John Lewis Partnership steps up net zero carbon commitment with biomethane gas filling station

Thursday 18 June 2020

The John Lewis Partnership today announced that it is stepping up its commitment to reducing carbon emissions by building a dedicated biomethane gas filling station to enable its largest heavy goods vehicles1 to use a low-carbon alternative to diesel. Alongside this, the Partnership has also revealed an ambition to stop using fossil fuels across its entire 4,800 strong transport fleet by 2030.

In March 2019, the employee-owned business pledged to be net zero carbon across its entire operations by 2050 at the latest and its 600 heavy goods vehicles to be switched to low-carbon biomethane by 2028. Since last year, the Partnership has reduced its total operational carbon emissions by 6.6%2 and emissions from transport have fallen by 6.9%. 

The new biomethane gas filling station will be built in conjunction with Air Liquide and will open at the Partnership’s head office in Bracknell in December 2020, making it the business’s first on-site gas filling station. It will facilitate the conversion of the Bracknell Waitrose fleet to biomethane and complement gas filling stations already in use near to John Lewis and Waitrose regional distribution centres in Leyland, Lancashire, and in Northampton. 

Serving approximately 120 Waitrose heavy goods trucks, the vehicles will run on biomethane made from food waste and food processing waste materials rather than diesel. This will reduce CO2 emissions by 80%, with each truck saving over 100 tonnes of CO2 every year. These gas trucks are also quieter, decreasing noise pollution, which is especially important for urban deliveries. Over the next seven years, the Bracknell site alone will save over 70,000 tonnes of CO2, equivalent to the carbon footprint produced by over 13,000 UK households3

Since 2015, 85 of the Partnership’s heavy diesel vehicles have already been replaced with biomethane trucks, and a further 143 will be purchased and in operation by the end of 2020, making this the largest order of biomethane trucks in the UK.

To reduce carbon emissions across its transport network further, the Partnership’s ambition is to eliminate fossil fuels from its commercial vehicle and car fleet by 2030. This radical initiative could see 1,750 electric vans and light trucks introduced and approximately 750 refrigerated trailers converted from diesel to electric drive. In addition, the Partnership’s 1,300 strong car fleet would become 100% electric and any remaining vehicles that could not be converted to biomethane or electric will use hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) biodiesel.

Justin Laney, Partner & General Manager of Central Transport at the John Lewis Partnership, said: “The evidence of climate change is all around us, so it’s important we act now using available technology rather than wait for unproven solutions to appear. We are working hard towards our new aim of removing all fossil fuel from our transport fleet by 2030, which will reduce our carbon emissions by over half a million tonnes and gets us well on the way to our ultimate target of operating a net zero carbon emission fleet.”

In addition to reducing transport carbon emissions, the Partnership is also reducing the carbon emissions produced by its shops, with refrigeration units used in Waitrose being replaced. Hydro Fluoro Carbon (HFC) - the greenhouse gases used in cooling systems - are currently being switched to HFC-free refrigerators and this will be completed by 2028.

For more information on the Partnership’s never wasteful commitments visit www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/csr/never-wasteful.html


1. Heavy goods vehicles are defined as the biggest trucks on the road such as articulated tractors and trailers that are the mainstay on long distance freight movement. This does not include home delivery small trucks and vans.

2. 2018 total baseline was 395,381 tonnes.

3. ONS Environmental Accounts June 2019 report www.ons.gov.uk/economy/environmentalaccounts/bulletins/ukenvironmentalaccounts/2019 states 144 million tonnes of CO2 emissions was produced by UK households in 2017. In 2017 there were 27.2 million UK households as per ONS Families and households report www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/families/bulletins/familiesandhouseholds/2017. This therefore assumes 5.29 tonnes CO2 emissions was produced per household in 2017.

NOTES TO EDITORS

About the John Lewis Partnership

The John Lewis Partnership owns and operates two of Britain's best-loved retail brands - John Lewis & Partners and Waitrose & Partners. Started as a radical idea nearly a century ago, the Partnership is the largest employee-owned business in the UK and amongst the largest in the world, with over 80,000 employees who are all Partners in the business. For all intents and purposes, the Partnership is a social enterprise; the profits made are reinvested into the business - for customers and Partners. John Lewis & Partners operates 50 shops across the UK (36 department stores, 12 John Lewis at home and shops at St Pancras International and Heathrow Terminal 2) as well as johnlewis.com. Waitrose & Partners has 338 shops in England, Scotland, Wales and the Channel Islands, including 61 convenience branches, and another 27 shops at Welcome Break locations. Waitrose & Partners exports products to more than 50 countries worldwide and has nine shops which operate under licence in the Middle East. The retailer's omnichannel business includes the online grocery service, Waitrose.com, as well as specialist online shops including waitrosecellar.com for wine and waitroseflorist.com for plants and flowers. 

media ENQUIRIES

John Lewis Partnership


Sarah Henderson
Partner & Senior External Communications Manager
Email: sarah.henderson@johnlewis.co.uk
Tel: 07764 676 036

Waitrose & Partners


Hannah Chance
Communications Manager, Corporate
Email: hannah.chance@waitrose.co.uk
Tel: 07525 273 147