Wigan borough shopping mall celebrates more award successes

For the Spinning Gate Shopping Centre in Leigh has not only won its sixth consecutive international Green Apple Award for Environmental Best Practice for their waste management achievements, it also been recognised for its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) efforts and achieved an International CSR Excellence Award 2024 in the charitable giving category.

The awards receive nominations from around the world, so competition for this year’s prizes was particularly fierce.

The multi-award-winning centre has celebrated annual success for its green policies such as waste management since 2018, but for the first time, entered the CSR awards and immediately won another gong.

Centre manager Karen Cox said that over the past five years, Spinning Gate has worked “incredibly hard” to provide local charitable support in numerous, innovative ways, especially post-Covid and during the recent cost of living crises which have both dramatically and detrimentally impacted good causes’ potential for fund-raising.

Since 2019, it has focused its efforts on charitable giving, maximising all opportunities to a wide number of organisations by promoting and supporting them, providing free mall commercialisation space, assisting them with fund-raising activities and by donating a large volume of items to them.

The centre’s policy on charitable giving is described as non-restrictive and ensures every effort is made to help as many organisations as possible.

The centre’s commitment to charities includes the free use of mall commercialisation space to help promote their offer. The monetary value associated with this is £7,565.

Some of the charities who have utilised mall space include: Age UK & CAB, Breast Feeding Together, British Heart Foundation, Derian House, Diabetes UK, Girlguiding, Good Traders Scheme, Guide Dogs Charity, HSP, Landgate School, Leigh Film Society, Marie Curie, Men’s Health, Prostrate Cancer, Royal British Legion, Teddy Tombola Charity, Unify Credit Union, Wigan & District U3A, Wigan & Leigh Carers, Wigan & Leigh Hospice & Wigan Safeguarding Partnership.

The centre also assisted with some of these charities fundraising on the mall, raising a total of £4,213

Spinning Gate has donated 38,287 items worth an estimated £19,871 to local charities, organisations and community groups.

Such items include unused stock from centre stores (which were unable to be sold due to covid restrictions, new season changes, end of line stock, store closures or unsalable stock) and residual items when a store vacates the centre.

It has donated 29,275 plastic coat hangers to charity shops, care homes, centre stores, Wigan and Leigh Hospice, youth hubs, shoppers and local CICs. Some 2,395 diaries and wall planners were donated to local charity Compassion in Action for use by their service users for arts activities. And 1,309 wooden pallets were donated to local community groups for recycling and used by local community garden projects.

Ms Cox said: "We are absolutely delighted with these latest achievements! To achieve another internationally recognised award for our charitable giving contributions and to be nominated locally with the Wigan Borough Business Awards along with our annual successes is just incredible.

“We are of course incredibly proud of our award winning team who continue to work hard whilst improving our environmental performance and ensuring local charities and our community benefit wherever possible.

T”hese award winning achievements are testament to the centre team who continue to demonstrate their loyalty and commitment to the centre.”

Pam Gillian, CEO of local charity Compassion in Action said: “The sustained efforts of Spinning Gate Shopping Centre to divert its waste from landfill has directly benefitted more than 800 vulnerable families who have been referred to Compassion in Action via its partner agencies.

"The non-recyclable items, generously donated to the charity have been redistributed across Wigan borough – reducing Spinning Gate’s impact on the environment and doing social good.

“Through this partnership Spinning Gate has found a creative solution to the challenge of managing its waste profile, while at the same time serving its community in a measurable way.

“Every item passed on to Compassion in Action has the potential to be useful beyond its original purpose – saving money, adding value and reducing land pollution.

“Compassion in Action expresses its heartfelt thanks to the centre manager Karen Cox and the wider team for its generosity and commends them on their exemplary commitment to ‘green’ practices. We are ‘Stronger Together.’”

Following the centre’s environmental successes, it has also been recognised and included in The Green Book: the world’s only annual international work of reference on environmental best practice by companies, countries, councils and communities.

The book is published by The Green Organisation in tribute to the environmental endeavours. The book is a rich work of reference, detailing hundreds of organisations’ efforts to make the world a better place. The Green Book, along with the centre’s six previous Green Apple awards takes pride of place in Spinning Gate reception within the management suite.

Mall representatives will be presented with their CSR award and certificate at a glittering awards ceremony St Paul’s Cathedral, London in July.

The CSR Awards are run by The Green Organisation, an international, independent, non-profit group that formed in 1994 to recognise, reward and promote environmental best practice around the world.

The International CSR Excellence Awards are presented to companies that have a heart: caring companies that use their privileged position to help their colleagues, communities, customers, the environment and the less fortunate.

The centre is also celebrating being nominated in local business community with the Wigan Borough Business Awards for their achievements within the Best Community Engagement of the Year.

Winners will be saluted at the DW Stadium, Wigan, in September.