Energy Efficiency
Debenhams is committed to responsible energy management and promotes energy efficiency throughout its operations. We believe that:
- energy management plays an important role in supporting our business objectives;
- there is a link between energy use and environmental stress; and
- we need to control the use of finite resources.
We therefore aim to use energy safely, efficiently and at minimum cost based on the needs of our customers.
Our work in this area has been recognised through accreditation by the Energy Institute under the Energy Efficiency Accreditation Scheme. In 2007 Retail Operations Director Nigel Palmer won the Ellen MacArthur Award for his personal leadership and achievement in retail energy efficiency. Alan Carter, Debenhams’ Energy Manager, has been nominated for the Energy Manager of the Year Award 2008.
So far we have run three energy awareness campaigns, each of five months’ duration, which have reduced our CO2 output by 9,800 tonnes compared to previous emissions. This reduction has allowed us to:
- buy in a proportion of “green” energy for stores;
- open five new stores without increasing our energy use;
- reduce our costs; and
- pay three rounds of personal bonuses and top-ups to stores’ social funds for successful teams.
Stores
All stores have energy targets and we promote energy awareness amongst our staff with campaigns, publicity and prizes for reducing energy use.
Our internal publicity is eye-catching and easy to read. We have published intranet newsletters that involve members of staff, explaining good practice and offering help with employees’ own home energy bills.
New Stores
We are undertaking an ambitious programme of store openings and taking all possible steps to ensure energy efficiency is built in from the very first design stages.
At least 50% of energy used by new stores comes from renewable sources.
Compared to an older store, recently opened stores are more energy efficient by some 25%. Key enablers of this are the use of diffusion heating and cooling systems rather than standard forced air ventilation and of lower power/higher intensity lighting units.
Distribution and Logistics
Distribution and logistics – which are the functions responsible for getting our products from our suppliers and into our stores – are also working hard to improve their energy efficiency.
Each distribution centre (DC) has been set energy reduction targets as part of their operating budget and performance is reviewed weekly and monthly. Each DC has also launched its own "Go Green" programme involving staff in all aspects of energy use at work coupled with advice and support for domestic consumption.
The Brackmills distribution centre, for example, has recently been relamped, replacing fluorescent tubes with low energy tubes and high intensity reflectors. Each aisle is equipped with ambient light detectors to ensure that aisles are only lit when there are people working in them and only then if the ambient light levels are insufficient for them to work in a safe environment.
We make hundreds of deliveries from the distribution centres to the stores every week. We seek to reduce both the overall number of miles driven and fuel consumption through practices such as using larger trailers to reduce the number of journeys, improved driver training and over time replacing our transport fleet with more efficient vehicles.
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