Sainsbury’s lightens up on energy savings

Sainsbury's new LED lighting system at its Leek supermarket will deliver 59% energy savings and help reduce the new store's carbon footprint.


The system includes daylight sensors to optimise natural daylight and will provide a substantial reduction in maintenance costs due to the longer life of an LED system compared to a traditional lighting system.

Sainsbury’s head of sustainability, Paul Crewe, said: “Finding a lighting solution that won’t compromise our customers’ shopping experience yet can help reduce our environmental impact and deliver reduced carbon and energy savings is key to us achieving our stretching carbon target”.

Based in Leek, Staffordshire, the supermarket is the world’s first to install the new LED lighting system developed by GE lighting.

“We originally trialled the world-first installation of the new LED system in one of our local convenience stores in Scotland late last year and the initial findings were so positive that we decided to install it in our new Leek supermarket,” said Crewe.

“We are confident that it will deliver an enhanced shopping experience as well as significant energy savings. We will be monitoring its performance closely over the coming months as a potential technology for carbon reduction in our stores,” he added.

Mike Barrett, General Manager at GE Lighting, added: “Sainsbury’s Leek demonstrates how LED can be leveraged to optimise energy and maintenance savings at no cost to the customer experience”.

The new Leek store also features a biomass boiler which uses a renewable resource instead of fossil fuel-based gas to heat the store and hot water.

It is also harvesting rainwater and applies other water saving measures to reduce water consumption by 45%, compared to a store built in 2005/06.

Sainsbury’s has invested in a number of new technologies in its stores to help it reduce its absolute operational carbon emissions by 30% by 2020.

Leigh Stringer

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