Market leading shopping centre operator, intu, has won the ‘Best in continuing carbon reduction’ category in the Carbon Trust Standard Bearers Awards organised by the Carbon Trust, the independent experts on carbon reduction and resource efficiency.
The awards are given out to Carbon Trust Standard bearers that have demonstrated exceptional performance in certification achieved over the past year. Every company successfully awarded the Carbon Trust Standard, numbered in the hundreds, is eligible. It is one of only four awards announced at a conference hosted by the Carbon Trust at the British Museum in London this week.
intu set itself an energy reduction target in 2011 to decrease emissions by 30 per cent. With a portfolio of more prime shopping centres than anyone else in the UK, some constructed in the 1970s, it was seen as an ambitious goal.
Brian Boundy managing director of intu Retail Services, intu’s in-house facilities management joint venture with Bilfinger Europa, said:
“Exceeding our 30 per cent reduction target in absolute terms shows the commitment of the company to the environment. The fact that the Carbon Trust, with this award, recognises we have surpassed the high standards set by other companies that have achieved the Carbon Trust Standard is testament to the hard work put in and the imagination of the initiatives we introduced.”
In addition to an overhaul of carbon management systems and the appointment of energy champions at every centre, the company launched a number of new measures. For example, intu installed over 60,000 LED light bulbs across car parks, back of house and the main shopping malls. This work was part of a £6m capital investment project and resulted in savings of £2m worth of electricity each year as well as reduced lamp replacement costs. The project won a Lux award in January 2014 in recognition of what the judges described as “an LED rollout of awesome scale”.
Also, by careful scheduling of night time cleaning, so one fully illuminated area is cleaned at a time, lighting can be limited to where it is needed. Likewise, by closing specific car park areas at quieter, off-peak times lighting can be saved whilst still maintaining intu’s world class customer service levels.
The company introduced an initiative related to its hundred or more escalators throughout its shopping centre portfolio. With so many units, any change can have a dramatic impact on energy consumption. By switching them on five minutes before the centre opened rather than several hours before when maintenance staff and retail staff were setting up, escalators can run for five hours fewer per day in some cases.
As a result of these changes, and more, intu has saved some 12,000 tonnes of carbon over the past 12 months on a like-for-like basis compared to 2011, equating to a reduction of over 30 per cent.
Brian Boundy added:
“Despite the achievements to date, there is still more that can be done. We are looking at an anaerobic digestion pilot scheme at one of our centres to convert waste into electricity, and are in the later stages of a national solar power feasibility study.”
In the Northern Region, intu Eldon Square has made the following reductions in the first nine months of 2014 (Jan 1st - Sept 30th) :
intu Eldon Square
Electricity usage down 12% from 6626230 to 5862356
Gas usage is down 8% from 10830120 to 9955642
intu Eldon Square Chevy Chase
