Toronto shopping centres Eglinton Square and Cloverdale Mall have erased their coffee footprint with an innovative program called Grounds to Gardens.

Since 2013 the Bentall Kennedy-managed properties have collected 116,540 lbs (52,862 kilograms) of coffee grounds from their food service retailers. Partnering with Reground Organics, the used coffee grounds, which are rich in nitrogen, are mixed with nutrients to create sustainable potting soil.

The malls will celebrate this environmental achievement on Saturday, April 25 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Shoppers can receive a free 18 litre bag of nutrient-rich potting soil from the malls’ coffee grounds for their gardens in exchange for electronic waste through the Community Drive-Up E-Waste Collection; or by donating $2 to Evergreen, a national not-for-profit that makes Canadian cities more livable.

“Coffee grounds at these properties used to be sent to landfill with other waste where they emit greenhouse gases,” explains Darren Neely, Marketing Manager, Eglinton Square. “By collecting these grounds we’ve given them a whole new use while helping make a difference to the environment,” adds Jennifer Bolton, Marketing Director, Cloverdale Mall.

“Innovative efforts and solutions like Grounds to Gardens will help overcome the waste diversion challenges that are prevalent in Ontario’s commercial sector,” says Jo-Anne St. Godard, Executive Director, Recycling Council of Ontario (RCO). “Turning otherwise landfilled materials like coffee grounds into valuable and sustainable soil nutrient is just one of many processes that qualified Cloverdale Mall for 3RCertified status.”

About Recycling Council of Ontario - Recycling Council of Ontario (RCO) is a not-for-profit membership-based organization committed to minimizing society's impact on the environment by eliminating waste. For more on RCO and 3RCertified, visit www.rco.on.ca.

For More Information on Grounds to Gardens Contact:

Jennifer Bolton, Marketing Director, Cloverdale Mall, 250 The East Mall, Etobicoke, ON

jbolton@bentallkennedy.com (416) 236-1669 ext. 223 www.cloverdalemall.com

Darren Neely, Marketing Manager, Eglinton Square, 1 Eglinton Square, Toronto, ON

dneely@bentallkennedy.com (416) 757-7770 ext. 104 www.eglintonsquare.ca