All Heart NZ Partnership

Metlifecare is making bold sustainability decisions, in partnership with our residents, employees and suppliers, to help reduce our impact on the environment.

Central to our sustainability mission is a collaborative effort to drastically reduce the volume of waste sent to landfill from our villages. This includes not only food scraps and recycling, but also building materials and construction waste generated by refurbishments we undertake when a retirement village unit changes hands to a new resident.

Madelyn Pyne, Metlifecare’s Sustainability Specialist, says the right partnership, underpinned by a comprehensive plan, was essential to address our extensive refurbishment programme.

Enter All Heart NZ.

“We spent several months working with All Heart NZ, a charitable trust that partners with organisations to redirect and repurpose redundant and unwanted items.

“After successfully trialling their collection and redistribution services across 10 of our Auckland villages, together we designed and developed a joint bespoke, sustainable system to recover, and reuse, the refurbishment waste. It had to be a win win solution.”

Through this innovative partnership, the two organisations have formalised an efficient process that not only removes pre-loved items from units, but also channels them back into community need.

“Entire kitchens and bathrooms, through to curtains, carpets and individual items, are collected by All Heart NZ’s freight teams from our Auckland sites and distributed to six stores across New Zealand, or donated directly into the community, where All Heart NZ identify an immediate need.”

These stores are owned and operated by local communities under the All Heart NZ brand. They not only serve as hubs for redistributed goods but crucially they offer job creation for local people, fostering a circular economy ethos.

“We engaged All Heart NZ to train and work alongside our builders and contractors to ensure items like kitchen and bathroom cabinetry is dismantled in such a way that it remains suitable for reuse. Even small tips and tricks, like rolling up carpets and labelling them with measurements, streamlines the entire upcycling process and minimises waste even further.

“Perhaps best of all, the response from residents has been overwhelmingly positive,” adds Madelyn.

“Our residents grew up in the era where nothing was thrown away. Many already put a lot of effort into their own household recycling, so knowing that discarded village materials and items that were once destined for landfill are now finding a new purposeful life within other grateful communities provides immense satisfaction.”