Sonae Sierra, the first company in the shopping center business to obtain, at an international level, certification for its Environmental Management System (EMS), in conformity with the ISO 14001 standard, has just increased its number of shopping centers with environmental certification, issued by the prestigious Lloyd´s Register Quality Assurance (LRQA), the only certification company in the world licensed to operate in all industrial sectors.
Pursuing its strategic goal of obtaining environmental certification, by the end of 2008, for all its shopping and leisure centers under operation, Sonae Sierra has just obtained certification under the ISO 14001 standard for the Plaza Mayor, Avenida M-40 and Luz del Tajo centers, all in Spain, and for Estação Viana, ViaCatarina, Centro Vasco da Gama, AlgarveShopping and Parque Atlântico, all in Portugal, which now join two Portuguese centers already certified: Centro Colombo and NorteShopping.
With this certification, Sonae Sierra's shopping and leisure centers are now acknowledged to abide to the most demanding levels of environmental management in vital areas such as energy savings, water quality and consumption, the monitoring of air quality and the selective separation and recycling of waste materials.
According to Álvaro Portela, Sonae Sierra's CEO, "these certifications, issued by renowned specialists in the subject, represent the acknowledgement of the Company's great efforts in terms of environmental matters. They also confirm that our environmental policy makes us a reference company in the sector, allowing us to bet on a sustainable development of the Company."
Source: Sonae Sierra
