MAR Shopping Matosinhos was distinguished with the “Green Heart” certification, awarded by LIPOR, becoming the first shopping center to receive this recognition. This distinction reinforces the meeting place positioning as a reference in sustainability and responsible environmental management, with a special focus on waste prevention, separation and recycling, as disclosed in a press release.
According to the same source, the certification recognizes MAR Shopping Matosinhos’s ongoing commitment to improving its environmental practices, as well as the work carried out in collaboration with LIPOR, which includes diagnosis, action plan, technical monitoring and regular monitoring. For the meeting place, this seal represents not only an external validation of its practices, but also an added responsibility toward retailers, partners and visitors.
“This certification acknowledges our journey, but it also challenges us to go further. It is a collective commitment that involves everyone who is part of MAR Shopping Matosinhos and that reinforces our ambition to be an example in sustainability,” says Sandra Monteiro, Meeting Place Manager Team Leader PT, ES and IT, Ingka Centres.
Continuous improvement and community involvement
The attainment of the “Green Heart” seal results from the implementation of a set of structured measures defined in an action plan with LIPOR, regular audits of stores and waste rooms, awareness-raising actions that contributed to a significant improvement in waste separation and initiatives that promote circularity and the fight against food waste, notably through support to the Re-food Leça da Palmeira operations center, based at MAR Shopping Matosinhos.
Among the main evolutions recorded are the improvement in the compliance rate in waste separation in stores, the implementation of verification audits and the execution of training and awareness actions, evidencing the effectiveness of the initiatives implemented with retailers.
The performance achieved by MAR Shopping Matosinhos also translated into standout results in the different criteria of the certification, with 100% compliance in the areas of “Prevention and Recycling at Source”, “Ecosystem Preservation” and “Support and Awareness”, as well as 94% in “Promotion of Recycling”.
Operational and infrastructural improvements focused on prevention and recycling at source were also introduced, as well as ongoing communication initiatives that promoted more responsible behaviors among retailers and visitors.
Among the most relevant initiatives stand out campaigns such as the “Second-hand Market”, actions to combat food waste, the project “Cork to Cork”, currently with nine participating restaurants, as well as participation in programs such as the European Week for Waste Reduction (EWWR) and internal initiatives such as the “Planet Home”.
The meeting place also implemented mechanisms for monitoring and incentives, including performance rankings for retailers and structured feedback, promoting a culture of continuous improvement.
Beyond traditional environmental indicators, such as energy consumption, recycling rate and waste volumes, MAR Shopping Matosinhos also highlights improvements in store compliance with waste separation between audits, as well as the evolution of recyclable and non-recyclable waste flows.
Data analysis also allowed identifying relevant seasonal patterns in the recycling rate, with performance peaks in January and December and declines in March and June, information that will allow optimizing future awareness campaigns and operational efficiency.
The ongoing monitoring of waste flows also enabled identifying additional improvement opportunities, notably in reducing non-recyclable waste, reinforcing MAR Shopping Matosinhos’ commitment to a strategy of continuous evolution and transparency in its environmental objectives.
