A Leigh shopping centre lands an incredible ninth award for its pioneering environmental practices

A Wigan borough shopping mall that has become a national role model for its eco-friendly practices has yet another gong for its trophy cabinet.

For the Spinning Gate Shopping Centre in Leigh has been awarded its ninth consecutive Green Apple Award for Environmental Best Practice.

The Green Apple Awards is an annual international campaign to recognise, reward and promote environmental best practice around the world.

This latest honour follows further award success with the centre recently achieving the mall’s third consecutive International CSR Excellence Award.

As part of the award process, the centre documented and evidenced its environmental credentials: with over 58,000 items donated to local charitable organisations in the past year alone, a 154 per cent increase on volume of items donated compared to the previous year. 

The centre has recycled over 270,000kg of cardboard since 2017 and since then, reduced its waste volume by 33 per cent, diverting 100 per cent of waste from landfill for the past nine years. 

The centre has reduced energy consumption by 48 per cent and cut water use by 37 per cent since 2018.

Spinning Gate continues to support, assist and help as many charities as possible, regularly communicating with over 112 charitable organisations and donating residual items of stock, and used shop fittings. 

These items are used or sold in charity shops, donated to their service users or repurposed.

This model delivers community cohesion, providing a collaborative approach to recycling initiatives whilst supporting the local community and local economy.

Spinning Gate has also worked in close partnership with a large number of local charities providing a central drop of points for donations of items. 

One such recent initiative included the creation of a donation point for promwear, partnering with local charity AIM Northwest. 

This hugely successful prom wear appeal saw a huge influx of prom wear items which AIM Northwest loaned out to school-leavers, ensuring they can attend, make memories and enjoy their end of year proms.

The Green Apple Awards are organised by The Green Organisation whose philosophy is to help others to help the environment. 

Entries are invited from any company, organisation, community or individual that is helping the environment. 

 Spinning Gate manager Karen Cox said: "We are immensely proud of the centre team, our retail partners and our contractors who continue to embrace our environmental journey with us.  

“This latest award is testament to all our partners and stakeholders who work hard to ensure we build on our previous achievements.

“Spinning Gate Shopping Centre remain fully committed to building on our previous sustainable successes which has grown from strength to strength, continuing to influence change through our initial core steps: reducing waste volumes, increasing recycling initiatives to reviewing our supply chain, encouraging adoption of our green strategies and longer term approaches with reductions across utilities.”

“We are very much looking forward to future initiatives and celebrating our latest environmental success.”

Spinning Gate continues its success, currently boasting a 95 per cent occupancy level, from fashion to food, banks to bargain stores, hairdressers to home, 37 of the centre’s units are now all occupied across the 110,000ft sq town centre site.  Footfall has increased with an average weekend growth of up to 40 per cent.