The Minister of State for Energy and Climate Change, the Rt Hon Greg Barker MP, opened the advanced new energy centre at Waitrose Bracknell on Monday 24th September.
The low carbon energy centre – developed by FTSE 250 strategic outsourcing and energy services company Mitie – uses sustainable local woodchip to power, heat and cool the store. It provides the vast majority of the supermarket’s energy needs, making it almost completely independent of the national grid.
The energy centre will contribute £150,000 a year to the local economy in the form of jobs and purchasing of local supplies. The woodchip supplier to Bracknell will be able to create five additional jobs as a result of the process from the forest to delivery.
Officially opened by Greg Barker MP, the energy centre will cut the store’s carbon emissions by over 750 tonnes per year – equivalent to 1,500 transatlantic flights. It will save the store 69 per cent of grid electricity and 84 per cent of gas.
It is the second energy centre developed as a partnership between Mitie and Waitrose which will help the John Lewis Partnership – of which Waitrose is a trading division - deliver a 15% absolute reduction in operational carbon dioxide equivalent emissions from a 2010/11 baseline by 2020/21. The first energy centre at Waitrose East Cowes came online in March this year.
Mike Tivey, Managing Director of Mitie’s Asset Management business, which has developed and will operate the energy centre over a 12-year contract, said:
“In an increasingly volatile energy market this advanced new energy centre reduces Waitrose’s reliance on the grid and provides economic and predictably priced energy.
“This will not just have a positive environmental impact, but create jobs and prosperity in the local economy, and is a perfect example of the many benefits on-site energy generation can provide our communities with.”
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For further information, contact:
Mitie
Alison Sutton
M: 07979 708128
E: Alison.sutton@mitie.com
BELL POTTINGER
Rebecca Lloyd Wright
D: 0207 861 2859
E: rlloydwright@bell-pottinger.co.uk
