Morrisons has just opened a lower environmental impact store in Little Clacton, the latest initiative on its journey to becoming a more sustainable business.
The new store design, which has been built from scratch, for the first time incorporates the widest range of Morrisons structural features and loose products to reduce carbon emissions, energy and resources - and limit its environmental footprint.
The Little Clacton store will have 43% lower operational emissions than a standard store. Aligned with the Government’s plan to increase renewable energy, it will generate its own power and move away from gas.
The store will stock 366 loose products with no plastic packaging including:
• 70 products in refill hoppers - including pasta, coffee, home baking, pulses and herbs, as well as refillable household cleaning products and 11 ‘naked’ and refillable health and beauty products
• 76 types of fruit and veg
• A loose bakery with 57 plastic free breads and buns
• A 18-strong frozen loose fruit, bread and pastry pick and mix section
• Plastic-free shopping for over 110 products at the meat, fish, deli counters using refillable containers
• Milk sold only in Tetra Pack, plastic packaging being removed around multi-pack cans, and water being sold in boxes and cans.
The store will also stock a very wide range of locally sourced products from local farmers, growers and foodmakers - to help the local economy and keep food miles to a minimum. They have been sourced as part of Morrisons Nation's Local Foodmakers programme, which searches for locally known and loved food and drinks.
Over 250 local beers, spirits, fruits, vegetables, eggs, pies, breads, jams, teas, sauces, biscuits and crisps will be supplied from less than 35 miles away, against an average of 50 lines in Morrisons regular stores South East stores. The store will also be the first to trial Morrisons carbon neutral eggs.
The store will comply with forthcoming Government regulation related to high fat, sugar and salt - and will stock Morrisons Nourish range of healthier food, Counted range of calorie-controlled alternatives, along with front-of-pack traffic light and Healthier Living icon product labels.
A Plant Revolution range will also be stocked to make plant based products more accessible to customers, along with 240 entry level price products.
All of the store’s practical initiatives and designs have the genuine potential to be scaled up and introduced across the Morrisons store estate - rather than being one-offs.
CEO David Potts said, “This store is a significant step forward on our sustainability journey. It brings together all of the environmental and social initiatives we have created that can be rolled out into other stores across the country. It will start to inform the design of many more similar stores to come.”