Aldi is opening a new eco concept store, designed to significantly reduce carbon consumption while also making it easier for shoppers to reduce, reuse and recycle.
The new store, which is opening in Royal Leamington Spa on Thursday 29 September, has been designed with sustainable building materials and design changes estimated to reduce life-cycle carbon emissions by up to two-thirds.
The eco store will also allow Aldi to trial a number of new plastic-reduction initiatives. It will allow the discount supermarket to test and learn which elements work best, both for customers and for reducing carbon consumption.
If successful, these elements – which include packaging-free refill stations, recycling units and energy-saving initiatives such as solar panels and chiller doors – will then be rolled out to other Aldi stores across the country.
The ‘hard to recycle’ unit will allow consumers 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.
The building itself is made from sustainable building materials and features timber fibre insulation, cement replacement concrete, recycled lighting columns and low temperature tarmac as well as a partial green roof.
A number of other changes to the traditional store design have also been made to reduce carbon emissions and improve the ecological credentials of the site. These have reduced overall energy demand by 57% compared with a normal store.
Aldi UK ceo Giles Hurley 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.”
Hurley also highlighted how the eco store will also have financial benefits for Aldi’s value-focused customer base in the longer term.
“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.”
He also emphasised the supermarket will continue to deliver its “long-standing price promise” of “offering the lowest possible prices”.
