Eco building maybe but can Tesco really be green?

Eco building maybe but can Tesco really be green ?

Posted: 14/01/2009

Multinational supermarket chain Tesco has opened its first 'green' superstore. The new building at Cheetham Hill, Manchester, is timber framed and claims to have a carbon footprint 70% smaller than an equivalent store built in 2006. The store uses a variety of energy efficiency measures, has CO2-cooled fridges and uses recycled cooking oil to provide energy in a combined heat and power facility.

Token 'green' interior features include: timber frame, low energy roof lights, hanging signage made of cardboard instead of plastic; reduced materials in shelving; and fully recyclable plastic moulded checkout packing areas. The entrance lobby with double doors reduces the store's heat load - but this is hardly a new idea -it could be seen on most department store buildings in the 1950's.

However it seems that the global retail giant is not simply concerned about the environment - the company is lobbying government to introduce fast track planning permission for 'green' stores, thereby short circuiting the normal processes for obtaining planning permission which sometimes result in a refusal. They also want business rates to be cut for green stores.

Lucy Neville-Rolfe, Tesco's corporate-affairs director, said: "Green stores should be given a fast track not a slow track through the planning system."

The planners have been acting up in ways too, it seems - the retailer claims that one-fifth of its planning applications to build wind turbines at stores have been either rejected or delayed.

Tony Juniper, ex-director of Friend of the Earth, cast doubts on whether a company like Tesco could ever really be green when he said...

"People are increasingly aware of the hidden consequences of supermarket power. The low prices they force down the food chain that prevent farmers and workers from earning a living wage, the market pressures that force growers to use more chemical-intensive methods, the destruction of local shops, the traffic they generate and the food miles they clock up, thus helping to accelerate climate change. With power comes dominance and with dominance can emerge abuse, and that is the stage we have reached now, and only official agencies can challenge that. That is why urgent robust action by the Competition Commission and by government is needed to ensure that supermarkets are regulated. If official bodies can't stand up to these ever more powerful corporate giants, then who can?"

Green Building Press  

http://www.newbuilder.co.uk/news/newsFullStory.asp?ID=2800