Southern Co-op upgrades night blinds

UK: Southern Co-op is investing £200,000 to retrofit night blinds into 46 stores this year, with plans to install them on all refrigerated cabinets which don’t currently have doors.

The upgrade of its night blinds to an improved thermal version will reduce the amount of energy needed to keep the fridges at optimum temperature.

Following a trial, the pilot sites saw energy savings of up to 9%. Southern Co-op estimates that once all the blinds have been upgraded, even if there was just a 5% reduction each year, the initial phase of the project would save 377,402KWh per annum.

The thermal night blinds are just one of a range of actions being taken by Southern Co-op to reduce its overall carbon footprint across its 300+ convenience stores, funeral homes and Starbucks franchises.

Last year, Southern Co-op announced a reduction of 36% in absolute greenhouse gas emissions since 2019. This was on top of a previous reduction of the business’s carbon footprint of 27% between 2012 and 2019.

Other work being carried out includes assessing sub metering to better understand equipment usage, adjusting times on equipment to save energy, and identifying and taking localised action to address high energy using sites.

The retailer has previously replaced obsolete refrigeration, installed ecoblade technology and energy efficient refrigeration fans to improve energy efficiency and reduce refrigeration emissions.