Delhaize Belgium launches ecological, multi-temperature truck

Delhaize Belgium launched a new ecological, multi-temperature truck to limite the impact on the environment and mobility. With 2 levels with differing temperatures this truck has more space inside, therefor less trucks are needed to transport the products to the supermarkets. Less trucks results into lower emission of CO2 and less trafic jams. In the strategy of sustainibility Delhaize also makes a lot of efforts in green retailing. The truck drivers were trained in “eco-proactive driving” to drive more ecological. In 2008 a new planning has been introduced, resulting into 40 trucks less, 2 million kilometers and a reduce in emission of CO2 with 21.000ton. The Ecotruck has now been launched to further lower the emission of CO2. The ecotruck will be used for the longer distances.

More products can be transported because of the 60% extra capacity. With 2 levels and different temperatures more product groups can be transported at once. The first results of this new eco-truck are very positive. Delhaize is now thinking of adding 3 new Eco-trucks to their car park.

Sainsbury´s opens new flagship green store in United Kingdom

Sainsbury’s Dartmouth store is run on renewable energy, reducing CO₂ emissions by 40%.

Sainsbury´s opened a new flagship green store in Dartmouth, Devon (United Kingdom), in August 2008. Built with respect for the use of natural resources, including energy, water, waste, timber and land, the store was specifically designed to reduce both its operational and embodied carbon.

The pioneering store will save 40% of its overall CO₂ emissions, achieved by the use of cutting edge technology. The store’s ‘biomass boiler' will heat both the building and water, using locally sourced wood that would otherwise be wasted. By using renewable energy, the amount of energy consumed from the national grid has been dramatically reduced by 50%.

Sainsbury's Dartmouth has been designed to leak fewer draughts and employs other measures, such as 'quiet revolution wind turbines' ™, to power the checkouts. This is contributing to cutting electricity usage (kWh) by a third overall.

Further carbon savings are made through the use of lower lighting levels and increased use of daylight, and cool air will be collected from chillers to keep the store cool during warmer months.

Rainwater harvesting is one of the techniques being used to reduce water consumption. Collected rainwater is used to flush customer and colleague toilets, and to irrigate plants. The store will save over one million litres of mains water every year, and uses 60% less water overall as a result.

The store's construction is also environmentally responsible, and where possible recycled or recyclable materials have been used or FSC-approved timber. As 200 trees have been used for the frame of the store, Sainsbury's will also re-plant 400 trees in the local community.

The Dartmouth store is an important stage in the plans to roll out sustainable features to the remainder for further expansion of Sainsbury´s in the United Kingdom. These plans make a significant contribution to their overall target to reduce CO₂ emissions per square metre by 25% by 2012.

More information on http://www.j-sainsburys.co.uk/

McDonalds goes green with Eco Learning Lab in Chicago

When you think of McDonald´s you do not directly think of green retailing, but this will change. In August 2008 McDonald´s opened the first green restaurant in Chicago. This new restaurant is seen as a “learning lab”, testing all green technologies to adapt to existing and new restaurants.

The new site design includes Unilock permeable pavers on the parking lot, which allow maximum water drainage while maintaining a surface strong enough to support the traffic of a 24-hour restaurant. The use of permeable pavers will also reduce the cost of the onsite drainage system, clean surface stormwater and minimize stormwater runoff. The drive-through lanes have been built with reflective concrete.

The restaurant’s exterior signage is constructed around energy-efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs), just the second time such lighting has been used on a McDonald’s. By using signage with LEDs rather than traditional sign lighting, McDonald’s will consume less energy – aprox. 25% less enegry. The LEDs will last ten to twenty times longer than the average incandescent light bulb. Along with the environmental benefits and energy efficiency they provide, LEDS also supply strong lighting In addition, TV screens in the dining area help educate customers about the restaurant’s green features.

