A new eco concept store from Aldi has been designed with sustainable building materials with a view to reduce carbon consumption and to reduce life-cycle carbon emissions.
Aldi opened the store in Royal Leamington Spa on 29th September and as part of the project the discount retailer aims to make it easier for shoppers to reduce, reuse and recycle, with various plastic-reduction initiatives being trialled.
Aldi said this store will be used to test which elements work best “for both customers and in reducing carbon consumption” and if these elements are successful, they could then be rolled out to other stores across the country.
The new store includes various features to be eco-friendly:
- A ‘hard to recycle’ unit for customers to recycle items which are not collected by local authorities.
- Selling packaging-free products intending to help customers shop more sustainably.
- Sustainable materials were used to build the store, such as timber fibre insulation, cement replacement concrete, recycled lighting columns and low temperature tarmac.
- The retailer has also introduced solar panels to the store and uses chiller doors to reduce energy consumption.
Aldi UK and Ireland Chief Executive Officer Giles Hurley said: “This store offers us the ability to easily explore new in-store initiatives and low carbon store designs.”
