Tegut supermarket is “green” winner
3rd June 2015
GERMANY: A Tegut store employing CO2 refrigeration, cabinet doors and LED lighting is the first supermarket to be recognised with an environmental Blue Angel award.
Established in 1978, the Blue Angel (Der Blaue Engel) is the oldest ecolabel in the world. This German certification for products and services that have environmentally friendly aspects covers around 10,000 products in some 80 product categories.
The Tegut supermarket in Marburg-Cappel received the award yesterday from the German government’s secretary of state for the environment, nature conservation, building and nuclear safety Gunther Adler.
“The Blue Angel has long been an important guide for consumers who want environmentally conscious shopping. That it is now awarded for the first time for an entire supermarket is an important step towards more environmentally-friendly shopping,” said Adler.
The trading company had a number of criteria to meet in order to qualify for the Blue Angel. This included doors and covers to refrigerated cabinets, photovoltaics on the roof, the use of natural refrigerants, heating of the building with the waste heat from the refrigeration system, LED lighting and bicycle parking spaces.
The food retail sector in Germany is responsible for about 3% of the country’s total energy consumption and 1% of Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions. Refrigeration is responsible for nearly 40% of the energy consumption.
The energy consumption of Marburg-Cappel supermarket is said to be 30% lower than comparable older markets.
An underfloor heating system uses waste heat from the refrigeration system to feed around 8km of pipes to heat 1,100m² of sales space.
Carbon dioxide refrigeration is now standard for Tegut, one of the largest regional grocery retailers in Germany with 282 stores and annual sales of around €977m.
