From 100 ideas to impact: Cylite's sustainability wins
Published on 12 December 2025
In 2024, Mulgrave eye-imaging company Cylite joined Monash Council and Eastern Innovation’s Sustainability Skills Lab workshop series, delivered by kandu sustainability founder Mariyam Sayers.
From brainstorm to breakthrough, read how Cylite turned 100 ideas into a high-impact action plan that's driving sustainability forward.
From ideas to impact
Cylite, an award-winning, deep-tech medical imaging company in Mulgrave, is globally recognised for developing the world's first hyper-parallel OCT system.
With more than 100 employees across Australia, Cylite was already running sustainability initiatives and meeting investor ESG reporting requirements – but their team wanted to do more.
In just 4 weeks, Cylite transformed nearly 100 ideas to real projects, including an energy-use dashboard and lifting cycling uptake from 5% to 20%. All without new headcount or budget, while increasing the business' capability to meet upcoming regulatory requirements.
The challenge
Cylite quickly realised the barrier was clarity: knowing where to start, what to prioritise, and how to act without adding to the workload of already busy teams.
"We had no shortage of ideas. The real challenge was working out how to give our people what they needed to take the lead." – Andrew, Chief Engineer
A collaborative solution
From August to November 2024, Cylite participated in the Sustainability Skills Lab program presented by kandu sustainability, in partnership with Monash Council and Eastern Innovation.
Cylite started with close to 100 ideas and the long-term objectives of engaging employees and strengthening its compliance foundation.
Through a series of short online modules and interactive workshops, Cylite gained the knowledge and tools it needed to prioritise initiatives, moving from intention to action using existing resources.
"Once we had the knowledge and frameworks, it was much easier to identify which initiatives were achievable, and make a difference quickly." – Darcy, Sustainability Skills Lab Participant
Darcy proposed an energy-use dashboard to show real-time energy consumption across the business. It not only tracked overall energy use, but also revealed daily and weekly patterns, compared current usage to past trends, and pinpointed which equipment consumed the most energy.
The project was live quickly, making energy use visible and useful for decisions.
"As soon as the data was visible, it stopped being abstract. People could see the story behind the numbers. That completely changed how we talked about impact." – Darcy
From quick wins to momentum
Within weeks, Cylite's team was implementing practical changes:
- Community partnerships: Partnered with a local café to introduce reusable containers, reducing single-use waste and strengthening local connections.
- Climate and emissions: Began engaging suppliers on emissions reporting to support future disclosures.
- Supply chain: Started evaluating sustainability considerations in procurement and opportunities to align purchasing with longer-term goals.
- Employee commuting: The increased uptake of cycling required upgrades to end-of-trip facilities.
The early wins sparked momentum for longer term projects. Teams created channels to share updates, made progress visible, and broadened involvement across the organisation.
A practical path forward
Rather than a strategy document or an implementation plan, the program delivered a repeatable process, and staff who participated became informed change makers, building internal capability and a stronger base for future reporting.
About kandu sustainability
kandu sustainability helps organisations unlock employee-led sustainability impact. Through cohort-based learning, workshops, and practical tools, we connect sustainability to everyday roles and help teams act with confidence.
More workshops for business
Monash Council supports and hosts a year-round program of business events, training opportunities, and access to networks and keynote speakers.
We work with key partners including the Victorian and Australian Governments, neighbouring councils, Eastern Innovation and Monash Precinct Network.
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