SGS has inspected Sonae Sierra shopping centres under management in Portugal, Spain, Italy and Romania for compliance with the SGS Hygiene Monitored and Disinfection Assessment Mark.
To ensure the safety and wellbeing of visitors, tenants, suppliers and employees to the shopping centres managed by Sonae Sierra, the company has decided to take a step forward by verifying and certifying their current hygiene and cleaning processes in partnership with SGS, the world’s leading inspection, verification, testing and certification company.
After inspection of Sonae Sierra’s managed shopping centres, they have been awarded the SGS Hygiene Monitored and Disinfection Assessment Mark. This confirms stringent compliance with state-of-the-art applicable protocols and regulations, reassuring stakeholders of Sonae Sierra’s commitment towards safety and prevention.
By undergoing this rigorous process, Sonae Sierra has enhanced its current hygiene and cleaning protocols for managing and mitigating against COVID-19 risks and provides increased assurance to its visitors, tenants, suppliers and employees worldwide. Specific measures that have been implemented include increased cleaning frequencies, enhanced training and specialization of cleaning staff, social distancing measures, and correct sanitization and disinfection at all shopping centres globally.
This verification also includes a series of on-site Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP) tests for surface swab samples performed in each shopping centre to evaluate the efficiency of cleaning practices. This testing is done by SGS following a monitoring approach which complements the adopted safety measures, such as the installation of disinfecting gel dispensers in several locations, fitting of automatic handrail disinfection equipment on the shopping centres’ escalators and reinforcement of the ventilation and air conditioning systems cleaning procedures.
“As the safety and wellbeing of visitors, tenants, suppliers and employees of the shopping centres managed by Sonae Sierra is a priority for us, we must ensure hygiene protocols are taken to the next level. This is why we chose the support of an expert company. With this initiative, Sonae Sierra reaffirms its long-term commitment to its stakeholders and its proactive attitude in managing the new challenges facing the real estate sector,” explains João Correia de Sampaio, Executive Director of Property Management and Leasing of Sonae Sierra
“Thanks to our approval mark, we are able to offer the reliability needed by real estate companies like Sonae Sierra to continue building safety and trust in people. Shopping centres have thousands of visitors every day, and SGS can contribute to ensuring the necessary disinfection and cleaning measures are in place to protect them,” says Frankie NG, CEO of SGS.
The SGS verification process included the validation and recommendations over Sonae Sierra’s shopping centres reopening procedures and an assessment visit to ensure they are being correctly implemented on-site. It also included on-site sampling analysis of high-touch areas and surfaces to validate the cleaning efficacy.
