June 2015
| Business World
29
central control system for all irrigation on
the property and most recently have upgrad-
ed much or our lighting to LED and intro-
duced further organic recycling programs.”
Carvalho understands the importance and
impact that constant development and buy-
in from all individuals has on the successful
implementation of the programs.
“We tweak it every now and then for differ-
ent items that come into the waste field, such
as what type of garbage is being generated,
and what kind of recycling materials are be-
ing produced,” he said. “Our participation is
not limited to solely the management team;
the tenants buy-in into the program has been
nothing short of miraculous.”
“It’s very difficult in the retail environment
to try and get buy-in into certain some pro-
grams because it always involves manpower,
something above and beyond what they’d
normally do,” Carvalho continued. “And,
due to the seasonality of retail staffing it is
challenging to continuously communicate
and educate in order to maximize commit-
ment and work towards our goal of increas-
ing diversion rate by 5% each year.”
Characterized as a snowball effect, LaRonde
admits the buy-in from merchants is a cru-
cial point of assimilation and success.
“Continuous communication and sharing of
success is key,” she said. “Our back hallways
are lined with bins and we have specific la-
beling for them, so all the merchants know
where to take their waste/recyclables and
how to sort them. The buy in from them is
critical. We police it, we help them, we pro-
vide them with the tools they need and we
communicate with them on a regular basis.”
“It takes a lot of constant communication
to make the program work,” she continued.
“Right now our merchants not only recycle
products that come through their stores, but
we have green waste, Styrofoam waste, e-
waste, their packaging is all sorted by waste
– their light bulbs, batteries, furniture – ev-
erything that comes through their store that
we can collect, we do.”
Winning the award brings not only justifica-
tion of a continued job well done, but also
serves as a notice to the external community
that Burlington Mall is doing their part to
keep the property clean, green and running
efficiently.
