Green thinking colours centre management plans
Published: 30 June, 2011
With the government’s CRC targets fast approaching, sustainability initiatives are high on the agenda for retail property owners
From green community events to innovative ways to deal with waste and reduce energy consumption, environmental issues are taking centre stage at shopping centres across the UK. Capital & Regional started thinking about sustainability back in 1989. Since then it’s cut energy usage by 25-30 per cent.
And from the eight year period to December 2010, C&R saved more than 16,500 tonnes of CO2 and 42m kilowatts of gas and electricity – enough to power 27 medium-sized shopping centres for a year.
National facilities manager, Stuart Laidlaw puts these savings down to good local management practice and hard work.
“Have a look at over-designed, inefficient technology,” he advises. “The average shopping centre has been around for 20-30 years and a refurbishment is a good opportunity to put in new ‘greener’ equipment. Take stock of the existing systems and look at renewable options.”
There are strong incentives for lowering a mall’s impact on the environment. Laidlaw explains that between now and 2020, electricity is going to rise from 8p per kilowatt to 16p per kilowatt. And upcoming legislative drivers will bring about further change.
“Energy isn’t going to be cheap, the marketplace is more volatile now. Increases are coming our way and we’ve got to make sure that doesn’t have an effect on our service charges, of which energy accounts for 7-10 per cent.”
He says the need to have lighting on during the day is a myth that needs to be dispelled, with more use of natural light and LEDs instead.
He also advises night-walks. “Look and listen to what’s happening on the mall,” he says. “Retailers tend to go for high street design and have their lights on until midnight when there’s no need.
“Look into what energy you’re using, where and when. Set targets, measure progress and take exceptions into account.”
He describes a need to go from ‘talking green’ to ‘walking green’. As part of this he advocates landlord and tenant energy statements, whereby landlords and retailers share energy consumption data on an annual basis – a simple exchange of information that could help both parties understand where savings can be made.
Energy savings on a grand scale can be made at individual shopping centres as well as across portfolios.
The Broad Street Mall in Reading is the first shopping centre in the country to take advantage of new technology to convert food waste to water.
As part of their Waste 20 programme two Rapid Food Decomposition digesters, only slightly bigger than your average photocopier in size, have been installed to take care of the 70 tonnes of food waste the centre produces each year.
Food waste is poured into the machines where enzymes convert it to water – every year 56,000 litres of water will be returned to the water table.
Centre manager, Steve Fawkes got in touch with waste management and recycling agency Enviro-Waste GB which provided a report on what could be done to lower the centre’s environmental impact and costs. “When they told me what we could achieve, I didn’t believe them,” admits Fawkes.
“The cost of waste management has risen year-on-year and the cost of transportation is going up too. We were topping £100,000 a year on our waste management, so we decided to go ahead with the project in September 2010. “The system involves 20 extra man hours each week but I predict we’ll save £20,000-£30,000 in year one and more next year. The machines are on a five year lease purchase – by then it will have paid for itself.”
reducing transport
The technology has drawn interest from the RAF and the Hyatt Regency in Dubai, where staff have contacted Fawkes directly to discuss the system.
As well as dealing with the centre’s food waste, management have replaced all machinery related to recycling with newer, more efficient versions. All cardboard and plastic is bailed and only collected once the site has a full 20 tonnes worth of material, saving on unnecessary transport and providing the centre with a valuable source of income.
“We used to recycle 45 tonnes of cardboard and 16-18 tonnes of plastic,” says Fawkes. “Now we’re on target to recycle 180 tonnes of cardboard and 40 tonnes of plastic – enough to power 26 homes.
“Our cost per tonne has gone down from £152 to £98 and we’re save £10,000 by sending fewer trucks.”
At Golden Square in Warrington management has spearheaded several initiatives to improve sustainability while encouraging young people to become greener.
With advice from the British Bee Keepers Association three beehives have been placed on the centre’s roof. Local school children will be invited to visit the hives where they will be shown how to look after the bees to raise awareness of the species’ dwindling numbers.
Bluewater’s Events Venue, an events and exhibition space due to open later this year, has also gone the green roof route, creating one of the largest in the country at over 3 sq km.
Designed by green roof specialists Blackdown and urban ecologist and consultant Dusty Gedge, special planting techniques have been used to create a ‘bio-diverse’ habitat featuring specially sourced seeds that will attract at least 13 different species of wildlife.
At Golden Square, 15 bird boxes have also been introduced. The centre is working with Longlane Garden Centre, a charity which supports adults with learning disabilities into training and employment. The centre provides the charity with unwanted timber from shop fits and Longlane employees build bird boxes with it, selling them back to Golden Square to place on site.
The ‘I’m Growing Up Green’ campaign involved a mixture of events, including ‘Turn It Down’ where locals were encouraged to reduce waste and energy consumption in a bid to make Warrington one of the greenest towns in the North West. Over 2,000 local households signed a pledge to turn down their heating during the month saving the area over 65 tonnes of carbon dioxide.
Easter workshops proved popular, where children planted sunflower seeds and were shown how to make ‘bags for life’ and watering cans.
Other campaigns included giving over 100 trees to shoppers, reducing public transport fares to encourage shoppers to get the bus and displaying sustainable fashion by students from the local college.
positive feedback
“Feedback has been very positive both from families and retailers and the centre’s been very busy,” says centre manager, Paul Morgan. “It’s important to keep the message going – with visitor numbers of 13m per year, we could influence a lot of people.”
In terms of waste management and energy savings, Golden Square diverts 97 per cent from landfill. Waste is either recycled or turned into energy fuel pellets to be used by local businesses and no waste is transported more than 30 miles from the centre.
Over the last two years, 860,000 kilowatts of electricity has been saved – enough to light 200 three bedroom houses for a year. And last year, 500,000 litres of water was saved, enough to fill 3,600 bath tubs.
The retail property sector appears to be making great strides in reducing the carbon footprint of shopping centres, but C&Rs Laidlaw warns there’s still a long way to go. And BCSC’s public affairs manager, Philippa Latimer agrees: “At the moment people’s minds are taken up with the economy and there’s been a bit of hiatus. We’re taking a leadership role to make sure our members don’t take their minds off the ball – if people don’t invest now it’s going to be a massive challenge when the government targets take effect in seven years time.”