When fast food diners have finished their burgers they don’t have to dump their waste in the trash. Collection containers around the property encourage patrons to recycle food containers, newspapers and plastic bottles, and the kitchen preparation area has its own set of receptacles for packing related recycleables.

The site itself is landscaped with hardy, native plants, resulting in much-diminished water needs; no potable water will be used for irrigation. Water collection systems have been set up to channel rainwater from the roof and condensation from the HVAC system into a cistern buried underground that will then re circulate the water for irrigation. The highlight of the landscaping effort is a rain garden, which promotes natural sheet draining of rain water and ultimately serves to recharge the aquifer deep below the surface of the soil. The rain garden will also scrub pollutants out of water that drains from the drive-through lanes, which may carry automobile pollutants. Overall, the company is hoping for a 50 percent reduction in water use through these sustainable techniques.
McDonald’s new “learning lab” also features a green roof: the upper portion is more functional, planted with extensive species, while the lower portion has been made attractive to passers-by through the use of more visible plants, semi-intensive.

In the building’s mechanical guts, a pair of heat-recovery systems are positioned to draw heat from the condensing units. Solartube skylights are visible throughout the restaurant to take advantage of natural light and reduce energy use. The indoor artificial lighting is controlled by a sophisticated system that adjusts the foot-candle illumination based on light entering through the skylights. Lighting controls will also sense and adjust energy use in lavatories and support spaces.

Inside the restaurant, the dining room is filled with materials made from recycled content, and paints and cleaning chemicals were chosen for their low environmental impact.

Reducing the use of Plastic Carrier Bags in retail

One of the most succesfull campaigns about plastic carrier bags was where the market town of Modbury in Devon banned all shoppers from using plastic carrier bags. People were instead provided with biodegradable cornstarch, recyclable paper or reusable cotton and jute bags.

In 2007, hundreds of rich fashionistas queued outside Sainsbury’s to buy a bag designed by Anya Hindmarsh (a designer, see left for an example) carrying the slogan “I’m not a plastic bag”. For a while this became the latest must-have accessory.

In February 2007, the retail industry agreed to reduce the overall environmental impact of carrier bags by 25 per cent by the end of 2008. This is a comprehensive objective aimed at cutting the total amount of raw materials and energy used in bag manufacture and minimising the effect of their disposal. This will involve: reducing the environmental impact (using alternative materials and lighter weight bags); encouraging customers to take or use fewer bags; and enabling the recycling of bags, eg by offering collection facilities.

7 billion plastic bags are given away annually in the UK of which only 1 in 200 are recycled, according to The Guardian. Environmental groups complain that the bags use up natural resources, consume energy to manufacture, create litter, choke marine life and add to landfill waste. It goes without saying, of course, that all those copies of The Guardian, its supplements and blasted wallcharts never add to global warming.

London Councils are to urge the Government to allow them to set a charge of 10p per bag in London. Retailers would oppose this as being too comprehensive.

Waitrose is trialing baglessness: free carrier bags have been removed from all checkouts at the Saffron Walden store and at selected checkouts in fourteen other stores for a two-week trial in May. No results provided yet.

Meanwhile The Guardian is campaigning to encourage shoppers and retailers to support the first ever national plastic bag-free Christmas. We Are What We Do hopes to persuade retailers to tell shoppers that they will not automatically get a plastic bag, and to display a colourful logo saying "Plastic Ain't My Bag". Who thinks these things up?

The Retourette: Recycling point in Dutch supermarkets

Retourette is a collection point of all the small houshold garbage, batteries, paper, glas, carton, clothes, can, shoes and empty places can be delivered to the Retourette points. The customers can hand in everything at one point and it is all for free.

The new Retourette stores are developed in a way that it gives everybody a good feeling to think environmental friendly, the delivery point is an interactive way to learn how to think green, for young and old. Children get to know Ronnie the Rainbow Caterpillar. Ronnie learns the children what the effects and advantages are of recycling your garbage. Children see the importancy of thinking green.

