Page 25


Commitments

Improve the energy efficiency of our shops by 20% by 2010 (per square foot trading floor area, based on 2003 baseline).

Continue to source 100% of our electricity from green sources and consider all forms of renewable energy for our shops and head offices.

Reduce energy-related transport CO2e emissions from shop deliveries by 15% by 2013 (compared with 2005 and relative to £million sales).


Energy efficiency

(John Lewis graph)

(Waitrose graph)


100% Partnership purchased electricity derived from certified ‘green’ sources including hydroelectric generation, biomass, wind farms, energy from waste, and combined heat and power


Improving energy efficiency

In 2008/09, we used 765 million kWh of gas and electricity across our UK operations. This energy usage is the biggest contributor to our operational CO2e emissions. Our total energy use was actually 2% higher than last year, and our overall consumption is only likely to increase further as our business grows. However, through an ongoing Partnership-wide energy management programme, we have improved our shop energy efficiency to 116.9 kWh per square foot of trading floor area in Waitrose and 50.9 kWh per square foot of trading floor area in John Lewis, respectively a 19% and 17% improvement against our target to deliver a 20% improvement by 2010 based on a 2003/04 baseline.

Our Partners have a critical role to play in helping us to meet our environmental targets, so we continue to use Partner-focused education materials such as in-store Energy Awareness Manuals. Access to ‘real-time’ energy use data allows Energy Champions in each shop to monitor energy use, and work with maintenance teams to overcome heavy or erratic energy consumption. We continue to work with external bodies, such as the Carbon Trust, to learn new ways of improving our energy efficiency, and regularly conduct energy efficiency reviews of our estate, both internally and using external advisors.

During this year, we recommissioned the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, lighting and refrigeration in 75% of our existing Waitrose shops, optimising their operation and raising awareness of the benefits of managing our engineering systems; we plan to continue this and do the same in John Lewis during 2010.

Going for green

We continue to look to renewable energy as a sustainable, long-term alternative to fossil fuels. Through an agreement with our energy supplier, we already source all our electricity from ‘green’ sources. Other solutions have included local agreements, brokered by Green Energy UK, such as the ones that have enabled Waitrose Rickmansworth to source energy from a combined heat and power (CHP) scheme on a tomato farm and John Lewis Cardiff to receive power from a waste recycling plant.

Waitrose’s range of renewable energy initiatives, which includes photovoltaics and a biofuel-powered generator at Wimborne, wind turbines at the Leckford Estate and a trial of the anaerobic digestion of food waste (see page 30) saw it named Retailer of the Year at the Rosenblatt New Energy Awards, which recognise significant contributions to renewable energy. We are actively pursuing the possibility of further site-based energy production from fully renewable sources.