We’re making smarter choices every day – cutting waste, saving energy and backing brilliant ideas that support our community.
Sustainability
Community
We’re proud patrons of Proud Watford – celebrating the town’s vibrant LGBTQIA+ community. This summer, we unveiled a rainbow staircase that brightens the centre and shows our support loud and clear. And we’re only just getting started.
We champion local voices and bring big energy to brilliant events – from the Watford Celebration festival and YMCA abseil, to Irish dancing groups and showstopping performances from Watford Fringe. Diversity deserves a spotlight – and we’re keeping it shining.
We offer free space each week to local charities – helping them shout about their work and raise much-needed funds. Our community kiosk is also open to local independent businesses, giving them a chance to test the market, meet new customers and gather real insight on what the community wants.
Each Christmas, we run a Gift Appeal to support local families. We know first-hand that many families would not have had a Christmas if it wasn’t for the generosity of our shoppers.
Sustainability
We’ve been awarded a Green Apple Environment Award for our work to reduce waste and do things differently.
The awards are run by The Green Organisation – an international, independent, non-profit, non-political environment group that recognise, reward and promote environmental best practice around the world.
Our reuse strategy aims to prevent unwanted items from being thrown away, from being recycled or from ever been unwanted at all. This can take many forms – whether it’s donating uncollected lost property to charity, or holding big shopping centre events.
Many town centre businesses outside of Harlequin are not in a financial position to fund recycling contractors. This means waste, such as cardboard, is often disposed of along with general waste, ending up in landfill.
This problem has prompted us to team up with Watford BID to supply free cardboard collection services for over 300 eligible businesses outside in the town.
This project collects over 15 cages full of cardboard every month and has only just begun! It is great for the environment and a fantastic example of how a community can work together.
Did you know?
We gave LEDs the green light!
98% of our centre lighting (and all back-of-house lighting) is LED.
Your EV is everything
We have 4 standard charging points located on level 1 of Queens Car Park.
Only our lighting is low in energy
We have timers +motion sensors to prevent lighting empty spaces.
That's smart thinking
Our Building Management System enables smart monitoring of all mechanical equipment.
Energy savings: Game on
We provide a water refill station to shoppers on the lower mall to reduce single-use plastic.
Waste not want not
We recycle 200 tonnes of cardboard a year, which help save 1.4m litres of water a year.
Buz-worthy news
Beehives on our roof add to the natural biodiversity of the centre.
We're producing the goods
Our staff grow vegetables on our office balcony, turning concrete into a living, usable space.
Turning trash into treasure
Any items left in our empty units are upcycled or donated to charity to be reused.
Plot perfect
Our roof garden is home to a mix of plants which help to absorb 1.7 tonnes of CO2 per year.
