The global recession has stifled mall culture. That's not a bad thingIn December, the French business management consultancy group Beauvais Consultants released a study entitled "Setting Up Superstores and Climate Change," which examined the environmental impact of shopping in suburban malls -- or "hypermarkets" -- through surveys of 5,000 urban-dwelling consumers.
The 15-page report found that shopping in these megamalls produces four times as much carbon dioxide emissions as shopping locally.
"The question arises as to whether, in the light of sustainable development, this is the right model to export throughout the world," the report states.
This research confirms an obvious assumption -- that shopping locally or online is a much greener option than driving to the nearest megamall.
"As icons of excessive consumption and shortsighted urban planning," asserts Kimberly D. Mok in an article on Treehugger.com, "malls represent everything that has gone wrong with our car-based consumer culture."
Norway is leading the charge. Last year, the country banned the creation of suburban malls bigger than 3,000 square meters.
"The most important fact about our shopping malls," says social scientist Henry Fairlie as quoted in a recent story on TheWeek.com, "is that we do not need most of what they sell."
In 2004, developer Larry Siegel broke ground for Xanadu, a $2.2 billion, 2.4-million-square-foot New Jersey mall that was supposed to open its doors in June. Original plans included an indoor ski slope, a fishing pond, a Ferris wheel and a 30-foot-high chocolate waterfall.
Mr. Siegel has touted Xanadu as the ultimate in "shoppertainment." But the recession has forced a scale-back on this carbon-gushing concept.
If a decadent waterfall must be built, perhaps it might at least spout locally-grown, organic chocolate.
image: Festival Walk Mall, Hong Kong (credit: mischiru)
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