Waitrose opens its greenest ever store
Waitrose has opened its greenest store to date close to its head office in Bracknell, Berkshire. The retailer said that carbon emissions from the 25,000 sq ft will be 80% lower than those of a typical Waitrose branch of the same size.
The store will benefit from its own on-site energy centre which will provide all of its heating, cooling and electricity needs by burning locally sourced wood chip from Forestry Commission standard sustainable woodlands. It will also produce surplus power of around 150,000 kwh which will be fed back into the national grid.
Other features of the store include a‘ green’ roof covered with wild grass to improve drainage and provide an area for wildlife, a ‘living’ wall to promote wildlife movement around the site, and nest boxes for bats and swifts.
There is also a‘bug hotel’ in the car park to provide a safe haven for hibernating insects. The hotel is the size of a telephone box with individual ‘rooms’ inside designed to encourage different insects.
The retailer wants more of its stores to operate off-grid and plans to roll out on-site energy centres to future builds, to help achieve its overall aim of a 15% absolute reduction in operational CO2e emissions by 2020/21.
Nigel Keen, director of development at Waitrose said: “We’re keen to roll out these new features more widely, particularly the on-site energy centres which offer massive CO2e savings and will reduce the amount we spend on energy in the long-run.”
Waitrose is also installing a generator at its East Cowes store on the Isle of Wight which will be ready for commissioning later this month.
