we're doing our bit

Charity Partnership 2023

Lakeside is pleased to announce a new charity partnership with lifeboat organisation RNLI for 2023.

This new partnership with the Burnham on Crouch branch is to honour Lakeside colleague Ryan Webb who passed away at the end of 2022 and was a avid supporter of the organisation.

The RNLI is a search and rescue charity, reliant on the support of the public to continue its lifesaving work. The lifeboat crews provide 24-hour search and rescue around the UK and Ireland and the lifeguards keep watch on 240 of the busiest beaches in the UK and Channel Islands. The RNLI safety teams and educators also work tirelessly to stop people getting into trouble in the first place. Fundraising events enable the charity to provide the best safety kit and training for volunteer crews and to build and develop lifeboats capabilities as it also continues its international drowning prevention programmes.

To launch this exciting new partnership, this March the Lakeside security team have undertaken the challenge to walk 3.1 million steps during the month while patrolling the centre with all donations going to the RNLI. You can find a link to the Just Giving page here.

We have raised over £14,000 for the RNLI

We are so proud of the fundraising efforts we have undertaken so far this year to raise money for the RNLI. Some of our fundraising have included:

- Sponsored sky dives by our staff

- Sponsored 3 million steps challenge undertaken by our security team

- Donations from the children's RNLI boat ride in the centre on Level 1

- Donations from the Fireman Ladder Climb in the Central Atrium

- Raising money during One Great Day

- Donations from the Central Atrium Cycling Event

- Office non-uniform days

- Fountain money in The Quay

Essex's Buskerteers Choir for Comic Relief at Lakeside

In a blast of musical magic, a Colchester choirmaster, Andrew Small, embodied Tina Turner as 500 choir members sang their hearts out to a cover of Proud Mary for Comic Relief and we were absolutely trilled to be a part of it!

The generosity was off the charts too! Before the event kicked off, supporters had already donated around £2,500 and on the big day, shoppers added another £1,200 to the pot, while online donations soared past £3,000! Talk about hitting all the high notes for a good cause!

To watch the full video, click here: https://www.tiktok.com/@lakesi...

To read more about the Comic Relief Flash mob, click here: https://www.gazette-news.co.uk...

A-MAZE-ING Sustainable Fun

At the beginning of April 2024, we welcomed Lakeside's Sustainable Maze! ✨

Picture this: You're wandering through a maze of eco-friendly wonders, where every twist and turn leads you to an adventure in sustainability! 💚

The first stop was to build your own terrarium! This was a chance to get your hands dirty and create your own little green paradise to take home 🏠

Our T-Shirt swap was a huge hit - this was a place to trade in your old tees for some fresh, sustainable threads. Reduce, reuse and refresh your style! 👕

The Kinetic Bike was also very popular! This was a place to power up the fun whilst generating energy - talk about a workout with a purpose! ♻️

Our 'Did You Know' zone was a chance to test your knowledge with our interactive quiz but explore the maze at the same time. This was a chance to discover fascinating sustainability facts at every turn and become a sustainability superstar! ⭐

At Lakeside, we're all about having a blast while making a positive impact. We wanted our sustainable maze to be a journey of discovery, education, and eco-conscious fun... and, judging by the reviews, it's safe to say this maze was an A-MAZE-ING hit! 🌟🌿

Lakeside's Bat Boxes

To help the local Bat population around the Alexandra Lake area we have installed four Bat Boxes for our local bats to roost and breed 🦇

As the Alexandra Lake is a vital source of food and drink for our local Bats, we felt as though this was the perfect location to install the boxes.

You will find the boxes around the lake, in the trees and we hope this will encourage the population! 💙

Did you know?

The common pipistrelle is so small, it can fit into a matchbox! Despite its size, it can easily eat 3,000 insects a night: look for it flitting around the garden or a lit lamp post as it chases its prey.

Bird Feeders Competition

A few weeks back, our incredible HR team organised a super exciting 'Bird Feeder' Competition for the Lakeside management team! 🐦

The challenge? Create a bird feeder using recycled items and let your creativity do the rest! ♻

We were thrilled to see so many enthusiastic participants in this eco-friendly project (huge shout out to all of you for taking part) and we even brought in an unbiased panel to ensure fairness in judging the entries.

And drumroll, please... 🥁

The winning bird feeder was none other than our very own Duty Manager, Aaron!

A massive congratulations to Aaron for his outstanding craftsmanship and creativity and of course, to all those who participated!

National Recycling Day

On Saturday 16th March 2024, we hosted a day of fun, learning and environmental awareness to support National Recycling Day! ♻

At Lakeside Shopping Centre our commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility drives us to support events that encourage your recycling habits and we were thrilled to have the opportunity to showcase our recycling efforts on this special occasion, along with our free craft activities!

Bird Nesting Islands

As some of our regular customers may know we have been having some refurbishment works carried out on The Boardwalk decking which resulted in a lot of old deck boards being available. So instead of sending the boards of to be recycled we decided to use some of them to create some wildlife bird nesting islands!

This involved collecting damaged wooden pallets to use as the base of the islands then fixing the decking boards to the pallet to create a platform. Once the platform was built each island has a different type of nesting box / area for different breed of birds to nest.

Some of the birds we currently have nesting on the lake are Grey leg Goose, Canada Goose, Coots, Egyptian Goose, Ducks and Great Crested Grebe.

Turning Tarmac Green

Here at Lakeside as part of our sustainability initiative, we have utilised a small piece of unused tarmac to turn into an allotment for our staff to nurture. We aim to recycle and reuse as much material as possible to get this project running smoothly. Benefits to having an allotment are:

- We can eat and donate the food we grow to our staff and local community

- We are encouraging exercise and benefitting mental health by involving our staff in the project

- We are creating a sense of community

- We are helping to improve the environment and the benefits of local wildlife

To find out further benefits to creating and maintaining an allotment, click here.

Our Bee's Have Moved for 2023!

Our Urban Bees are settling in and exploring their surroundings at the new location at Lakeside Shopping Centre!

Surrounded by wild flowers and plants often mistakenly referred to as weeds, diverse forage is vital for bees and other pollinating insects. They may even have a few neighbours in the birdboxes too!

After joining us in the Summer of 2022, our Bee's had a successful honey harvest and we were able to harvest 100 jar's of honey. These jar's were open to our staff to buy in order for a donation to our charity of the year. Keep an eye out for more bee activity in 2023!

Our project is realized in collaboration with Alvéole, a social beekeeping company. Since 2013, Alvéole has partnered with hundreds of companies and schools to start beekeeping projects all over North America and Europe, each hive creating more ecological awareness, allowing city dwellers to reconnect with nature and change their sense of responsibility towards the environment.

Lakeside secures double triumph at the Green Apple Awards 2023

Lakeside Shopping Centre proudly announces its esteemed Green Apple Awards, recognising outstanding efforts in sustainability initiatives. To read more about this, click here.