Churchill Square has been recognised for its sustainability achievements with an International Green Apple Environment Award 2022. Accredited with a Gold Award (the highest grade possible) in the category for Innovation in Property Management, the Award recognises the work Churchill Square has done with OLIO since their partnership launched earlier in the year.
Churchill Square announced in January 2022 that it was the first UK shopping centre to work in partnership with OLIO, the food sharing scheme. As part of its strategy to further reduce its waste output, the Brighton shopping centre has been working closely with its food outlets and any other relevant retailers to make any food, which can no longer be retailed, available to the local community via the food sharing app.
OLIO is known for its work in tackling food waste, linking neighbours and businesses to give away rather than throw away surplus food. Churchill Square has adopted a system of Food Waste Heroes, volunteers who list items from Churchill Square’s food outlets, and stores which stock perishable items, on the app, making food nearing the end of its shelf life available to people in the local area.
Since January the scheme at Churchill Square has provided a total of 2,185 meals, put an estimated 918kg of food into bellies rather than bins, avoided 3,957kg of CO2 emissions (based on WRAP conversion data) and taken 13,500 car miles off the road.
The Green Apple Awards are operated by The Green Organisation, which was founded in 1994 as an international, independent, non-profit, non-political environment group dedicated to recognising, rewarding and promoting environmental best practice around the world.
In addition to the Gold accolade, Churchill Square also won a Silver award in the Retail and Wholesale Innovation category for a creating a Retailer and Fitout Guide. The Guide encourages contractors at the site to work in a sustainable way and includes guidelines for the procurement of materials, delivery, installation and reducing and managing waste.
Centre Director, Mark Buchanan-Smith said, “We are honoured to be recognised by The Green Organisation in winning this Green Apple Award. Churchill Square is constantly looking for ways to reduce waste, so it feels great to be acknowledged for our hard work and innovative thinking in building our partnership with OLIO. A partnership which has been hugely successful with the equivalent of 2,185 meals provided to the local community so far this year, not just reducing waste but helping to combat food poverty in the area.
We hope that this award will help lead the way in demonstrating how shopping centres across the globe can use schemes like OLIO to reduce waste output.”
