Energy and refrigeration

With rising global temperatures and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, and energy prices being pushed up by dwindling reserves and supply issues, our need to reduce consumption increases year on year. As a responsible retailer, the Partnership aims to use energy as efficiently as possible and reduce the impact of our refrigeration.

New Waitrose shops are typically 20 per cent more efficient than those built 10 years ago.

Why is it important to us?

Energy consumption is our single biggest source of
carbon dioxide emissions and a major contributor
to climate change.
Energy is essential to power all our Waitrose and
John Lewis shops, John Lewis service buildings,
offices, production units and distribution centres.
The Partnership uses more than 750 million kWh
of gas and electricity per year.
Energy procurement costs the Partnership over
£36 million every year and energy prices have
seen dramatic increases in recent years.
Direct emissions from refrigeration and cooling are our third biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions.
We are a growing business and more shops and
longer trading hours will increase our energy and
refrigeration needs.

Targets and performance

In 2009-10 we not only met, but actually exceeded, our target to improve the energy efficiency of our shops by 20 per cent (per square foot of trading floor area, based on 2003-04 baseline). To date, our efforts to be more energy efficient have resulted in an improvement of 20 per cent in Waitrose and 22 per cent in John Lewis compared to 2003-04.

Waitrose is responsible for over 95 per cent of the Partnership's direct refrigeration and cooling emissions. We have set a target to reduce the impact of these emissions by 50% by 2012/13 compared to 2008/09 levels. By 2010/11 we had reduced our carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e)emissions from direct refrigeration and cooling by 20 per cent.

View energy and refrigeration emissions data.

Key initiatives

Using energy efficiently

Monitoring energy use closely in our shops helps us to see where and how energy is used. We also continue to fit the latest technology into our new shops and existing estate, and to engage our Partners in helping deliver reductions locally.

We continue to work proactively with non-governmental organisations and consumer associations by entering into constructive engagement on campaign issues that we believe should be supported or that are relevant to our business. For example, we recently pledged our support for the Close the Door campaign (www.closethedoor.org.uk) which aims to increase awareness of the energy and carbon emissions that can be saved by retailers refraining from keeping doors open unnecessarily. We also support the annual promotion of World Environment Day, encouraging Partners to make small lifestyle changes to protect the environment.

External recognition

The Partnership's efforts to be more energy efficient and to reduce emissions supported its application for the Carbon Trust Standard (www.carbontruststandard.com), which the Partnership received in June 2010 following the third-party audit by the Carbon Trust Standard Company. We are currently working towards reaccreditation.

In 2011, Waitrose was presented with the Environmental Collaboration of the Year for its F-gas and Leak Reduction Project at the RAC Cooling Industry Awards (www.coolingindustryawards.com). We also topped the Environmental Investigation Agency's 2011 'Chilling Facts' (www.chillingfacts.org.uk) survey.

Energy sources

We are committed to reducing the carbon impact of the energy we use. Our approach is to reduce energy demand and use low carbon sources of energy. We are keen to improve both the provenance of our energy sources and the quality of the information we subsequently provide.

Through agreements with our energy suppliers, since 1st October 2011 virtually all of our electricity (circa 97 per cent) has been matched with renewable energy being supplied into the national grid. While we can not claim any operational emissions reductions from this we are supporting the UK target for 15 per cent of electricity supply to be from renewable sources by 2015.

In addition to this, electricity from a tomato farm's Combined Heat and Power (CHP) scheme is powering our Waitrose Rickmansworth store, while a waste recycling plant produces energy for John Lewis Cardiff and John Lewis Southampton sources heat from the local geothermal district heating scheme (of which energy is partly derived from naturally occurring underground heat). The remaining electricity is provided via a small number of inherited energy contracts.

We support research into new renewable technologies and programmes to commercialise the availability of renewable energy. Waitrose is one of the primary commercial sponsors of Thames Valley Energy (TV Energy), an agency formed to stimulate, encourage and facilitate the development of renewable resources in the Thames Valley area. We are also investing in generating our own renewable energy, such as at our first energy centre currently under construction at Waitrose East Cowes.

Generating our own energy

Generating our own energy from renewable sources is a key component of our plans to reduce the Partnership's CO₂e emissions by 15 per cent.

In 2010, we commenced a pilot project on the Isle of Wight in collaboration with the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA), where a biomass combined cooling heat and power plant will provide energy to Waitrose East Cowes from Spring 2012.

The East Cowes energy centre will work by utilising biomass 'woodchip', with the majority being locally supplied from the Isle of Wight. This integrated solution will reduce our reliance on the national electricity grid and almost eliminate our fossil fuel reliance other than for planned maintenance works. The residual heat will be used in an adjacent medical centre and 50 zero-carbon homes. The energy centre, housing all plant and fuel delivery mechanisms, will also deliver additional sustainable development benefits as well as the associated carbon savings of self generation of renewable energy. Drawing on learnings from developing the East Cowes centre, we have worked up a scalable model which can be rolled out across the Partnership estate. We hope to install up to 150 renewable energy centres or equivalent means of generating renewable energy by 2020/21.

We have installed wind turbines and solar panels for our chicken huts at the Leckford Estate and also planted more than 40 acres of short rotation coppice (willow) which provides wood fuel for regional renewable power generators. Solar thermal energy can also be economic on a new build and is being actively considered for new Waitrose shops.

Reducing the impact of refrigeration in Waitrose

The CO₂e effect from the release of refrigerant gases into the atmosphere represented 12.2 per cent of the total carbon footprint of the Partnership in 2010/11. Our target for a 50 per cent reduction in Waitrose's refrigeration and cooling direct CO₂e emissions demonstrates the importance we are placing on refrigerant gas containment and our commitment to reducing our environmental impact by improving the efficiency of our operations.

Waitrose has made significant investments in upgrading refrigeration units in new and existing shops. As part of this investment we have replaced some open upright freezers with cabinets with glass doors and installed flexible doors on all our walk-in coldrooms, or night blinds to retain cool air. We have also initiated an extensive leak prevention programme.

Waitrose has also moved to using low carbon refrigeration systems. After initial trials, Waitrose Altrincham was the first branch to utilise a new propane-based, water-cooled refrigeration system (opened in October 2009). Following on from this, all new and major refitted Waitrose branches are utilising this new approach. The system is comprised of small factory build refrigeration display units connected to a water loop to remove heat, reducing the refrigerant charge, by volume, by 90 per cent. But it is the Global Warming Potential (GWP) that wins; the new hydrocarbon refrigerant has a GWP of 3 as opposed to 3760 for the hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerant previously used.

In branches that still use HFCs a novel way of detecting refrigeration leaks is being trialled - the addition of cherry Bakewell scent to HFCs to help 'sniff out' leaks. If this trial proves successful it will be rolled out to more shops in future to help ensure leaks are kept to an absolute minimum while Waitrose works through its shops phasing out the use of HFCs.

Our plans/key priorities

Continue to improve energy efficiency and explore self generation from renewable sources to contribute to our wider aim to deliver absolute reductions in our carbon emissions.
Deliver a 50 per cent reduction in CO₂e emissions resulting from refrigerant losses in Waitrose.

Our environment
Measuring our CSR performance.
CSR reports
Our CSR performance is publicly reported. Read our current and past reports.
What you can do
Reduce your impact on the natural environment by adopting good environmental practices both at work and at home.