Morrisons is has opened a lower environmental impact store in Little Clacton, the latest initiative on its journey to becoming a more sustainable business.
The new store design, which has been built from scratch, for the first time incorporates the widest range of Morrisons structural features and loose products to reduce carbon emissions, energy and resources – and limit its environmental footprint.
Innovations include 366 loose products, a low carbon impact building, next generation fridges powered by CO2 from agricultural waste, roof solar panels to provide a fifth of energy, rainwater harvesting for toilet flushing, a near zero waste back-of-house system, and facilities to recycle customers’ waste.
Reducing plastic and waste
In addition to low impact design and decreased packaging and waste, the store also offers a significant number of locally sourced products, a range of biodiversity schemes, more healthy and nutritious foods, and more support to the local community.
All of the store’s practical initiatives and designs have the genuine potential to be scaled up and introduced across the Morrisons store estate – rather than being one offs.
The store will house Morrisons widest range of no plastic products – priced the same or less than their standard equivalents – allowing customers to half the amount of plastic in their weekly shop, along with a range of local and eco product options.
Carbon reduction and energy saving
The Little Clacton store will have 43% lower operational emissions than a standard store. Aligned with the Government’s plan to increase renewable energy, it will generate its own power and move away from gas. Carbon reduction is achieved through:
- No gas supply and instead only using electricity
- Solar panels installed on the roof, providing nearly 20% of its energy
- Air source heat pumps using waste heat from fridges to heat the store and its hot water
- Next Generation Fridges using CO2 from agricultural waste instead of harmful HFCs
- ‘EcoBlades’ fitted to fridge shelves, to trap cold air inside and reduce energy use
- Exclusive operation of electric morrisons.com delivery vehicles
- 20 EV charging stations for customers along with dedicated EV stations for colleagues’ cars, with charging speeds from 15 minutes to eight hours.
Morrisons Little Clacton store will be almost zero waste and the store will offer customers the ability to return their waste. It will offer a wide range of recycling points for soft plastics, batteries, ink cartridges, cartons, glass and textiles so customers can recycle their hard-to-recycle items. The store’s back-of-house will recycle waste – to minimise what is sent to landfill.
Recycling materials and resources
In its environmental construction, Morrisons Little Clacton has recycled 99% of the demolition materials from its old store in new builds, and reused and reduced steel to lower carbon emissions by 52%. Special car park tarmac has been used to offer a carbon saving of up to 25%. A rainwater harvesting system will be used to flush the store’s toilets and reduce virgin water use of nearly 600,000 litres a year. Outside the store, a wildlife area has been created in the grounds of the store to offer a home for birds, insects and small animals.
Morrisons has committed to a range of environmental targets for carbon, plastic and waste. It plans to become net zero for operational emissions by 2035, in line with the international Paris Agreement, has committed to a 50 per cent reduction across its own brand primary plastic packaging by 2025, and aims to recycle all of the waste it creates by 2025.
