Aldi To Trial New Eco Concept Store

 Namnews, 28th September 2022

Aldi has revealed that it will open a new eco concept store tomorrow which has been designed to significantly reduce carbon consumption and plastic usage.

The store in Leamington Spa uses sustainable building materials and design changes that are expected to reduce life-cycle carbon emissions by up to two-thirds. Numerous initiatives are also being trialled to help make it easier for shoppers to reduce, reuse and recycle plastic.

Aldi will use the store to test which elements work best, with potential rollout to its other stores across the country.

The new store includes a ‘hard to recycle’ unit – located at the store entrance to allow customers to recycle items which are not collected by local authorities. Aldi claims it will be the first retailer in the UK to trial a recycling point for coffee pods and medicine packets, whilst also accepting batteries, soft plastics and cosmetic packaging.

A nuts and coffee refill fixture will allow shoppers to use their own containers or free FSC-certified paper bags. This follows the discounter’s refill trial at its store in Ulverston, Cumbria last year.

Meanwhile, sustainable building materials – from timber fibre insulation, cement replacement concrete, recycled lighting columns and low temperature tarmac, to a partial green roof – are amongst several changes to a traditional store design that aim to reduce life-cycle carbon emissions and improve the ecological credentials of the site.

Elements such as solar panels and chiller doors are also expected to reduce energy consumption, while redesigning the building structure has also helped reduce overall energy demand by 57% compared with a normal store.

The car park has dedicated electric vehicle charging ports, with the capacity to expand these in the future as demand for the spaces increases.

“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,” said Giles Hurley, Chief Executive Officer for Aldi UK and Ireland.

“We are committed to reducing our environmental impact in any way we can and are continuing to explore new initiatives all the time. 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.”

 Aldi revealed this week that its profits fell significantly last year due to rising costs and investment in pricing. However, the discounter stated that it was willing to sacrifice margin to maintain its focus on “providing the lowest grocery prices in the UK” amid the worsening cost-of-living crisis.