Ecocore: A New Concept of 21st Century Garden Centers
Ecocore™, the first sustainable Garden Centre has been presented to acclaim at two presentations this month by its design company, Malcolm Scott Consultants Ltd, in Japan and Switzerland . Ecocore™ was launched at the International Garden and Leisure Trade Show in Cologne (GAFA) in September 2004 and at the UK Garden and Leisure Trade Show at the NEC, Birmingham (GLEE) in September 2004 where it won first prize in the best New Product (Services) category. In November 2004 Ecocore™ won First Prize in the Best Shopping Centre up to 8,000m² Category at the World Retail Exhibition, MAPIC in Cannes , France . What the Judges and International Customers find so appealing about Ecocore™ is its blend of sustainable technology and its lifestyle retail environment appeal. Ecocore™ puts plants right back into the centre of the Garden Centre under a high, fully opening glasshouse which mimics the botanical atmosphere and layout of the Eden Project. In this ‘World of Plants’, arranged according to light/shade, hot/cold, wet/dry environments the customer can find plants which relate to their home and garden environment and at the same time see and be enthused about where these plants naturally grow. Sitting high above the plant zone is the ‘Treetop Café’ where customers can look down on the world of plants and sip mint tea or enjoy raspberries grown at the Garden Centre in polytunnels above the parking area, and can buy the same variety of raspberries in the ‘World of Plants’ below.
The ground floor of Ecocore™ is the garden store. The floor is hardwearing concrete block with all of the products selected to make the plants grow sold and displayed adjacent to the World of Plants. Here is everything for the keen gardener with help on hand for the amateur. On the floor above is a very different retail environment. Here are products for Aromatherapy, Hot tubs/saunas, Outdoor Living and Well Being are displayed in a warm feminine orientated atmosphere.
Ecocore™ is about sustainability in terms of its operating systems. The energy used to heat and power the centre utilises woodchips fed into a combined Heat and Power plant. The woodchips are available from coppiced harvested woodland, and waste wood from free cutting which is now largely expensively tipped into landfill sites. Solar Panels on the roof produce additional electricity and integral wind turbines are used to power pumps to recycle water captured from the roofs and hard surfaces. The roofs on either side of the central glasshouse are grass covered to increase biodiversity, improve thermal insulation, and reduce water runoff from the buildings. The car park itself is topped with a deck upon which poly tunnels are erected to establish a food cooperative run as a consortium between the Garden Centre and the local community to produce salad, fruit and some bedding plants for use for sale in the Garden Centre and for local requirements.
This exciting concept is not simply one that fits in with government requirements to conserve energy and resources important as this is, but goes beyond this to create a positive illustration of sustainable principles in a friendly and none ideological manner which should win over ordinary people.
For further information please contact our offices.
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