Making greener malls and buildings a reality

Over the past few weeks and months there have been significant steps taken towards ensuring the retail sector becomes a greener and, altogether, more sustainable sector.

Some retailers have cut down or even eradicated the use of plastic bags. Others are offering customers the possibility of discarding unwanted packaging as they leave the store.

However, most of these steps are consumer orientated - where the outcome is larger and dependent on the actions of the shoppers.

This is mostly due to the fact that for retailers and mall operators to take major steps in offering green solutions, these steps will also have to be profit enhancing - or at least not hit their bottom lines negatively. Honestly speaking, they are not in this field just because they like building malls.

Most of the growth in the market for malls is not consumer based, that is, it is not based on population growth. Rather, it is developmental.

Consequently, although there are many new developments in the pipeline, the real - and previously unexplored - opportunity lies not with the consumer but in the possibility of building greener and more energy efficient buildings and ultimately cutting the carbon footprint of these new retail sites.

There are several reasons as to why this has to be given greater credence. First and foremost, the UAE is one of the highest per capita producers of greenhouse gases in the world.

With a recent tonne per capita figure at 10 times that of the world average, this is a serious challenge facing the region if we are to begin reducing this figure.

One area that is being explored is that of trading our carbon off-sets, by selling emissions reductions from energy intensive industries to other countries. However, this is more of a strategic countrywide plan and not something that consumers can begin to be directly involved with - or expect to make a lasting impact.

There are several other possibilities that are open to retailers, and one which was discussed quite a while back - which can be incorporated into the design of a mall - is allowing dedicated spaces for solar energy panels in car parking spaces.

However, developers unfortunately tend to care more about their revenue streams and less about off-setting their carbon emissions. As solar panels are still very expensive, it will probably take some time before we begin to see them being integrated into the superstructures of new malls or centres.

The onus is on the customers - at least for the short term. However, the good news is that this is usually where most trends start from, before escalating into major shifts in behavioural change.

We can have the most active and direct involvement with the sector and because of our very high visit frequency to malls and grocery outlets, we can have a very quick impact on how green our retailers need to be.

Customers are really in control of the potential green revolution that can take place, but we need to be willing participants in a race that has barely started.

We also need to make sure that we lead all the way in this race and that when the time comes, we need to handover the baton over to developers and retailers and make sure that they don't drop it.

The waste the retail sector produces is huge and therefore the awareness of the how we 'retail' is paramount in understanding how we can then change.

Consequently becoming more aware of what we are actually putting back into the food and supply chain of life and how our shopping habits are affecting the environment that we live in, is an area that we can all be involved with.

- The writer is Head of Retail Services, GRMC Advisory Services.