Kingdom Shopping Centre - Winner - "The Energy Award" in Green Business Fife Awards 2009
Imagine the electricity bill for a 430,000 sq ft building that has to maintain an attractive and safe environment for staff and shoppers 24 hours a day. Consider the volume of waste and the amount of water used by 190,000 people visiting every week.
Two years ago, the new management team at the Kingdom Shopping Centre in Glenrothes, owned by the CIS and managed by NB Real Estate, decided to make environmental and financial savings a priority and reduce the Centre's carbon footprint. Specifically they aimed to reduce gas, electricity & water consumption by 15% between May 2006 and July 2008; to install an onsite waste management system in 2007 and reduce waste to landfill in 2008. The team undertook to measure the Centre's carbon footprint and use this as a benchmark. As a result of the progress on these initiatives the Kingdom Shopping Centre is now one of the leading centres for environmental management in NB Real Estate's UK-wide portfolio.
Heating and Lighting
An inspection of the 20 large heaters on the roof of the centre showed that they had up to 80% efficiency loss. Changes to the heating system throughout the shopping centre ensure that temperature control is monitored and controlled automatically by sensors. When the temperature goes up, the system recycles cool air throughout the malls. A central control system allows the management team to check at any point how the temperature management is operating and the efficiency savings it is making.
Overnight mall cleaning was stopped to prevent unnecessary use of lighting and staff regularly review lighting levels, making maximum use of daylight. Generally, lighting is now managed on a sensor basis to ensure that areas used less frequently, for example, at bin stores are not left with lights burning unnecessarily. Nowadays, in these areas, a sensor light comes on for just a couple of minutes and turns off automatically, timed to allow sufficient light for the job.
Water
The public bathrooms have had sensor urinals and slimline cisterns installed and all taps now operate on a timed basis. The hand dryers have been changed to new low energy devices that do not heat the air but operate on a very powerful cold air stream.
Waste Management
A waste management system has been installed with compactors & bailers on site, reducing the number of collections required each week. The Centre recycles brochures from travel agents, collects tenants' paper and coat hangers weekly - sometimes up to two or three tonnes of magazines a quarter! 10 sets of recycling bins have been installed throughout the malls and 2 large recycling points have been placed in the Centre's car parks in partnership with Fife Council.
Last summer, the Centre ran a ‘plastic bag amnesty'! Customers who ‘surrendered' 20 used plastic bags were rewarded with a free large jute shopping bag. This event was supported by Fife Council and resulted in over 100,000 plastic bags being recycled. To help encourage customers use the mall recycling bins, the Centre has run two successful recycling ‘Bin It to Win It' competitions, and a design competition for local primary schools to come up with a sign for each recycling bin.
Spreading the Word
While the children are enthusiastic about environmental projects and designed signs that appealed to other children, they are also great ambassadors for the green message, encouraging parents and other adults to recycle. Vacant units are covered in vinyl with customer messages informing them of the simple steps that they can take at home to help the environment and also save them money.
The management team recognises the importance of partnership working with store personnel and holds quarterly meetings and distribute newsletters to tenants to keep them up-to-date with the centre's achievements. Crucially, all financial savings are passed straight back to the Centre's retailers through the service charge, meaning that they see a direct benefit of the work undertaken.
To stimulate and reward new ideas, the Centre's management team decided to appoint a "champion" from the staff, every three months. In fact, a committed champion has emerged who is passionate about green ideas and requested to keep the position longer than the original three months. On the basis of his excellent performance, the Centre arranged for him to use half of his working week to pursue new ideas, education and monitoring.
New Initiatives
The team has now introduced a food waste recycling scheme with help from CORE. The Centre provides biodegradable bags, free of charge, to all food outlets for food waste, which can be sealed to prevent odour problems. The bags are collected in specially designated bins and sent for composting. After just 3 weeks, which included staff training, the system was fully implemented and working well. The recycling rate is up, landfill tonnage is down and the cost of landfill is reduced.
Results
The Centre has achieved impressive financial and environmental savings. Gas consumption has dropped by 59.38%; electricity consumption is down by 30.24% and water consumption is down by 16.59%.
As a result, the Centre's carbon footprint reduced by 41.53 % from May 2006 to July 2008.(calculated through the Carbon Trust).
Significant financial savings have been generated, too. The Centre saved over £49,500 in energy costs.