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Convenience stores looking for some green inspiration can take a cue from Europe’s top forecourt retailers. While making investments in the latest energy-saving measures — LED lighting, water reclamation, energy-efficient pumps, solar power and so on — these leading retailers are also promoting their community involvement and making businesses more relevant to local shoppers.
Convenience stores looking for some green inspiration can take a cue from Europe’s top forecourt retailers. While making investments in the latest energy-saving measures — LED lighting, water reclamation, energy-efficient pumps, solar power and so on — these leading retailers are also promoting their community involvement and making businesses more relevant to local shoppers.
Community Focus
Take James Graven. The retail chain recently opened an eco-friendly Spar forecourt store in Littleport, Cambridgeshire, in the central part of the United Kingdom. Environmental initiatives have been at the forefront of the design and include doors on refrigerated displays, LED lighting on the forecourt canopy, recycled rain water in the car wash bay and sympathetic landscaping (which works with the naturalness of the site rather than changes it).
In addition, promoting community involvement was at the heart of the matter for this family-run business, established way back in 1860. As a result, James Graven branding pairs with Spar branding on the store exterior and interior and includes signage and photographs to highlight the company’s heritage. Community bulletin boards for local announcements are also used to heighten the neighborhood feel.
“Although this is a Spar store, I wanted my customers to know it’s owned and run by a family firm,” said owner Jonathan James.
The store is helping to sustain the local community by offering products from local suppliers, such as Cambridgeshire beers, wine from regional vineyards and local breads. “We aim to support small, local producers, wherever possible, thereby enabling us to economically support local markets,” said James.
One of the more interesting touches, and easily replicable, is the promotion of “staff miles” — publicizing the few miles that staff has to travel to come to work. The store employs local people and lets customers know by stating on signage: “Many of our staff have lived in the Littleport area most of their lives.”
Zero-Carbon Tesco
Also in Cambridgeshire is Tesco’s first zero-carbon store, opened last year — a significant milestone in its commitment to become a zero-carbon business by 2050.
In the interim, Tesco aims to reduce carbon emissions by 50 percent across its global business by 2020. New store openings in Bang Phra, Thailand, and Jaromer, Czech Republic, will help. Tesco’s zero-carbon hypermarket in Jaromer, opened in February, has a timber structure and roof, with wooden planks to minimize the carbon associated with building the store.
The Bang Phra zero-carbon store, set to open in the second half of 2011 in the Chonburi province, will generate renewable energy onsite from 10 wind turbines plus a solar farm with panels on the shop roof, car park canopies and neighboring vacant land.
Back in Cambridgeshire, Tesco marries environmental investments with social responsibility. The store has a community “champ” whose job it is to build links to the community and support local initiatives.
Applegreen Gives Back
Over in Ireland, Applegreen — the winner of the Insight NACS 2010 International Convenience Retailer of the Year Award — has green at its core. Its award-winning Mount Merrion forecourt in Dublin has implemented a raft of environmental initiatives and is engaging with communities too. The retailer has created a charitable fund and donates 1 percent of every purchase total to support two registered Irish charities — one raising money for the developing world the other a children’s hospice.
Joe Bona, retail division president of CBX, and a judge for the NACS Insight Award, commended Applegreen’s initiatives: “It has done an excellent job of creating local sensibility through community involvement and charitable foundations, which helps to give the brand a sense of being and purpose beyond convenience.”
Green Technologies
Aside from inspiring community involvement, retailers are also investing in the latest eco-friendly technologies, such as charging points for electric vehicles. Electric charge points are new at Tesco’s zero-carbon Cambridgeshire store and the retailer reports new sites and re?t sites will help lay the infrastructure for electric cars.
In Japan, 7-Eleven is thinking along similar lines. It is opening eco-friendly sites and converting existing outlets to eco-konbinis (eco-convenience stores) by introducing LED lighting, solar energy and electric vehicle chargers. Currently, electric car use in Japan is low but anticipated to grow. A network of charging points will help its acceptance, according to experts.
In Spain, Repsol (an integrated oil and gas company) uses solar panels to heat water for its car wash at a forecourt site near Barajas Airport in Madrid; German grocery chain Edeka is testing environmentally friendly initiatives at its Netto Marken-Discount store in south Germany; and the publically owned The Co-operative claims to have opened the ?rst convenience store in the U.K. completely lit by LED lighting.
Simon Chinn, retail consultant at Verdict Research, reports however, that most of the eco-developments by grocery players in Europe have been at larger, hypermarket stores.
German retail group Rewe, for instance, opened a Green Building in Berlin in November 2009, which is carbon neutral and uses 50 percent less energy than a standard store. The building produces 40 percent of the energy it uses through solar panels and an underground geothermal energy plant.
French retailer Auchan has several environmentally friendly stores in its portfolio, including a store in Maglod, Hungary; plus three eco-stores operating as Simply Market in Italy and France.
Inspiration Outside Of The Channel
It is to players outside of the grocery market, however, where convenience stores can look for further inspiration.
In France, the DIY chain Castorama — owned by the U.K.’s King?sher group — has launched its Magasin Eco (eco store) program to reduce its stores’ environmental impact.
Bruno de la Chesnais, director of sustainable development at Castorama France, reports the company has introduced innovative measures to be more sustainable. These include subsidizing employee travel on public transport and an organized carpool for employees. According to de la Chesnais, a quarter of Castorama’s emissions are a result of energy consumption and employee travel. Chat forums and CastoTV are used to share energy-saving practices. The company has also introduced performance-related bonuses for savings resulting from energy reductions.
In the United States, Bona at CBX reports his company has received few requests for green-speci?c store design projects. “I believe the U.S. is well behind Europe and Scandinavia when it comes to greening at retail,” he said. “The [country] has been slow to adapt many of the latest technologies.
Consumer Involvement
Outside of the grocery sector in Sweden, Ikea has launched an online marketplace for its secondhand furniture, of which the retailer’s Swedish CEO Peter Agnefäll, said: “It is about taking environmental responsibility for how our products are used in the longer term and making it easier for our customers to do their part for the environment.”
Scandinavian fashion label Filippa K is promoting a longer life for its products by letting customers sell them back in its secondhand store. Levi’s and H&M are two more fashion brands testing green ideas — Levi’s is using less water to make its denim jeans, while H&M is using waste fabric for a new line, appealing to customers who also want to do the right thing.
It’s a sentiment shared by Sir Terry Leahy, recently retired CEO of Tesco: “The challenge is to tap into consumer power,” he said. “Encourage consumers to go green, not just by saving energy but buying products with a low carbon footprint — if we can do that, then we will create a mass movement in green consumption.”
Jon Dunman, vice president petrol & convenience at Torex, the global technology solutions provider, offers another angle for retailer involvement: “We need to ?nd clever ways of engaging people,” he said. “Other than a moral reason, why would people do it?
Fiona Briggs is a retail business journalist and editor of Global Convenience Store Focus, an online newsletter published by Insight, European partner for NACS. She can be reached at
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