SUSTAINABILITY

At the Bay Centre we pride ourselves in adopting progressive environmental standards and practices. As a BOMA BEST Gold Level shopping centre, the Bay Centre team is continually measuring, managing and improving our environmental performance through energy, water, consumption and waste reduction. Our over 15 years of sustainability efforts have provided dozens of businesses with access to full recycling and composting programs, energy efficient spaces and a sustainable transportation infrastructure.

Major sustainable initiatives that have been completed to date include:

  • 2022:
    • Welcomed two rooftop honey bee hives. Our two rooftop hives are a partnership with Alveole to assist in education and outreach in reconnecting to nature, building ecological awareness, and creating opportunities to learn how, in time, we can improve our urban sustainability and food systems. Learn more about our bee hives>>
  • 2021:
    • Introduced a permanent e-waste recycling bin for tenants of the Bay Centre
  • 2020: Focus on sustainable partnerships
    • Hosted a clothing swap with Victoria Eco Fashion Week with approximately 2,700 items of clothes donated. Remaining clothes were donated to Victoria Women in Need Community Cooperative (March)
    • Hosted Victoria Eco Fashion Week’s pop-up shop featuring sustainable clothing from five local designers. A portion of the sales were donated to Victoria Women in Need Community Cooperative (March)
    • Hosted a clothing swap in partnership with Used.ca and the Makehouse with 2,925 pounds of clothes donated. Remaining clothes were donated to Victoria Women in Need Community Cooperative (October)
    • Partnership with Bottle Depot’s charity recycling program. Proceeds from refundables collected at the Bay Centre are directed to BC Children’s Hospital Foundation. Since launching in 2017, this program has raised over $22,000 to date
  • 2019:
    • Successfully increased our waste diversion from 54% in 2017 to over 70% in 2019. 85% of recyclable material was diverted from the landfill. This includes over 656,000 lbs. of recycling, saving 1,650 mature trees from being cut down. The Bay Centre completes waste audits every year to continually improve our waste reduction and sustainability plans
    • Our increased waste diversion rate is a result of the sorting program that was launched in 2018. All property waste is carefully sorted behind the scenes in accordance with our recycling procedures
    • Installed a water refill station, saving the use of over 15,000 plastic bottles
  • 2018/2019:
    • Ongoing replacement of hot water tanks to increase efficiency of water use
    • Retrofitted all interior lighting to high efficiency LED lights
  • 2018:
    • Awarded BOMA BEST Gold Level certification
  • 2017:
    • We successfully increased our waste diversion from 38% in 2016 to 54% in 2017. This equates to the weight of 94 Tesla Model S vehicles!
    • Installed aerators on faucets to reduce the flow from 1 gpm to 0.5 gpm.
    • Replaced single fold paper towels and dispensers with hand dryers and hands free rolled towels.
    • Installed a variable frequency drive (VFD) on our 800 ton chiller with an expected savings of 188,000 KWH annually in electricity consumption.
    • Retrofitted almost 3,000 fluorescent and incandescent lamps to high efficiency LED with an expected savings of 232,000 KWH annually in electricity consumption.
    • Partnered with Modo to provide carshare vehicles in the Bay Centre’s parkade
  • 2016:
    • Partnered with Bottle Depot’s charity recycling program. Proceeds from refundables collected at the Bay Centre are directed to BC Children’s Hospital Foundation.This program has raised over $10,000 to date
    • Launched TerraCycle gift card recycling program diverting gift cards containing PVC synthetic plastic from the landfill and repurposed into new plastic cards. This program is open to Bay Centre tenants and guests. Since 2018, we have collected over 7,300 gift cards – that is over 100 lbs! Bay Centre gift cards sold are made of recycled PVC.
  • 2015:
    • Recertified and awarded BOMA BEST Silver Level certification
    • Launched the Bay Centre’s secure Bicycle Cage Parking Program offering monthly membership to tenants and guests to support alternative transportation methods
  • 2013:
    • Installed four charging stations for electric vehicles in our underground parkade
    • Reduce carbon footprint from 1,085 tonnes to below 1,000 tonnes
    • Reduce energy consumption by an additional 5%
  • 2012:
    • Completed the Climate Smart Program in which we calculated the carbon footprint of the core operations to gain an understanding of greenhouse gas emission sources and opportunities for reductions
  • 2011:
    • Recertified and awarded BOMA BEST Silver Level certification
  • 2009:
    • Partnered with C.D. Sonter Ltd. to conduct a waste audit to create a benchmark for future sustainable practices and programs
    • Introduced a tenant pre-consumer organics (compost) program in the food court. In 2017, this program eliminated 73,000 kgs of food waste
    • Converted to a bag-less program in most of the common areas (launched in 2009). To date, this program has eliminated over 54,000 bags from the landfill
    • Started selling waste vegetable oil to be used for biofuels (Globally, biofuels are most commonly used to power vehicles, heat homes, and for cooking.) In 2017 we diverted 10,400 kgs of waste vegetable oil
    • Replacing washroom paper towels and toilet tissue with 96+% recycled content paper
    • Installed low-flow toilets in lower level women’s washroom and no-flow urinals in the men’s washroom on the lower level
  • 2008:
    • Became BOMA BEST Level 1 certified as a result of our achievement of environmental excellence in the management of the property
  • 2005:
    • Partnered with BC Hydro, Trane Canada, Quantum Lighting Inc., Douglas Lighting Systems and Commercial Lighting Distributors to audit and retrofit the shopping centre’s lighting and building management systems. To date, this upgrade has saved almost 1,700,000 kWh in energy. This equates to an average annual energy reduction of 2.26%. In 2005, as part of this project, the Bay Centre received BC Hydro’s Power Smart Excellence award. This program was the beginning of an evolution of change within our operational practices
  • 2003:
    • Created a comprehensive tenant and common area recycling program for paper, glass, metal and plastic