Aldi opens new eco store

Aldi will officially open its new eco concept store in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, tomorrow (29 September).

The store was constructed using sustainable building materials – such as timber fibre insulation, cement replacement concrete and recycled lighting columns – and is designed to reduce life-cycle carbon emissions by up to two-thirds, Aldi said.

The building has solar panels and uses chiller doors to reduce energy consumption, and its structure was redesigned to help reduce overall energy demand by 57% compared with a normal store.

The car park has dedicated Electric Vehicle Charging Ports, with capacity to expand these in the future as demand for the spaces increases.

The Leamington Spa branch also aims to help make it easier for shoppers to reduce, reuse and recycle, with numerous plastic-reduction initiatives being trialled.

Aldi will use the store to test and learn which elements work best, both for customers and in reducing carbon consumption. If successful, these elements may then be rolled out to other stores across the country, Aldi said.

The new store includes a ‘hard to recycle’ unit located at the store entrance to allow customers to recycle items which are not collected by local authorities. Aldi will be the first UK retailer to trial a recycling point for coffee pods and medicine packets, also accepting batteries, soft plastics and cosmetic packaging.

It also features a nuts and coffee refill fixture – a trial selling packaging-free products to help customers shop more sustainably and at even lower prices. Customers can use their own containers or free FSC-certified paper bags. This follows Aldi’s refill trial at its store in Ulverston, Cumbria last year.

Giles Hurley, chief executive officer for Aldi UK and Ireland, said: “Now more than ever, we must do our bit for the environment and this store offers us the ability to easily explore new in-store initiatives and low carbon store designs. We are committed to reducing our environmental impact in any way we can and are continuing to explore new initiatives all the time.

“What’s even better is that many of the changes made to this store, whether it be the energy-saving initiatives or our latest packaging-free trial, could allow us to put even more money back into the pockets of our customers. We’re focusing on continuing to deliver our longstanding price promise by offering the lowest possible prices in Britain, every single day.”