Asda opened its wood-clad, timber-framed eco-store at Bootle in Merseyside on Monday.

The£27 million, 40,000 sq ft store has several energy-generating and -saving features such as an external bio-mass boiler fuelled with wood chips and lower energy freezers, all of which have doors to keep the cold in. The store also has higher levels of daylight than similar-sized branches.

Asda estimates the store’s carbon footprint will be more than 50 per cent lower than a conventional outlet.

Asda head of technical development Bob Simpson said it had cost about£2 million more than a traditional Asda to build, and that elements of the eco-store will be rolled out. He said: “I don’t get too excited about what it looks like – it’s more about what’s under the bonnet.”

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