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Rays in the roof

Tesco aims to cut emissions with solar-powered warehouse

July 30th, 2008 issue

By Adrian Chen

VLADIMÍR WEISS/THE PRAGUE POST
Fotovoltaic solar panels on top of Tesco's distribution center are meant to bring the supermarket chain into the green age.
VLADIMÍR WEISS/THE PRAGUE POST
With the use of solar energy and a water-based cooling system, Tesco management hopes to minimize the company's carbon footprint.
Why Tesco is going green



Around 10,000 tons: Annual CO2 production of Tesco's Postrižín distribution center
19 percent: The supermarket chain's total carbon emissions produced by the company's Central and East European plants
30 percent: Amount of renewable energy used by the plant expected to be generated by the rooftop solar array
3,270 tons: CO2 emissions to be cut annually
Critics: While welcoming the initiative, opponents call such efforts a publicity stunt and say Tesco should focus more on reducing food shipping distances
For the Post

In January, Sir Terry Leahy, CEO of the UK-based supermarket chain Tesco, announced to much fanfare an ambitious plan to fight global warming by halving his company’s total “carbon footprint” — the amount of carbon dioxide it is directly responsible for releasing into the atmosphere — by 2020.
“I am determined that Tesco should be a leader in helping to create a low-carbon economy,” Leahy said then.
Now, the global effort is gathering steam in the Czech Republic — last month, Tesco announced its intention to build the largest privately operated solar-power facility in the country on the roof of its local distribution center.  
The project, part of Tesco’s efforts to reduce its carbon footprint 50 percent by 2020, is the latest manifestation of local companies’ efforts to improve their environmental image.
Tesco’s current global carbon footprint totals 4.13 million tons, with the United Kingdom and Central Europe accounting for 55 percent and 19 percent respectively.
“The world has changed — the environment is on everybody’s mind,” said Eva Williams, corporate and legal affairs director of Tesco Stores ČR.  “Rather than just being a passive player, we decided we want to be a leader in environmental issues.”
Rising up from a field several kilometers outside of Prague, Tesco’s massive Postřižín distribution center, which opened in 2005, is an unlikely front in the battle against global warming. The 24,000 square meter facility operates — lights burning — 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Each day, 250 tractor-trailers stream from Postřižín to replenish the supply of the 100 Tesco stores scattered throughout the country. The trucks, which refuel at the distribution center’s own gas station, are loaded with vegetables trucked from Italy, winter fruits flown from Argentina or, this month, Hungarian watermelons.
“At the start of the season, the melons are from Spain,” said Karel Oldrica, the director of transportation at the Postřižín facility.  “Now they are from Hungary. The last ones in August will be from Slovakia.”   
The melons, along with other perishable foods, are stored in an approximately 11,000-square-meter refrigerated warehouse and kept at an average temperature of 9 degrees Celsius — seemingly a massive energy output in the 23-degree summer heat.
As the fossil-fueled refrigerator elongates the watermelon season, a poster boasting Postřižín’s energy-saving features hangs on the wall. Tesco implemented many of these features after unveiling a new, environmentally focused “community plan” in 2007, which pledged to reduce carbon emissions.
At Postřižín, cisterns collect rainwater for use in cleaning and canalization. Energy-efficient bulbs now provide the constant lighting. A pump pushes air underground during the day and releases it at night, cooling the building.
The community plan requires these features to be installed in all future Tesco stores. “This plan means that tackling environmental issues is really at the heart of what [Tesco] has to do,” Williams said.
The highlight at Postřižín is the solar array. When finished, the array will produce up to 2,790 megawatts of solar energy per year, more than 30 percent of the distribution center’s electricity needs.  
The electricity will be sold to ČEZ, the largest state-owned power producer.  According to Williams, this should reduce the building’s carbon footprint 3,270 tons per year.
Globe-trotting groceries
Rooftop solar arrays have become popular among large businesses looking to boost their green image.  Because of favorable prices paid for solar-generated electricity, the country is currently experiencing a boom in such projects, said Petr Klímek, a production manager at the Czech Renewable Energy Agency.
In March, Dutch-based commercial properties developer CTP announced a 5 billion Kč plan to build solar arrays on the roofs of its 25 business parks in the Czech Republic with a total capacity of 60 megawatts.
More technical innovations like the solar power array will be necessary if Tesco is to meet its 2020 goal, said Vesselin Barliev, Corporate Affairs Manager of Tesco Stores ČR. “The easiest part of reducing the carbon footprint, the energy-saving, is for the most part already done,” he said.
Environmental groups, however, are skeptical of Tesco’s new color.
 “We’ll see,” said Vojtěch Kotecký, campaign director at the local branch of the environmental organization Friends of the Earth. “One solar project in one facility is definitely a good step, but we would rather see a larger, wide-ranging plan that would substantially reduce the carbon impact of Tesco operations.”
Tesco and other large supermarket chains have recently come under fire from Friends of the Earth and the Brno-based NGO Hypermarket.cz, which say these companies waste resources by transporting food across long distances while stifling smaller, local businesses. “They should look to source their food at a local level, so that much energy wouldn’t be used for transportation,” Kotecký said.
Tesco’s willingness to ship food long distances before it reaches consumers’ plates appeared to be a sensitive issue for company representatives.  “We have food here from Italy and even Asia,” Oldrica said. “But most is from Central Europe,” he quickly added.  Separately, Williams mentioned a pilot program in the United Kingdom that allows customers to choose locally grown produce over “something grown in Africa.”
For Williams, results were the bottom line. “If we are reducing our carbon footprint,” he said, “it’s surely not just a PR exercise.”
Adrian Chen can be reached at achen@praguepost.com


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