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16%

Absolute reduction in average Waitrose direct refrigeration and cooling CO2e emissions per shop


In our Waitrose shops in Wallingford and Monmouth, we are trialling a new way of detecting refrigeration leaks: the addition of a cherry bakewell scent to HFCs to help us to ‘sniff them out’.


(Photo of Steve Isaia)

Steve Isaia

Head of Feasibility, Development and Engineering

"The Carbon Trust Standard validates and recognises the hard work that all Partners have delivered to reduce our energy consumption and associated carbon emissions, of which we are all very proud."


REFRIGERATION

Currently, almost 16% of our total Partnership carbon footprint comes from refrigeration and cooling, with Waitrose responsible for 93% of these emissions. To address this, we have committed to halve Waitrose’s refrigeration and cooling direct emissions by 2012/13, compared to 2008/09 levels. To date, we have reduced average CO2 emissions from 453 tonnes per shop to 336 tonnes. This is a 26% reduction in relative terms, and an absolute reduction of 16%.

Reducing our impact

Waitrose completed a five-year programme to phase out ozone-depleting hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) refrigerants in 2009 and, ahead of the EU ban on hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) – greenhouse gases with a global warming potential up to 3,800 times that of CO2 – we became the first major UK food retailer to commit to stop using HFCs for refrigeration in all new and refitted shops from 2010. To achieve this, we have started to fit a new refrigeration system that uses a water- and propane-based natural refrigerant. This is more reliable and uses 20% less energy compared to an equivalent shop operating with traditional systems.

A further 25 shops will use this new natural refrigerant by the end of 2010, and by rolling this out to all our shops by 2020, we will reduce our carbon footprint considerably and make Waitrose shops totally HFC-free.

Our other efforts also include:

• an extensive leaks prevention programme
• trials of HFC-free options for transport refrigeration
• the implementation of sub-metering for refrigeration, lighting, heating, ventilation and air conditioning in all new Waitrose shops
• linking our refrigeration with our heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, which allows us to reuse their by-products.

For example, Waitrose Altrincham (opened in October 2009) uses a cold air retrieval system that takes cold air from the chillers at floor level and circulates it to other areas of the store that are prone to overheating – removing the need both for heating and cooling.

Independent recognition

The Partnership’s efforts to be more energy efficient and to reduce emissions supported its application for the Carbon Trust Standard, which the Partnership received in June 2010 following the third-party audit by the Carbon Trust Standard Company. In addition, Waitrose topped the 2010 Environmental Investigation Agency’s ‘Chilling Facts’ survey on supermarket refrigeration.


(The Carbon Trust Logo)