We recently sat down with Erilyan team members Maryana Zborovskaya (Team Coordinator) and Aditya Kumar (Project Manager) to learn more about why the company decided to join Trace and how becoming carbon neutral fits into their broader sustainability journey.

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About Erilyan

Erilyan is a commercial construction business established by Karl Mayoh, Tim Curtin and Jon Lewis bringing together a combined 66 years of experience in the commercial construction sector. They have offices in Melbourne and Sydney, but operate right across the country, completing projects in the $1M - 150M range. With direct management of projects totalling $600 million, Erilyan has a proven track record in successful project delivery and prides itself on its transparent, realistic approach.

Why did Erilyan become carbon neutral?

Erilyan decided to become carbon neutral because its team knows this is one of, if not the most, important issues for the current and next generation and its customers and team care deeply about taking action.

They also know taking climate action is not just the right thing to do but it makes commercial sense too - providing them with a competitive advantage over competitors that can’t demonstrate any tangible steps they’re taking steps to address their business’ environmental footprint.

"It is currently a ‘bonus’ in the eyes of our clients, but in the future, we think it will be ‘make or break’.”, says Maryana.

What did you learn through the process of becoming carbon neutral?

“Before we started the process of measuring our carbon footprint with Trace, I wasn’t sure how sustainable we were, but after reading our carbon assessment report and understanding the activities we could implement to start reducing our emissions, I certainly felt better!”, explains Maryana.

“I didn't know companies like ours could do something like this; I know big corporates like Coca-Cola do, but I didn’t realise we could and it is really cool! It is a big learning curve but we’re excited to be able to better understand what’s possible and have the information we need to implement positive change across the business.”, said Aditya.

What was the reaction from your team when you announced you were becoming carbon neutral?

Erilyan announced their achievement of becoming carbon neutral to their team at one of their regular all-staff meetings.

"Everyone looked at each other after the Town Hall and thought, that's awesome! It made us feel proud of who we work for”, explains Aditya.

In the process of announcing their carbon neutral status internally, Erilyan’s leadership team were able to identify those in the team who were especially passionate about sustainability, and harness the passion of these individuals to enact change. For example, starting different sustainability-focused groups such as those focused on educating various stakeholders.

‍What's next on Erilyan’s journey to net-zero?

Maryana and Aditya know that the key to Erilyan’s net-zero success will be effectively engaging their staff and leadership team to gain momentum and put what they’ve learned into action.

“Having Trace as a tool to guide us around the steps to improve our carbon footprint has been really important..We have influence on the energy sources or efficiency of our office building but we also need to think more creatively about how we will make these bigger changes”, explains Aditya.

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Want to be like Erilyan? Find out how to make your business carbon neutral.