St Johns Shopping Centre has picked up the prestigious Gold Green Apple Award by The Green Organisation. The award was presented last month at a special ceremony at the Houses of Parliament in London.

The centre’s achievement follows its commitment to reducing waste, maximising recycling and ensuring sustainability by implementing effective practices with the support of waste management partner Fresco Environmental.

Neil Ashcroft, Centre manager at St Johns Shopping Centre said: “We are absolutely delighted to receive our first Gold Green Apple Award. We are incredibly proud of the centre team who continue to drive our commitment to increasing recycling rates and minimising the waste produced from the centre. 

“I would like to give a huge thank you to our waste management partner Fresco Environmental for their commitment to the environment and of course to St Johns Shopping Centre too.”

St Johns Shopping Centre wanted to drive shoppers and retailers to recycle and create awareness around waste, aiming to reduce their waste by 15% in 2018. They surpassed this original objective by decreasing their general waste by 19.5%, totalling 140 tonnes less than the previous year. In addition, their cardboard recycling increased by 72 tonnes and transport pick-ups reduced by 24.

Following on from this success, St Johns Shopping Centre decided to aim bigger for a greener community shopping centre in 2019. They promoted a management plan for all types of waste streams to be diverted from general waste, to drive the importance of recycling to their customers and stakeholders and to be conscious of their efforts for a greener future moving forward. 

To achieve these aims the centre implemented an effective food waste strategy which saw the introduction of back-of-house green bins (240ltr) for food and beverage retailers. Initially, this was for the food court units only; however, it is now readily available for all food and beverage retailers in the centre, reducing the amount of food waste diverted to general waste and supporting the centres aim to become an environmentally-friendly asset.

Ronnie Bartholomew, the Head of Sales at Fresco Environmental has said: “The beauty of working alongside St Johns Shopping Centre is that they have completely implemented our recycling methods throughout the centre; with their trust and gratitude, we have been able to support their green movement.”

Ronnie went on to say how refreshing that a company with such a social standing of St Johns Shopping Centre who has chosen to use such big corporate waste companies in the past have won their first Gold Green Apple Award with Fresco Environmental, a local family business. “Hopefully, this will send a clear message to other businesses that are still using corporate waste companies that they do not always provide the service and recycling figures needed to accomplish such success. A big thank you to the management, staff and everyone involved, this achievement is a credit to all of us.”

The Green Apple Environment Awards were launched in 1994 by The Green Organisation to recognise, reward and promote environmental best practice around the world, and have become well established as one of the most popular global environmental campaigns. It has now extended into the Green World Awards with entries from Governments, Ministries and regional authorities as well as companies and organisations across the entire private and public sectors.

Moving forward, St Johns hopes to raise further awareness of the impact that non-recyclables and general waste fluctuation have on the environment. They aim to be at the fore-front of shopping innovation in terms of their waste management, as well as assist several other shopping centres to adopt similar, environmentally-friendly strategies. In their partnership with Fresco Environmental, they are confident that this is only the beginning of the shopping centre’s green future.