Climate Choices Business Awards 2023—We Won!
June 2023
We recently attended the Climate Choices Business Awards breakfast at the National Gallery in Canberra. Incredibly, we walked away with two awards; the Waste Minimisation Award and the Minister’s Award for Leadership (awarded to our founder Thor Diesendorf).
Congratulations also to the other award-winning businesses including Nordic Blinds, ActewAGL Retail, The RUC, Conservation Council ACT, Car Mechanical Services, Urban Education ELC and Anglican Diocesan Services. Learn more about the other award categories and winning businesses.
Thanks to everyone in our network for supporting our sustainability efforts, and thanks to the ACT Government for recognising our achievements. Read on to learn more about the awards.
Award for Waste Minimisation
Our first award was for Waste Minimisation, which we received for significantly reducing waste by implementing innovative strategies and introducing comprehensive waste management practices. Our work helps to divert tonnes of timber from demolition sites by making it into high quality furniture and building products.
To this end, we are committed to the significant reduction of waste and we are actively implementing a closed cycle approach to waste management in our timber recycling, dressing and joinery workshops.
Did you know our workshops have the capacity to generate up to one tonne of timber waste per day and we recycle 100% of our wood dust, shavings and chips into an economical, environmentally friendly fuel source by making fire briquettes?
Briquettes made from recycled timber waste are a carbon neutral energy source (briquettes emit the same amount of carbon when burned as was consumed by the trees they came from). Our hydraulic briquetting system means no artificial binders are used and our briquettes are 100% natural in their composition.
In addition to recycling sawdust and shavings into briquettes, we ensure larger offcuts are either repurposed into small items like serving boards, or docked to length and stacked on pallets for sale as firewood. Because we recycle, transform or repurpose all offcuts from our business, this waste is diverted from landfill.
Our employees participate in our office Food Scraps to Compost Program, which encourages everyone to place their fruit and vegetable scraps from meal breaks (including tea bags and coffee grinds, and suitable paper products) into the composting bin.
Our Recycling Manager, Matthew Collins, takes all these scraps home with him each week where he employs the “hot composting” method to optimise the microbial activity within the compost.
We hope you’ll agree that the sustainability-minded members of our team at Thor’s are our biggest asset! Thank you to everyone in our team who contributes to our waste minimisation efforts every day - we could not do it without you.
Minister’s Award for Leadership
Our Founder Thor Diesendorf was also honoured to receive the Minister’s Award for Leadership. This award recognises Thor for inspiring and leading others to make a difference, and for his work to improve sustainability and promote action on climate change within his business.
Since establishing Thor’s Hammer in 1994, Thor has become Canberra’s preeminent timber recycler.
Thor’s mission for the business remains simple: keep quality timber out of landfill by disrupting the demolition process, and design high quality products to increase demand for recycled timber.
Thor has personally fostered recycling relationships with demolition companies to create a viable model to profit from site waste, resulting in a circular solution that diverts more than 1000 tonnes of timber waste from landfill each year. These efforts have resulted in a business which offers the construction, joinery and furniture industries an alternative to new, unsustainably-harvested timber which contributes to the global deforestation crisis.
Critical to positioning Thor as a market leader in the recycled timber industry has been his ability to find innovative ways to utilise or repurpose manufacturing waste, as well as exploring ways to electrify the business.
Following the installation of a 90-panel high-efficiency 60kW solar system, Thor remains steadfast in his commitment to electrification. He personally drives an electric vehicle (when he is not riding his dog Ziggy to work, in his cargo bike!) and the forklifts used within the workshop are all electric. Thor has opted for low energy-use LED lighting throughout the workshop and timber is dried in a solar-powered kiln.
Thor’s strength in leadership is evidenced by the long tenure of many of his employees, who cite the team culture and sustainability of the business as reasons they love to work at “the Hammer”. Thor encourages people to focus on the benefits of being part of a climate-conscious business and maintains daily participation and connection with his team through morning warm-up exercises and games of handball. Well done, Thor!
Words by Ebony Levy