When Liberty Two Degrees (L2D) first decided to commit to achieving Level 2 Net Zero Waste status by 2023, it seemed like a tall order. Shopping malls are not known for being eco-friendly, and wasteful packaging often goes hand in hand with the retail experience. Moreover, even though the certification tool was introduced by the Green Building Council South Africa (GBCSA) in 2017, no other building in South Africa had yet achieved this status. It’s easy to understand why. In order to attain this rating, a building must divert 90% of its operational waste from landfill over 12 consecutive months.

“This certification has taken three years to complete,” acknowledges Brian Unsted, asset management executive at L2D. The idea to divert 90% of waste from landfill was clarified after the property group appointed WastePlan in 2021 to manage waste at their malls. At the time, waste diverted from landfill was only 47% – a far cry from where it needed to be.

By setting a clear goal and partnering with WastePlan, L2D was able to focus on significantly improving the diversion of waste from landfills at its malls. Sustainability manager at WastePlan, Mike Pienaar, explains the key focus areas to achieve this goal. “Firstly, we needed to get tenants to comply and introduce a system of billing that incentivised them to recycle,” he says. This was based on the “user pays” principle.

Marloes Reinink, director of Solid Green Consulting, which helped L2D achieve the GBCSA certification, says that a huge amount of effort was placed in educating retail staff. “The billing system introduced by L2D and WastePlan means that shops are charged different rates for waste,” she says. “A bin that goes to landfill is charged more than a recycling bin, for example. This creates an incentive for shops to recycle their waste.”

Accurate waste measurement

One of the key successes of this project is the accurate measurement of waste, asserts Unsted. “Through WastePlan, we are able to measure and identify all waste and recyclables generated at the four malls,” he says. “We have also set clearly defined contractual performance targets between the mall owners and WastePlan.”

Communication has also been essential. “There is frequent interaction between the property management team, WastePlan and the tenants as waste generators,” states Unsted.

Francois Retief, owner of Sow & Reap, which worked alongside Solid Green as a sustainability consultant on the project, says WastePlan should be applauded for its outstanding efforts. “The level to which they document and track their waste streams, along with the innovation applied to diverting waste, is incredible.”

Once WastePlan’s measurement system was in place, it became easier to track waste on a monthly basis, while the new billing system provided a tangible reason why tenants should minimise and recycle their waste. “Eventually diversion rates were high enough to commence with the certification process,” explains Unsted.

PROJECT NUTSHELL – EASTGATE SHOPPING MALL

UNCHARTED TERRITORY

The four shopping malls in question – Sandton City and Eastgate in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal’s Midlands Mall and Liberty Promenade in Cape Town – are the first buildings in South Africa that have ever applied for Net Zero Waste certification. This means that in many ways the certification was considered uncharted territory, according to Retief. “A lot of work and engagement went into developing approaches with the GBCSA to establish appropriate benchmarks and offsetting methodologies,” he comments.

Reinink concurs. “There were several technicalities that had to be ironed out with the GBCSA,” she concedes. “The paperwork involved was quite detailed: weigh bills must be submitted to demonstrate the quantities, while waste management licences for all the recyclers must also be shown.” But she says WastePlan’s excellent digitalised tracking system in the shopping centres made the certification paperwork a lot easier.

In order to get the Net Zero Waste Level 2 certification, the shopping malls needed to divert more than 70% of their waste from landfill for 12 consecutive months. “The remainder to get to 90% can be done through offset projects that are related to waste, such as composting organic waste,” explains Reinink. “For the L2D portfolio, the recycling percentages were between 80 and 85%, and only a small percentage was offset through a composting project.”

PROJECT NUTSHELL – SANDTON CITY SHOPPING MALL

PROJECT NUTSHELL – LIBERTY PROMENADE SHOPPING MALL

Liberty Promenade is the first mall in the Western Cape to attain a Level 2 Net Zero
Waste certification. From left: owner of Sow & Reap Francois Retief; director of Solid
Green Consulting Marloes Reinink; GBCSA CEO Lisa Reynolds; asset management
executive at Liberty Two Degrees Brian Unsted; general manager of Liberty Promenade
Brenda Bibby; and Francois Collison, the mall’s operations manager.

CHANGING TENANTS’ BEHAVIOUR

One of the hurdles L2D faced was behavioural change among their tenants, especially restaurants. “Any change requires buy-in,” asserts Unsted, “and getting businesses to change requires commitment. We needed tenants to understand why we needed them to align with L2D’s sustainability goals.”

For some tenants, the change was easier than for others. “At extremely busy times, restaurants may not prioritise recycling,” he says. “However, this is exactly when we require the most cooperation from tenants, as this is when most waste is likely to be generated.”

The recovery modelling for tenants, based on the user-pays principle, is complicated and involves fixed and variable costs, recyclables rebates, and dry and wet waste. “All parts of the system need to be running near optimally in order to achieve such high diversion rates,” says Unsted. “Things can and do go wrong, and down-times need to be reduced as much as possible. Components of the system include people, equipment, bins, tracking and monitoring systems’ hardware and software, and composting machinery.”

Project nutshell – midlands mall

Problematic plastics and contaminated waste

Another challenge has been educating tenants about the difficulty of recycling problematic plastics and the importance of separating at source to prevent contaminating waste. Problematic plastics are almost impossible to recycle and include items such as tomato-sauce sachets, butter containers, plastic cutlery and plastic straws. “L2D encourages its tenants to change their procurement policies to exchange non-recyclable products with recyclable alternatives,” says Pienaar.

Separation at source is key to avoid poor recycling rates. “It is considerably more difficult to recycle waste that is contaminated with food or liquids,” Reinink explains. “Food waste needs to be removed from packaging first before throwing it out.” In this way, both recycling and composting can occur more effectively, but it does require training for restaurant staff.

#BeTheChange campaign

As well as changing tenants’ behaviour, L2D has concentrated on educating shoppers, too. “Our #BeTheChange social media campaign was aimed at educating, inspiring and appealing to shoppers to join the movement in adopting climate-positive practices in their everyday lives,” explains Unsted.

“We also developed a separate marketing campaign to educate customers around the use of harmful plastics, and encourage them to purchase and use reusable shopping bags. A step-change in consumer behaviour is becoming more evident as more people start opting out of the excessive use of plastic.”

Sandton City has gone one step further by introducing reverse vending machines, which allow customers to hand in their recyclable packaging, including plastic, metal and glass containers, in exchange for vouchers that can be spent at the mall. These reverse vending machines are also being trialled by big SA retailers, such as Pick n Pay and Woolworths.

Unsted hopes their achievement will inspire other malls to follow suit. “We want to show other landlords that Level 2 Net Zero Waste certification is achievable,” he says. “The property industry is one of the biggest contributors of carbon emissions and we need to do as much as possible, as quickly as possible to mitigate climate-change risks.”

Commenting on the achievement, GBCSA CEO Lisa Reynolds says it is a considerable accomplishment that was attained through the power of partnerships. “L2D’s achievement of Net Zero Waste makes it clear that sustainability should not be seen as aspirational, but achievable through the implementation of a clear and consistent approach that provides a strong framework for waste management and resource recovery at all levels.”