Multiplan Empreendimentos Imobiliarios S A : Shopping Centers invest in sustainable gardens

Multiplan has invested in projects that go beyond its own malls and involve the adjacent areas, partner tenants and the community, such as the sustainable gardens at RibeirãoShopping, in São Paulo, and VillageMall, in Rio de Janeiro. Based on the reuse of waste food that is transformed into organic compost, the gardens produce a variety of greens, vegetables and fruit.

Through Multi Sustentável, a RibeirãoShopping project, almost five tons of waste have already been collected from the food courts and transformed into organic compost. The initiative generates more than two tons of fertilizer that is used in the garden and helps to produce a total of 16 types of greens, vegetables and fruit. All the production is distributed to partner tenants and employees of the mall. In addition, the mall promotes guided visits to the space for schools to encourage environmental education, healthy eating and the process of growing vegetables.

At VillageMall, the organic garden was developed in the wake of feasibility studies for its installation and a detailed choice of the inputs to be grown. The space is part of a pilot project that aims to make the mall increasingly sustainable, using its free premises conscientiously, following a trend set by several of the company's malls.

Located in the side garden, the initiative counts on suspended agricultural box structures for planting, a drip irrigation system, sombrite screening to protect the plants from the direct effects of the sun, and the capacity to produce inputs totally free of pesticides. Among the crops are various vegetables and herbs that, as in RibeirãoShopping, are intended for donations to employees and, in the future, should also embrace educational actions aimed at reinforcing the significance of conscious consumption.