Fossil fuels or renewable energy?
Most companies are starting to feel the heat: fossil sources of energy are not good enough for today's world. Some firms are just starting now, by adapting daily habits and changing energy practices.The Jerónimo Martins Group, however, has been placing environmental issues at the top of the table for the last decades. The retailer owns more than 500 stores and Distributions Centres that run under the Pingo Doce, Recheio, Hussel and Jeronymo banners, in Portugal. And providing energy to all these spaces is a challenge.
In 2018, the Group made two important decisions to curtail energy consumption and to increase sustainability: getting its electricity from 100% renewable sources and shifting most lighting systems to LED‘s.
The company has also launched a pilot programme with Ikaros-Hemera to generate electricity using photovoltaic panels at two of the Group’s facilities in the tourist region of the Algarve, which has an average of 300 days of sunlight per year. In total, 3,876 solar panels were installed on the 17,700 m2 of the Jerónimo Martins Distribution Centre in Algoz, and on the Recheio Cash-and-Carry store, in Tavira.
Renewable energy at Jerónimo Martins
What are the impacts of this new technology?
This technology will help prevent the emission of 198.96 tonnes of CO2 per year, an equivalent to withdrawing 111 cars from circulation or the energy consumption from 525 households in a year.
However, the flagship of this major shift is the state-of-the-art Alfena Distribution Centre in the northern region of Portugal. Built in 2017, it was designed to be the Group’s most efficient Centre. It uses LED technology in all its lighting fixtures, enabling light intensity to be controlled and regulated using movement sensors and outdoor lighting, and also has thermal solar panels to heat water.
That’s the way to go. Green and clean.