Sustainability
Sustainability at Centre Court
Creating responsible and sustainable growth is at the heart of our proposals for Centre Court. Romulus is committed to being a compassionate community partner in Wimbledon, supporting local businesses and residents with a range of environmentally friendly and sustainable initiatives that will protect and enhance the area for years to come.
Our sustainable vision for Centre Court includes:
Beehives at Centre Court
We are passionate about sustainability and protecting the environment. Bee populations are key pollinators and without their hard work the local ecosystem suffers. At Centre Court, we will help support biodiversity by maintaining secure and healthy bee populations.
Three hexagonal wooden beehives will be installed on the roof at Centre Court, along with flowering planters to keep the bees busy.
A single bee colony can produce up to 100 pounds of honey each year
We have been running beehives at Huddle in Hammersmith for over a year and are excited to see this develop and grow at Centre Court. The hives will house more than 50,000 bees and are monitored on a regular basis by Bee Urban.
Find out more about how the bees harvest honey at our Huddle site in Hammersmith.
Urban Farm
We will be installing three garden-grade greenhouses on the roof of Centre Court on the service deck, with beds installed for crop generation, easy access to water supply and direct sunlight.
How will it work?
Our in-house urban farmer will maintain and nurture the crops. Once they’re ready to eat, all our produce will go back into Centre Court to be enjoyed by customers. We will also be recruiting local volunteers to get involved and support the management of the farm.
We’ll even use compost produced from the mushrooms to help our rooftop urban farm – reducing waste and supporting sustainable growth.
What will we grow?
Some plants which will be successful in an all-year-round harvest are broad beans and peas. Radishes and spring onions are also particularly successful for early results and are resistant to colder months. In the summer, the crop can expand to include leafy greens and root vegetables.
Unique mushroom farming
Ever thought of growing mushrooms from coffee? Here at Centre Court, we want to utilise coffee wastage produced by Centre cafes and restaurants and grow some mushrooms.
How will we make mushrooms from coffee?
After the huge amount of energy that goes into producing and shipping coffee beans around the world, all the value is placed on the liquid extract of their flavour. The other 99% of the biomass of the coffee bean is wasted. However, the waste product is still packed full of nutrients that Oyster mushrooms love.
At Centre Court, we will establish fruiting tents within a controlled space on the service deck and once set up, mushrooms grow quickly. They can go from underdeveloped to ready for harvest within 24 hours.
The produce can then be used within the Centre restaurants, shops and in home grow kits creating a circular economy within Centre Court.
The leftover materials create excellent compost, which in turn will be used in the urban farm.
Rainwater Harvesting
Water is precious, and rainwater harvesting is a great way to save water and reduce the strain on local freshwater supply.
How will it work at Centre Court?
A tank system in the basement will collect approximately 5,000 litres of water from the roof using a gutter system.
Before the water enters the storage tank, it is filtered to remove large particles such as leaves, moss and twigs.
The filtered water is then fed into the storage tank via a calmed inlet. This ensures the water discharged into the tank stays calm, allowing small particles to settle at the bottom or float to the surface.
Transforming Centre Court with a sustainable vision
At Romulus we have a unique approach, we focus on the impact our decisions have on the environment, climate change and our local communities.
We have three values which underpin our environmental, social and governance framework:
- Safeguard the environment
- Support local communities
- Advance culture and wellbeing
At Centre Court we live these values by:
The whole CCW team are now paid at least LLW
100% of the electricity we use is renewable
We recycle multiple waste streams with our service partner, First Mile - currently 57% of waste is recycled, target is now 80%
Replacement of over 1,000 florescent light fittings with energy efficient LED’s
We plan to replace gas boilers with energy-efficient electric air-source heat pumps this year
Natural ventilation strategy to reduce energy consumption on the mall
This year we will introduce a maintenance engineer apprenticeship scheme
We are part of a scheme called waste to energy for unrecyclable materials, creating zero landfill waste.
