A mall visit or generates 500gm of waste: study
Benchmarking project involving seven malls in Dubai also reveals power and water use
Atypical mall visitor generates more than half a kilo of waste, consumes more than 10 litres of water and uses 511kWh of electricity per square metre in a year in Dubai, a new study revealed.
A UAE- based sustainability expert, Farnek, yesterday released the results of its first shopping mall benchmarking project in the Middle East thatwas designed to evaluate the energy, water and waste performance of each mall, against similar retail properties in Dubai.
“[ To give you an idea], 511 kWh is enough energy to run a fridge- freezer continuously for 365 days,” Markus Oberlin, CEO of Farnek, said.
Seven malls studied
Seven shopping malls in Dubai participated in the project and submitted their data about their consumption figures and general characteristics of their buildings.
Oberlin said the retail sector is one of the largest energy consumers in the UAE and prior to this initiative, no benchmark figures were available for shopping malls anywhere in the Middle East.
“That obviously presented mall owners and operators with an issue of howto evaluate
10litres ofwater estimated to be consumed by amall visitor
511kWh of electricity being used per squaremetre of amall in a year
their energy and water consumption, and their waste management performance.”
The key findings were recently presented to the Mall Stakeholders Group. Further insights will be showcased at the RetrofitTech Dubai Summit on April 10.
Farnek director of Consultancy Sandrine Le Biavant, who was responsible for launching and monitoring the project, said metering systems are integral for aligning industry key performance indicators, promoting sustainable best practice and providing an accurate monitoring system that will ultimately create better efficiencies.