Finland's K Group has announced that it has developed an energy recycling system that is capable of reducing the consumption of heat in supermarkets by as much as 95%, rendering the property almost carbon neutral.
The reduction in emissions will correspond to the annual carbon dioxide emissions of a municipality of nearly 7,000 people, the retailer added.
The system comprises a low-emission refrigeration system that runs on natural refrigerants, a heating pump, and recovery systems for energy recycling.
It uses the heat generated during condensation from cooling systems to meet the heating requirements of the store.
A Scalable Solution
Jari Pihlajamaa, building services manager at K Group, said, "The concept can be replicated in stores of all sizes. We have installed the system in 13 K Group properties and next in line are some 60 K-Citymarket stores, 130 K-Supermarket stores, and 15 Kespro cash & carry outlets. Overall, the changes will result in annual carbon dioxide emission reductions of some 20,000 tonnes."
The system, developed in collaboration with Granlund, has been awarded a Vuoden Energianerokas 2019 (Energy Achievement of the year) recognition by Motive, a Finnish sustainable development company.
Carbon-Neutral Grocery Store
K Group has teamed up with Natural Resources Institute Finland to devise the concept for a carbon-neutral grocery store.
It will involve determining the carbon footprint of a store’s operations, setting targets for decreasing the footprint, and identifying measures to reduce the footprint.
In August of this year, the retailer announced plans to add a new feature to its K-Ostokset tool to show customers the carbon footprint of their food purchases.
© 2019 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
