Our Progress in Sustainable Impact
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Published 20 Mar 2025 in Raising Awareness
Earth Hour, the global movement encouraging individuals to turn off their lights for an hour to show symbolic support for the planet, takes place this Saturday and is a great opportunity for us to celebrate the progress we’ve made on our sustainability journey in recent years.
Building a fairer, more ethical and sustainable future is at the heart of our Society’s purpose and since 2019, we have made significant progress in reducing our environmental impact across our family of businesses, seeing a 39% reduction in our Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions associated with energy use across our operations.
Efficiency in everything
In the last year alone, we’ve reduced energy usage by 6% across like-for-like sites, saving approximately 2 million kWh of electricity and cutting over 400 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
This has been supported by the steps we’ve taken to become even more energy efficient, with £9 million invested in measures to reduce our carbon emissions over the last three years. This includes partnering with Lowe Conex to install new automation technology in our refrigeration units and temperature control systems across more than 100 Food stores, delivering significant energy savings.
In January 2024, we had our sustainability targets validated in line with the most recent standards set by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).
Overall, our energy-saving initiatives have contributed to a £2 million reduction in Society-wide electricity costs year on year. This success was recognised at the 2024 Energy Awards, where we took home the ‘Energy Project of the Year’ medal for our efforts in being more energy efficient.
Installed last summer, the Warwick Head Office now has 141 solar panels
Renewable focus
But our sustainability efforts are not confined to just being more efficient, we’re also dedicated to working with likeminded businesses to support the greening of the grid. Recently, we have worked with the Big Solar Co-op to install over 300 solar panels at our Warwick Head Office and Copthorne Food store. These panels generate over 100,000 kWh of renewable energy per year, saving 20 tonnes of CO2.
We’ve long been one of the leading supporters of Community Energy, working with our partners at Younity, our joint venture with Octopus Energy, to help projects across the UK.
We set up Younity in 2019, who now work with more than 360 community energy projects, which generate enough green electricity to power approximately 65,000 homes. Younity guarantees these projects a fair price for the power they produce, and through our Your Co-op Energy Community Power Tariff, we are the only energy provider offering 100% community-generated electricity. This is truly the power of cooperation in action.
Earth Hour provides a point of reflection, and we know there is more we can do as we continue on our sustainability journey. However, with the continued support of colleagues, members, customers and partners, we’re committed to looking at new ways to make a positive difference and build a fairer, more ethical and sustainable future.
To get involved in Earth Hour and learn more click here.