In the large atrium of Al Wahda Mall in Abu Dhabi, parents, children, staff and tourists are just some of the shoppers that can be found. Only they aren’t shopping – they’re planting small trees.
Close by, other visitors stand armed with paint brushes a paint pots, coloring in a large globe.
The activities all part of the mall’s campaign, Make Our Planet Green, to encourage people to be more environmentally aware.
A giant globe on the atrium floor has gradually been colored in by curious passers-by by ahead of Earth Day next week on April 22.
If they’ve spent a healthy amount shopping (AED 250 or US$68), they get to plant a sapling for free in a specially erected greenhouse before taking their young tree home. Alternatively they can pay a small fee to take a sapling home to plant.
Many art and environment lovers have also been participating in the Green Earth Sketching Contest. The competition requires them to sketch their version of an eco-friendly earth on eco-friendly paper. The winners of the contest will be announced on April 30 and the person who scoops first prize will get an Al Wahda Mall shopping voucher worth AED 5,000 (US$1,361!)
Hundreds of visitors descended on the activity areas on the opening day of the Make Our Planet Green initiative.
Aside from this latest green campaign, the mall already has in place environmentally friendly measures to help reduce its carbon footprint and use energy efficiently. The skylight on the roof has sun reflective films to help reduce overheating in order to save power.
LED bulbs have replaced 20 percent of the lights in the mall, and by 2017, the mall hopes that the entire building’s lighting will be using the energy saving LEDs instead of regular bulbs.
Al Wahda also uses an adiabatic cooling system to cut down on electricity consumption of the air conditioning system by reducing heat through a change in air pressure.
Even the restrooms are green! Waterless urinals have been in installed to help save over 400, 000 gallons of water each year.
The Make Our Planet Green event started on April 9 and is running for another week until its final day on April 25.