne’s CBD.  We now occupy a smaller footprint in a building with the highest standards for environmental design, health and wellbeing, and sweeping views up the Yarra River.

Our office building has achieved a 5.5 Star NABERS Energy Base Building rating with GreenPower renewable energy, 5 Star NABERS Water Base Building rating, a 3.0 Star NABERS Waste rating and 4.5 Star NABERS Indoor Environment rating.  

Two years after the start of the pandemic, we have successfully moved to a fully digitally enabled business with all our contracts and client reports being delivered in digital formats, no printed materials and virtually no snail mail in sight!  While it may have taken a pandemic to fully realise the paperless office, it is now closer to reality for Commercial Eyes.