To help boost their energy efficiency, shrink carbon footprints and cut fuel bills, UK supermarkets are being offered help by sustainability consultancy AECOM to improve their sustainability credentials with a new Supermarket Sustainability Forum. The forum is being established this summer as a meeting place where representatives from the leading stores can discuss the issues they face and how best to make efficiency improvements in store design and operation.
Led by AECOM's sustainability expert Susannah Goddard, the forum will provide retailers with leading-edge advice and the opportunity to share expertise and establish which technologies and measures are best suited to supermarket buildings.
“Supermarkets are under increasing pressure to reduce their carbon footprints,” says Goddard. “The drive for improved sustainability and carbon reduction has become ever-more important in recent times, while the introduction of new policies such as the Carbon Reduction Commitment will impose the need for supermarkets to reduce their carbon footprint to avoid financial penalties.”
As a major sustainability consultancy, AECOM has considerable experience advising on energy efficiency and reducing carbon footprints while working across a wide range of sectors, such as construction, infrastructure and utilities. It has worked with a number of leading retailers including supermarkets. In addition to recent changes to national, regional and local legislation setting increasingly stringent sustainability targets, the company says it is also the case that sustainability and energy efficiency requirements are often now being included in supermarket planning conditions by local councils.
“Driven by consumer awareness and the demand for sustainable practices, retailers are embracing the principles of corporate social responsibility,” adds Goddard. “AECOM’s Supermarket Sustainability Forum will provide retailers with a platform to share knowledge and experience to the benefit of all involved.
"Participants will be able to share information about current performance while also looking at the possibilities of new technologies such as Low-Global Warming Potential refrigeration systems. In addition, there will be scope to influence future standards relating to sustainability measurement methods such as BREEAM.”
