British Land - renowned commercial property owner - is somewhat leading the trend, thanks to its three-year commitment to decreasing the energy use in over ten of its properties. Its aim is to drop the properties' energy use by 20 per cent per square metre.
British Land seems on target to meet its goals; partly thanks to the smart metering systems it has installed in the two shopping centres and nine office spaces involved in the project. Overall, the property giant is expected to announce a project-wide reduction in energy use of 30 per cent by the end of this year.
Other measures utilised to achieve this have included more effective measurement and management of utilities use/spend, guardian.co.uk revealed.
In addition, retailer New Look has just announced plans to revamp 600 of its British shops through the use of highly efficient lighting systems. LED lighting will replace each of the stores' halogen lamps, resulting in a less frequent need for new bulbs and hopefully, decreased use of air conditioning.
Sainsbury's has hopped on board the sustainability bandwagon too, recently taking home The Carbon Award and The Energy Award at the Guardian's Sustainable Business Awards. Talkingretail.com reported on the wins, which were warmly welcomed by Sainsbury's.
Its property director, Neil Sachdev, explained: "This shows that you can significantly reduce carbon emissions and electricity costs, while creating an outstanding retail environment... Every day our people are working to reduce our impact on the environment and embed sustainability throughout our business."
Sainsbury's was awarded mostly for its development of a 'carbon footprinting tool' and creating its Hythe supermarket, the 'world's first smart grid-ready' food store.
Written by Deborah Bates on behalf of Qube Global Software
While posted by Qube Global Software all views expressed are not necessarily those of the company. All facts are verified where possible directly by the author.