Thirteen SuperValu and Centra across Ireland have rolled out the Building Sustainable Communities initiative, in partnership with the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, who provided funding for community upgrade projects.
The initiative calls on stores to identify and upgrade areas of their own operations which can be made more energy efficient, but also to identify community buildings in their area to donate funds to upgrade their facilities.
The 13 stores involved in this year’s Building Sustainable Communities initiative were O’Keeffe’s SuperValu Bantry, O’Gorman’s SuperValu Kingscourt, Davis SuperValu Longford, Conolly’s SuperValu Bagenalstown, Staunton’s SuperValu Leixlip, Smith’s SuperValu Kinsale, Garvey’s SuperValu Cobh, Dano’s SuperValu Mallow, Myers Centra Oscar Traynor Road, Herlihy’s Centra Fermoy, O’Leary’s Centra Bandon, Ahern’s Centra Carrigtwohill, Musgrave Marketplace Galway.
'Eco-Friendly Energy'
A number of these stores installed solar PV panels on their roofs.
Not only are these stores now conserving energy through LED lighting upgrades and new refrigeration systems, they are creating their own eco-friendly energy to power their store.
O’Keefe’s SuperValu have the lowest carbon footprint possible for a supermarket, with LED lighting and energy saving doors on all refrigeration units within the store.
This year they installed solar PV roof panels and are beginning to generate green energy.
The community buildings in receipt of this substantial financial contribution, in excess of €325,000, as a result of the scheme and the stores’ efforts included St Christopher’s Day Care Centre Longford, Fermoy Rowing Club, St Joseph’s National School Cavan, St Benedict’s Priory Cobh and Bandon GAA.
In their clubhouses and buildings these local groups installed new heat pumps and insulation, while some opted for new energy efficient LED lighting.
These upgrades put money back into the pockets of these very worthwhile causes, due to reduced yearly energy bills of almost €32,000 or 207,360 thermal KWH savings.
© 2020 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Maev Martin. Click subscribe to sign up for the Checkout print edition.
