Supermarket giant Coles seem to be right off its trolley when it comes to environmental matters.

Although nationally, it established an environment fund in 2003 with partners such as Landcare, Planet Ark and Clean Up Australia, its green credentials have fallen off the shelf, especially on the Sunshine Coast. And it means a koala colony and other native wildlife are under threat because Coles, the anchor tenant of a new shopping centre being developed by FKP, insisted that its new project get road and visual exposure.

FKP then went ahead to bulldoze an area that was designated to retain mature native vegetation buffers and to blend existing stands of vegetation throughout its proposed terraced car parks. The developer’s action has angered many local environmentalists and residents, especially as it had entered into a memorandum of understanding with the Sunshine Coast Environment Council in December 2005.

This MoU, which followed the former Maroochy Council’s decision to approve the Coolum Ridges Master Plan on land containing important biodiversity and conservation values, and while not legally binding, was to achieve better environmental outcomes throughout the life of the development which included a large shopping centre at Peregian Springs.

This land was known as a koala habitat and a corridor to conservation areas. The retention of vegetation buffers throughout this area was seen as a key to the survival of local native wildlife. But the subsequent clearing of the site encroached well into the vegetated buffers.

“FKP blatantly ignored the MoU and condemned hundreds more trees and wildlife to destruction,” said the Environment Council’s spokesperson, Narelle McCarthy.

“The natural aesthetic values of the area have been lost as even the small, essential concessions to retain some natural elements of these high conservation areas and wildlife corridors are dismissed in this wave of urbanisation and corporate greed,” she said.

Ms McCarthy says the future looks bleak for endangered native wildlife in the area.

“The extremely poor environmental management FKP has demonstrated with Peregian Springs seems set to continue as Coolum Ridges irrevocably transforms the biodiversity rich landscape of this area into a cleared, massive residential tract. The ‘eco’ image of the TVs ads is the epitome of greenwash,” Ms McCarthy said.

“The sell-out of the environment in this supermarket deal typifies yet again how the ecological values of this area are being lost due to poor planning decisions and a subsequent lack of accountability and environmental responsibility by developers such as FKP.”

An FKP spokesperson recently said the shopping centre was designed to have very little impact on the environment.