Page 11 Climate change

Alternative energy
Improving our energy efficiency will reduce, but not avoid, CO2 emissions, and we believe that renewable energy will provide a sustainable, long-term alternative to fossil fuels. Since October 2007, 100% of the Partnership's electricity (up from 40% in 2006–07) has been derived from green sources through EDF Energy.

Through long-term agreements with a range of suppliers, EDF ensures enough green energy is fed into the National Grid to meet the needs of companies wanting to purchase it, including the Partnership. We purchase energy derived from hydroelectric generation, biomass, landfill gas, energy from waste, certified combined heat and power (CHP) plants, and wind farms, but not from nuclear power. Although securing green power contracts for the future remains a challenge, we are committed to doing so.


Refrigeration programme
We are now in the third year of a five-year programme that will see £55 million invested in new refrigeration equipment. As part of this investment, we are replacing open upright freezers with cabinets with glass doors and using flexible doors on our walk-in cold rooms, or night blinds to retain cool air. All of this has helped us to achieve the 19% improvement in shop energy efficiency. We are also phasing out hydro-chlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) well before the 2010 deadline required by law.


Water consumption
We are not big users of water, but we recognise we need to consume less of this precious and increasingly scarce resource. Our improved monitoring of water consumption is helping us to gain a better understanding of our performance in this area. Waitrose water use increased by 5% in 2007 to 641,744m3 but remained static relative to business growth over the year at 28m3 per full-time equivalent Partner.


64% Proportion of our electricity use accounted for by refrigeration


100% Electricity generated from certified green sources


(Picture of an energy saving light bulb with the following caption:)

Waitrose supports calls by the Government to phase out the sale of conventional incandescent light bulbs by the end of 2011. We also encourage customers to look for the 'Energy Saving Recommended' label, indicating the bulb has met Energy Saving Trust criteria and standards.


Engaging Partners
Although we are investing in more energy-efficient systems at a corporate level, individual Partners have a critical role to play. This includes:

> energy champions promoting energy efficiency throughout the business

> a Partnership-wide energy awareness campaign, 'Save Energy, Share the Savings'

> an energy awareness manual, Saving Carbon and Cutting Costs, which provides Partners with guidance on how to use energy efficiently

> monthly energy reports to help shops to monitor performance against efficiency targets.

We also support the Environment Agency's annual promotion of World Environment Day on 5 June. This year's campaign, 'Stand up to Climate Change', highlighted ways to cope with some of the inevitable consequences of our changing climate, ranging from adapting gardens to meet the evolving needs of local wildlife through to training as a volunteer with emergency relief organisations such as the Red Cross.


Engaging suppliers
Through the Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD) Carbon Footprinting Working Group, we are assisting the British Standards Institute's Publicly Available Standard (PAS) 2050 Committee in developing a national standard for measuring a product's or service's total carbon footprint, from source to end of life. The Carbon Trust is also developing a standard for communicating and reducing the carbon footprint of consumer products. Both committees expect to complete their work later this year.


A pilot project for the produce sector, which is being coordinated by the Waitrose Supplier Agronomy Group, is helping suppliers to make accurate and meaningful reductions in carbon emissions.


(Lancaster University logo with the caption:)

A partnership with Lancaster University has seen 120 buyers, technical managers and growers from our own supply chain attend a week-long Responsible Agronomy course at the Lancaster Environment Centre. Such interaction gives all our fruit, vegetable and horticulture suppliers the chance to engage on issues from climate change to new plant science research. Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44