Belmont’s Big Picture

Ask someone to name a business sector that is really setting new benchmarks for environmental responsibility and few of us would think of a suburban shopping centre. Unless you shop at Belmont Forum, that is. This well established south-east metropolitan retail hub may be more than 30 years old but its ideas on recycling and other forms of resource efficiency are pure 21st century.

Being proudly West Australian owned the Centre Owner has had a long term focus on the local environment and wanted the centre to be a leader in environmental care. For the past few years, “The Forum”, as it has long been affectionately known to locals, has been quietly breaking new ground with an integrated approach to resource use and environmental responsibility, including everything from recycling and waste prevention to water and energy conservation. And everyone from the owners to the shoppers have been getting involved along the way.

Belmont Forum Marketing Manager, Ann Manifis, is an enthusiastic advocate of their approach, “The key for us has been in integrating resource awareness and environmental responsibility into everything we do. It’s a journey more than a goal and we are serious about doing this well. Some of our initiatives and achievements are ‘out front’ where customers can see them, like our Keep Australia Beautiful Award, they are also behind the scenes where customers would never even know, like our role as the largest user of Synergy’s Green Power in the whole state.

For Ann, an ideal example of this integration is Belmont Forum’s participation in the Water Corporation’s Water Achiever program. By working closely with retail tenants, the Forum achieved outstanding results (enough to prompt Water Corporation to feature it in a high-profile advertising campaign recently) but it did not stop there: rather than just communicate this to customers with some conventional signage, centre management organised a school holiday program of interactive activities and educational displays to help engage people in water conservation in the other parts of their lives.

Head of Operations, Euan Moffat, agrees wholeheartedly that integration has been key. “We maintain a constant dialogue within the centre, between centre management, contractors and retailers to keep momentum on things like recycling going, keep those procedures happening and maximise our results.  We are developing a culture where each person appreciate their individual role in recycling and waste prevention. With 138 retailers and approximately 1000 staff, this has not always been easy but they are in no doubt that it has been worth it.”

Now a few years along this journey, Belmont Forum is already developing something of a national reputation for their innovation and leadership; staff members recently presented a paper on their experiences at an industry conference to update and educate their peers on environmental care. Shopping centres everywhere are sure to start following their lead.