Can shopping get even less expensive at Aldi? With this new concept, it may be possible.
The discount retail chain has opened what it calls a “new eco concept store” this week in Royal Leamington Spa, which will serve as a test kitchen of sorts in helping the supermarket and shoppers reduce carbon emissions.
The store itself is made up of sustainable building materials that will reduce life-cycle carbon emissions by as much as two-thirds.
“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,” Giles Hurley, Chief Executive Officer for Aldi UK and Ireland, said. “We are committed to reducing our environmental impact in any way we can and are continuing to explore new initiatives all the time.
What it may do in the process of cutting its energy costs – along with other additional eco-friendly endeavors – is continue to keep costs super low.
“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,” Hurley said. “We’re focusing on continuing to deliver our longstanding price promise by offering the lowest possible prices in Britain, every single day.”
The building will feature timber fibre insulation, cement replacement concrete, recycled lighting columns, low temperature tarmac, a partial green roof, plu other design upgrades that serve to cut emissions. Along with solar panels and chiller doors, Aldi expects energy consumption to drop by 57%. There are also vehicle charging stations on site.
In addition to reducing its own carbon footprint, the Leamington Spa store also will ask customers to help do the same by giving them ways to help. Aldi officials say they are launching these concepts in store:
- 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.
- 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.
If the initiatives are popular, Aldi plans to carry some of them through at their other supermarkets across the UK.
