Built this way on purpose: our sustainability journey, from first pour to Plastic Free July

This July, our community joins millions of people around the world taking part in Plastic Free July - a global movement to refuse single-use plastic, one everyday choice at a time.

For us, it's not a month-long detour. It's a chance to tell a story that started before our doors ever opened.

Designed in, not bolted on
Sustainability at International Towers was never a retrofit. It was poured into the foundations - literally.

During construction, 97% of all building waste was recycled. An on-site concrete plant saved more than 30,000 truck movements and around 5,000 tonnes of CO2 before a single tenant moved in. The towers' signature coloured fins aren't just a Barangaroo landmark - they reduce solar heat gain and ease the load on air conditioning. Sea water drawn from Sydney Harbour cools the buildings, saving almost half a million litres of drinking water every day, while an on-site recycled water plant treats and reuses water for everything from irrigation to fire sprinklers.

Every one of those decisions was made at the design table, on purpose. Barangaroo South was conceived as one of only a handful of precincts worldwide in the Clinton Climate Positive Development Program, and became Australia's first large-scale carbon-neutral community.

That intent shows up in the recognition since: a perfect 100 GRESB score - the first ever awarded - ranking us number one in the world in 2020, 6 Star Green Star Performance across all buildings, Platinum WELL certification, and NABERS ratings of 5.5 Star Energy, 6 Star Water and 6 Star Indoor Environment across Towers Two and Three.

But certificates don't sort bins. People do.

The partners behind the precinct
If you've ever wondered what actually happens to your coffee cup after it leaves your hand, two long-term partners hold the answer.

Dimeo has been part of this precinct since before it opened, keeping International Towers clean, compliant and sustainable while the towers were still being built. Today their team manages one of the most advanced waste operations in the country - more than 1,300 bins onsite, over 700 processed daily, with around 90% of the system automated. Their 'Use, Reuse & Recycle' program has rehomed everything from tenant screens to furniture through the Red Cross and local enterprises, and their chemical-free cleaning uses stabilised aqueous ozone in closed-loop refillable bottles - cutting plastic packaging out of the cleaning cycle altogether.

Their north star, in Operations & Technology Manager Roberto Machado's words: "Absolute Zero carbon by 2040. Making sure we keep those six stars every step of the way."

Foresight Environmental, our environmental consultants, turn all of that into measurable progress - running waste audits, reporting and education programs designed to reduce contamination and improve separation at the source. As Principal Consultant Lewis Rowland-Coman puts it: "Small changes, applied consistently, can significantly reduce contamination and improve overall performance across the precinct."

Together they run our monthly Waste Tours, where tenants follow their own rubbish through the building. Because seeing it is believing it.

The plastic story so far
Plastic Free July isn't new territory for this community. Over the years we've:

• Retired the red general waste bin entirely, replacing it with a Dry Waste stream that turns recoverable items into alternative fuel - chasing our target of 80% of waste diverted from landfill
• Partnered with Banish since 2023 on BRAD (Banish Recycling and Disposal) bins in the Tower Two and Three lobbies - tens of thousands of hard-to-recycle items like blister packs, pens and beauty empties processed onshore instead of landfilled
• Launched Borrow by Huskee, a free borrow-and-return reusable cup program across precinct cafes
• Swapped single-use umbrella bags for eco dryers
• Introduced Two Good hand wash dispensers made from upcycled fishing nets, and free plastic-free Pixii period products in our End of Trip facilities

Small things, chosen deliberately, repeated daily by thousands of people. That's the whole method.

Join us this Plastic Free July
We’re bringing that method to the lobby across two weeks of activations with our partners Banish, Dimeo and Foresight:

Tuesday 21 July | 11am-2pm | Tower Three South Lobby
With Banish's Micro Recycling Experience: Bag Slides (see soft plastics given a second life, hands-on) and Dimeo's Every Day Zero (practical swaps for a lower-waste workday, with prizes for our top three participants).

Tuesday 28 July | 11am-2pm | Tower Three South Lobby
Wednesday 29 July | 11am-2pm | Tower Two South Lobby
With Foresight: Quack Down the Waste (test your sorting smarts with our environmental consultants) and Waste Ball (shoot your shot - basketball, but every basket is the right bin).

Places are limited - pre-book via Amica.

One month. One precinct. A journey that started at the design table and runs through every bin, bottle and coffee cup since. Come and be part of the next chapter.