Marks & Spencer is switching some of its stores to green electricity for the first time. The change will produce energy savings equivalent to taking 600 cars off the road.
The retailer has plugged two of its west Scotland stores - Braehead in Renfrewshire and Milngavie near Glasgow - into ScottishPower's renewable Green Source supply.
Although M&S now pays slightly more than it did before, energy manager Mervyn Bowden said: 'We are always looking at ways to reduce the impact of our products on the environment.
'The deal with ScottishPower guarantees that all the electricity we use at these two stores will be matched back to renewable sources. With 65,000 people a week passing through these two stores, we realise the importance of making active efforts to save energy.'
Green Source is generated from renewable resources, such as small-scale hydro and wind energy schemes.
Over the course of the two-year deal, the stores will guzzle enough green juice between them to power more than 3,500 homes.
M&S is similarly harnessing LPG fuel and improved lighting to generate further energy savings.
Sainsbury's set the eco-friendly standard for the industry in 1999 with its award-winning Greenwich Peninsula store.
New-age applications, such as recycling heat emitted by refrigerators and banking earth around walls to keep them cool in summer and warm in winter, contribute towards a goal of halving the energy consumption of a typical supermarket.
No comments yet