The
Waitrose store is still a work in progress, but will be located in Norfolk. Chairman of the
John Lewis Partnership Charlie Mayfield, confirmed to
GreenWise today that it would be between 15,000 and 20,000 square feet in size and that it would be powered by a mix of energy technologies, including combined heat and power.
“It will be a waste free shop,” said Mayfield, adding that the building would be constructed to zero carbon standard or “the lowest we can get it.”
Mayfield revealed the plans for the new store after delivering a speech about the retailer’s plans to reduce its carbon emissions over the next 10 years at business sustainability conference Base, at London’s ExCeL conference centre, this morning.
John Lewis Partnership committed to absolute reductions in CO2 emissions
Mayfield said the retailer was a growing company but committed to making absolute reductions in its CO2 equivalent (CO2e) emissions over the next decade.
“We’ve doubled the size of the partnership over the past 10 years and we plan to double it again over the next 10 years,” he said. “To do that we’ve got to add even more shops, but we must also make absolute reductions in our carbon emissions – not relative.”
The John Lewis Partnership, which owns 29 John Lewis shops and 225 Waitrose supermarkets in the UK, has reduced its carbon emissions in relative terms by 27 per cent since 2001.
The partnership, however, has yet to publish a target on how it will deliver absolute changes in its overall CO2e emissions going forward, but Mayfield said it would require “at least a 50 per cent reduction” in emissions at existing stores and more still at new stores.
“We can’t just make small changes,” he said. “We need to make step changes.”
Mayfield said the new off grid store would deliver carbon savings of 60 per cent compared to one opened “two or three years ago”.
Buildings and energy account for 65 per cent of retailer's carbon emissions
Buildings and energy account for 65 per cent of the John Lewis Partnership’s carbon emissions, while transport accounts for 30 per cent. These areas include company-owned vehicles, fuel combustion and refrigeration, and indirect emissions such as those associated with electricity usage and waste management.
Mayfield said these were the key areas the company had to tackle to meet its carbon reduction commitment going forward, but to achieve this it first had to “engage” its 70,000 permanent staff who together own the company.
“It is important that we make our staff understand what we are trying to do because they are the ones spending the money,” he said.
The partnership has already spent £50 million on making refrigeration in its stores more energy efficient. Waitrose Altrincham, which opened in October 2009, was the first store to utilise the company’s new refrigeration systems, which will help phase out hydro fluorocarbons and cut its carbon footprint by 20 per cent through the use of natural refrigerant.
Meanwhile, all the company’s stores sources their electricity from green sources, while anaerobic digestion is being used to convert waste food into energy at 60 of its Waitrose stores.
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