Site

The Glades Shopping Centre. Bromley U.K.

Installed

October 2019 - ongoing

Team

Artecology/Arc Consulting. LaSalle Investment Management.The Glades Shopping Centre Managment Team.

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Artecology worked with The Glades Shopping Centre, commissioned by previous asset owner LaSalle Investment Management, with a mission to create the world’s most wildlife-friendly shopping centre.

The first phase started with the delivery of a Shaping Better Places™ public engagement project. This was used to introduce the ‘Wild Glades’ biodiversity initiative to all stakeholders - a retail business within the centre, centre staff and of course shoppers.

Phase one has seen the completion of a rooftop wildlife reserve situated on the shopping centre building. Artecology designed and delivered interventions which include wild planting, bird boxes, BioTotems™, solitary bee habitats and MicroPools™. The reserve is in a publicly viewable area adjacent to one of The Glades shopping Centre’s main public entrances.

Phase two successfully delivered a three-day covid-safe online Wild Glades Festival to schools across the U.K. Wildflower seeds were distributed to over sixty schools in the local area and the festival delivered three days of rewilding & sustainability workshops, tutorials and stories to viewers. www.wildglades.co.uk

Phase three under new asset owners will see further ecological upgrades to the Glades Shopping Centre building itself.

Note: Artecology is currently working with LaSalle on five different biodiversity/public outreach projects at asset locations across the U.K. As well as helping their sustainability management team integrate our ‘Shaping Better Places’ framework into their own ‘Four Pillars to Sustainability’ strategy, we are also helping them reach ESG targets through positive actions designed for people and wildlife.

1.

Biodiversity net gain brought to the centre of a town shopping complex through a mix of creativity and realistically applied ecology. This is an exemplary ongoing project demonstrating both urban punctuated interventions specifically for wildlife and superb community and stakeholder engagement.

2.

This is an expansive project that has sparked positive change on an organisational level both within the Glades Shopping Centre management team itself and in the day-to-day workings of the main asset owner. This has led to a new understanding of the global issues of species extinction and biodiversity loss and the kind of efforts needed to combat them.

3.

60+ Primary Schools and thousands of community members reached through the Wild Glades Online Festival. The Glades Shopping Centre is on track to become the most nature-friendly shopping centre in the world.