Our Initiative

EnviroMall... not today's bandwagon, but tomorrow's way of life

EnviroMall is the first partnership accreditation scheme developed specifically for shopping centres to reduce environmental impact. It is the brainchild of The Mall and builds on its excellent environmental track record of reducing emissions and waste.

At present EnviroMall is concentrating on The Mall's shopping malls across the UK, but would be happy to share its processes with other shopping centre owner / operators in the UK and internationally.

Within the processes that EnviroMall has developed, each shopping mall is assessed individually and has targets set to achieve the levels of improvement needed for accreditation. Through accreditation and continually working to improve standards, the ultimate goal is to achieve Self Sustainable Specification - S3 - at all shopping malls. 

What we are doing and how

The Mall has set the following targets across its portfolio:

• A 63% reduction in CO2 emissions by 2010
• Consuming 50% less energy by 2012
• Recycling 85% of waste with 0% going to landfill by 2012

EnviroMall will deliver this through:

• Partnership - bringing together experts in their fields to pool knowledge and resources
• Environmental Management System - developed specifically for shopping centres to tackle individual challenges through Impact Improvement Plans
• Education - testing new and established renewable energies; school packs that fit into the national curriculum; and local communities through the annual EnviroMall Week

Achievements to date

Since 1999 The Mall's shopping centres have;

• Saved over 14,00 tonnes of CO2
• Saved 39,000,000 kw of gas and electricity - saving £2.75m in energy - this is an 80% saving against current usage - enough energy to power 26 air-conditioned 250,000 sq ft shopping centres for a year

In 2010 The Mall;

• Diverted over 76% of all waste from landfill - some 8,000 tonnes of retailers waste.
• Reduced its carbon footprint by another 3.9%

Furthermore The Mall Fund was named the top performing private property fund in Europe in the Environmental Real Estate Survey by Maastrict University (2010) commissioned by APG, PGGM and USS. The report benchmarked the property industry identifying "best practice in environmental performance".

In addition, in 2009 The Mall became the first shopping centre fund to be awarded the Carbon Trust Standard, which recognises organisations taking real action to reduce their carbon impact.

Mark Bourgeois, Managing Director of The Mall comments: "Everyone knows how important it is to protect our environment. The stark reality is that retailing, and shopping centres in particular, currently consume large amounts of energy and water and generate millions of tonnes of waste. Reducing our industry's negative environmental impact is an urgent priority".

Working with communities

EnviroMall accreditation is based on more than changing the way shopping centres are managed as facilities to improve environmental impacts. EnviroMall works with:

• Shoppers by raising awareness of environmental issues through our annual EnviroMall Week
• Retailers to help them lower their impacts
• Academic institutions to test new technologies and support environmental research through the S3 programme
• Schools to deliver tailored educational packs
• Local authorities by putting them in touch with shoppers