Belgian retailer Colruyt Group has announced that over a 12-year period it will convert 234 of its outlets into energy-efficiency stores. The group is investing €75 million into the project.
The retailer is using these steps in order to cut its use of fossil fuels and to introduce more innovative and sustainable technologies.
As a result ofthe investment, the group intends to reduce its CO2 emissions by at least 4% by 2029, creating a ‘long-term leverage effect for the benefit of limiting climate change’.
Koen Baetens, director of Colruyt Group Technical Services, said, “Low-energy conversion means that every store that is older than ten years that we own will be insulated and made more airtight, and we will revise the technologies where needed.
“Thanks to this investment, CO2 emissions from the whole group will drop by at least 4%. That corresponds to what 1,975 families emit each year for their heating.”
100% Green Technologies
Colruyt is implementing 100% green technologies, such as heat pumps providing hot water, the refrigeration systems operating on propene or propane gas, and the heating will run on heat recovery from refrigeration.
The 100% green electricity used to fuel these stores will remove fossil fuel from the stores. The first fossil fuel-free stores will open in autumn.
Back in 2007, Colruyt committed to sustainable action and decided that all the new store it built would only be low-energy stores, however, now it is implementing this refurbishment scheme to further reduce its carbon footprint.
Its goal is to convert an average of 20 stores per year. The first converted low-energy stores open this Wednesday in Knokke and Marcinelle.
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Aidan O’Sullivan. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