Retourette is not only just a recycling point, it is also a sponsor of charity projects. 5% of the total turn-over of Retourette goes to charity projects to maintain and imprive our environment.

Below you can see some impressions of the new Retourette-shop in Aalst (The Netherlands), the Retourette is like other stores, located in a zone of supermarket or shopping mall.

WWW.JOSDEVRIES.EU your partner in green retail

Retailtrends: biological products in the supermarket

Retailtrends from all over the world. This item appears monthly in the German magazine for food professionals Rundschau für den Lebensmittelhandel and Jos de Vries The Retail Company is responsable for the articles where the latest trends on the different topics are presented.

Just a small assortment and referral to these products are not sufficient anymore, biological products are “hot”. How do big retailers adapt to this trend? Below you can find some sales ideas which you find at some big European and Northern American retailers.

Supercoop (The Netherlands)
The Dutch supermarket chain Supercoop developed an own biological zone in their supermarket. Customers can find a wide range of biological and health products. The department is specially excitrated, support with communicative messages and special graphical materials. Everything focussed with special spot-lightning to bring full atention to this wide range of biological products.

Planet Organic (Ireland)
Who wants to sell biological products with success has to present it in an interesting manner and offer authentical products. The British chain Plant Organic succeeded at both points. This formula, with currently 4 stores, goes for the most exclusive quality (communicative supported with POS-material and the packaging) and for a wide range of organic products. The products are considered to be fresh, healthy and unique in the market.

Hediard (France)

Luxery products are also available in the assortment of biological products, this we see at the French supermarket chain Hediard. This formula is famous for the premium-quality of biological products, where the origen of the product and the quality check are the central points.

Whole Foods (United States)
The big American food retailer Whole Foods made a big change to biological and ecological products. In the 270 stores there is a wide range of fresh, biological produced fruits and vegetables. The products directly come from the field what guarantees the freshness and quality.

www.jdv-trc.blogspot.com

Retailtrends from all over the world: Fairtrade Marketing

This item appears monthly in the German magazine for food professionals Rundschau für den Lebensmittelhandel and Jos de Vries The Retail Company is responsable for the articles where the latest trends on the different topics are presented.

The theme which is very actual is Fair Trade and Green Retailing. The increase of social responsability, environmental friendly and honest products is big. Below you can find an overview of how some big international food retailers adapt to this development.

Marks & Spencer (United Kingdom)
FairTrade in optima-forma. The British supermarket chain Marks & Spencer named 5 objtectives: reducing the level of CO2, less garbage, fair trade, sustainable products and motiving the customer to live healthy. In the cafetarias of the Marks & Spencer for example you can only find FairTrade-products. All supported by various communication media to present and promote the Plan A.

Migros (Switzerland)
Continue low pricing and a FairTrade-bonus is one of the warranties of the Swiss supermarket chain Migros. The bonus is being used in worldwide social projects, for example building schools in India. These constructions are done with environmental-friendly materials, good working conditions and minimum wages.

Globus (Czech Republic)
Without demand products will not be offered. In Czech Republic for years there has been limited demand of fair-trade-products. Globus started to offer fairtrade-products in their assortment, following the worldwide trend of fairtrade-products. By offering fairtrade-products a demand was created, creating new opportunities for this German retailer in Czech Republic.



WAAR (The Netherlands)
This new Dutch formule of the FairTrade-organization improves the world by giving. Giving opportunities and telling a story. Every product is different, the origen differs and every product therefor has his own story. This is clearly communicated in the store (first store opened in Nijmegen, The Netherlands), where a big assortment of “honoust products” can be found.

Contact data:

Jos de Vries The Retail Company BV

Safariweg 6-11

3605 MA Maarssen

P.O. Box 1194

NL-3600 BD Maarssen

The Netherlands

Tel. : +31(0)346 - 563764

Fax : +31(0)346 - 572722

maurice@josdevries.eu