Sainsbury’s has pledged to adopt LED lighting across all of its UK stores in a move expected to cut lighting energy consumption by almost two thirds, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 3.4% annually.
The supermarket chain expects to be the first UK grocer to power all of its outlets with LED lighting, with 250,000 new fixtures to be deployed across 450 stores thanks to Sainsbury’s new partnership with Current, the smart buildings division of General Electric.
The company will deliver the project as a turnkey service, embedding financing from GE Capital Industrial Finance with lighting design, product supply, installation and project management services.
The full LED conversion across all Sainsbury’s stores is scheduled to be completed by 2020, resulting in an expected lighting energy reduction of 58% while contributing to its continued efforts to reduce emissions across its operations.
Paul Crewe, head of sustainability, energy, engineering & environment at Sainsbury’s, said: “At Sainsbury’s we’re committed to lowering the carbon emissions of our stores, so we’re proud to be the first supermarket to switch our large stores entirely to LED lighting.
“We’re always looking for new ways of achieving our sustainability goals, and switching to LED lighting is a big step in the right direction.”
The project forms part of the supermarket’s sustainability plan, which has already seen carbon emissions in its stores halved since 2005 on the way to a 30% reduction by 2020. In the last 12 months, electricity use has been reduced by 11.6% despite the chain growing its operations by 54.2%.
The existing targets has spurred numerous energy efficiency and renewable energy initiatives across the UK, from LED retrofits to solar panels, biomass boilers and ground source heat pumps. To date, Sainsbury’s has cut absolute carbon emissions by more than 20% and is on track to achieve its 2020 target.
