Being green and always thinking about the environment has become a way of life for us at White Rose and we are delighted to have been recognised at national, regional and local levels for our environmentally aware activities both inside the centre and out.
The latest environmental initiative taken by the centre has seen the introduction of hives that house more than 300,000 honey bees – bolstering the local bee population, which has been at risk because of pests and parasites.
As well as making honey, honey bees pollinate countless hectares of agricultural crops. It’s estimated that a third of the food we eat could be attributed to pollination by bees. The productivity of modern agriculture would be drastically reduced without the humble honey bee.
We have a dedicated bee keeping team onsite and plan to give the honey that our bees produce away to local community projects.
Our grounds and entrances, expertly cared for by specialist contractor Grace Landscapes, have earned awards for many years in the Leeds in Bloom and Yorkshire in Bloom competitions.
The high quality of their maintenance has also been rewarded with a BALI award from the British Association of Land Industries.
All grass cuttings and prunings from trees and shrubs in the centre’s grounds are turned into mulch and reused around the site.
Our recycling ethos also extends to our responsible handling of card waste, which has won us a prestigious Green Apple Award from the Green Organisation.
Rainwater, harvested from the roof of the centre’s south west mall, is used to feed the cisterns of toilets, offering the potential for more than 40,000 free flushes per year.
This means of water conservation and re-use is environmentally friendly in every respect, because the system is gravity fed and does not require the use of electric pumps for circulation.