Cawleys and Trinity Leeds Shopping Centre have been shortlisted for ‘Best Resources Project by Facilities Management’ in conjunction with Cawleys’ stakeholder engagement partner, Veris Strategies, in the Chartered Institute of Waste Management (CIWM) Awards.

Sustainably managed facilities have the potential to have a large and extremely positive effect on the environment and the people that use them. The CIWM award for ‘Best Resources Project by Facilities Management’ is designed to promote and celebrate excellence in the way those facilities are managed.

Beacon for recycling excellence

Trinity Leeds is the city’s newest shopping centre with 120 shops, bars, restaurants and cinema. The centre’s facilities team, working with Cawleys and Veris Strategies, set out from the start to make the shopping centre a beacon for recycling excellence, as well as a great retail experience, driven by a “Make your Mark” campaign.

The “Make your Mark” campaign, recognised with this award nomination, is designed to show how even the smallest action can leave a fingerprint mark on the environment but, by shoppers and retail staff working together, this mark can be as small as possible, even from a centre with 13 million visitors every year.

Community engagement

The campaign involves a range of coordinated, on-going activities, but what makes it particularly special is the spirt of community engagement and action at its heart.  Cawleys and Veris Strategies have looked for ways to achieve more than zero landfill, for example by linking recycling solutions to community donation initiatives which give benefits back to the people of Leeds.

The recycling rate for households in Yorkshire hovers at around the fifty per cent mark, with the annual household recycling rate at 57% in East Riding and 52% in Hull. Trinity Leeds achieves an over 95 per cent recycling rate, with absolutely nothing being sent to landfill under the ‘Make your Mark’ scheme.  For example, on average two tonnes of coffee grounds are collected each month to donate to a local community garden for use as a soil conditioner, and spent hops from tenant Brew Dog are sent to a local farm for animal feed.

Outstanding recycling rates

Anna Cawley, head of customer services at Cawleys said “We’re delighted to be shortlisted for this award and thrilled for the facilities management team at Trinity Leeds.  There’s always something going on at Trinity Leeds, for example the really popular late night student events.

Achieving outstanding recycling rates in such a fast-paced environment is no mean feat. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank the back house team from Cawleys who have worked so hard to deliver on our promises; my colleagues at Veris Strategies whose imagination and creativity has inspired and engaged us all, and, of course, the facilities team at Trinity Leeds for making it happen.”