Refrigeration

As Waitrose is responsible for the majority of the Partnership’s refrigeration and cooling emissions, it has committed to halving these emissions by 2012/13, compared to 2008/09 levels.

To date, through our extensive leak prevention programme and the continued implementation of our recently developed low-carbon propane-based, watercooled refrigeration system, a 20% reduction has already been achieved. So far, we have 26 branches operating on this efficient low-carbon refrigeration solution and we continue to roll this out across our existing estate to completely replace traditional refrigeration by 2020/21. All new branches adopt this solution as standard.

In branches that still use hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), we continue to trial the addition of a cherry and almond scent to further aid the detection of leaks.

Our efforts have also been externally recognised: at the Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Magazine Cooling Industry Awards in 2010, we won Low Carbon Achievement of the Year and Retail Project of the Year. We were also highly commended for Environmental Collaboration of the Year, in recognition of reduced refrigeration emissions resulting from working with our supply chain.

In 2011, Waitrose topped the Environmental Investigation Agency’s (EIA) third Chilling Facts survey on supermarket refrigeration for the second time.

“ Waitrose’s new climate-friendly refrigeration made significant savings in both energy and costs. In one store, it managed to reduce its refrigeration carbon footprint by a whopping 69%.”

EIA Chilling Facts III

(Photo of refridgirator in stor)

Cool fridge benefits

We saw an impressive circa 60% reduction in Waitrose Richmond store’s carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, as a result of implementing various carbon reduction initiatives during store refurbishment. These included:

* replacing all HFC-refrigerated cabinets and associated plant with simple natural refrigerant

* capturing cold air spillage from open-front refrigeration cases and redistributing it to areas that require cooling

* using the heat produced from the cooling of refrigeration cases to heat the aisle space

* installing equipment which reduces incoming voltage, and therefore energy consumption.

Water use

While we do not use significant amounts of water, relatively speaking, we still recognise the need to manage our consumption carefully.

We now have more accurate water data for our shops because we installed additional water meters and sub-meters, providing real-time water consumption information, so that we can make and measure improvements. This has provided us with a baseline from which to set a new water target; we aim to reduce our shop water use by 20% per square foot of trading floor area by 2013/14, against a 2010/11 baseline.

We mainly use water in our customer and Partner restaurants and toilets, and for cleaning. Our plans for reducing water use include better water monitoring and new technologies such as air-flush urinals, low-use water-flush cisterns and sanitary water supply shut-off valves.