Sainsbury's opens the country's 'greenest' supermarket

LONDON - Sainsbury's has opened what it claims is the UK's greenest supermarket, featuring a timber frame, wind turbines and customer toilets that are flushed with rainwater.

Sainsbury's said the Devon-based store will use 50% less energy from the national grid and produce 40% less carbon dioxide than a normal store.

Cutting its annual electricity bill by one third, it boasts 38 different energy-saving measures including a biomass boiler burning wood chips to provide heating, LED lights and solar-powered fans.

Sainsbury's planted 400 trees to compensate for the 200 used in the store's timber frame and construction of the site was environmentally friendly with 90% of the building waste being recycled.

Neil Sachdev, commercial director at Sainsbury's, said the store was a "leader in sustainable construction", adding: "We've been keen to experiment with a number of energy-saving measures here, from sun pipes, which provide amazing natural light, to using a timber frame rather than steel, which consumes less energy in its production, but looks good too."

In addition to the store, Sainsbury's unveiled a greener delivery lorry, which is powered by the gas produced from rotting rubbish such as waste food, garden waste and newspapers dumped in landfill.

The lorry made its first daily drop-off at the new Dartmouth store in a 300-mile round trip from the firm's depot in Bristol.

Sainsbury's is the first UK supermarket to deliver food using the green fuel technology.

 

You have

[DAYS_LEFT] Days left

of your free trial

Subscribe now

Get a team licence 

 Give your teams unrestricted access to in-depth editorial analysis, breaking news and premium reports with a bespoke subscription to ±±¾©Èü³µpk10.

Find out more

Market Reports

Get unprecedented new-business intelligence with access to ±±¾©Èü³µpk10’s new Market Reports.

Find out more

Looking for a new job?

Get the latest creative jobs in advertising, media, marketing and digital delivered directly to your inbox each day.

Create an Alert Now