Building a sustainable store

Carolyn Thomson from Suntory Beverage & Food GB&I (SBF GB&I) recently visited Asiyah and Jawad Javed’s Day Today store in Stenhousemuir to find out what sustainability means to them and what they are doing to reduce their environmental footprint.

Thomson said: “The Javeds’ store has a great range with lots of variety to meet their customers’ needs. They have already implemented some fantastic measures to make their store more sustainable and save money, including fitting doors to one of their chillers to be more energy efficient.

“They have also installed LED lights throughout the store to reduce energy consumption and are investigating panels as another way to make their store more sustainable.

“In a recent project with another retailer, our calculations have shown that installing LED panelled lighting can slash retailers’ lighting costs in half, so now is a great time for other stores to look into this option.”

Top tips

Here is some advice from SBF GB&I on ways to make your store more sustainable and energy efficient, following in the Javeds’ footsteps:

1. Consider purchasing more energy efficient equipment: Review current electrical devices to see whether more efficient units are available to save money on energy bills.
2. Look for energy monitoring solutions: Track your total consumption so changes can be made based on usage.
3. Add doors to chillers: These can reduce consumption by at least 25-30%.
4. Optimise chiller temperatures: Increasing the chiller temperature slightly at certain times of day can result in significant savings.
5. Stock sustainable brands: We’ve already made great progress on our target of 100% recyclable packaging across our range by 2025. Consider the environmental footprint of products you are stocking.

There are several resources available to help businesses be more sustainable:

• Your local authority will have schemes in place to support local businesses.
• Find Business Support can help you access the range of support your business may be eligible for: findbusinesssupport.gov.scot  
• Business Energy Scotland provides free and impartial expertise to help small and medium-sized enterprises save money on energy: businessenergyscotland.org
• Energy Saving Trust may help your business cut energy usage: energysavingtrust.org.uk
• Get Switching provides advice and support about finding the best energy deal: getswitchinggroup.com

However small, SBF GB&I want to hear about the steps you’re making on your sustainability journey. Share your ideas with them via @SuntoryBF_GBI on Twitter