Super Eco

Photo credit: net_efekt, flickr

For several years now, most supermarkets have offered organic and eco-lines of food and other products. But what about their internal processes? Just how green are they with all the food waste, transportation costs and energy consumption?

This week the UK's supermarket chain Sainsbury's has stepped up to the plate and announced its commitment to going green and reducing its carbon footprint. By the end of February all 28 of its stores in Scotland will be sending their food waste to a biomass plant near Glasgow.

With 6.7 million metric tonnes of food waste going into UK landfills each year, Sainsbury's commitment to divert 42 metric tonnes a week of food waste (over 2,000 metric tonnes) doesn't seem that big a deal. However, the supermarket chain has also committed to diverting the food waste of all its UK stores by summertime.

And the result of this diversion? Enough power for 50,000 homes, 3 metric tonnes of CO2 released into the atmosphere (in comparison to the same energy produced by fossil fuels), and (doing the math) nearly 6000 tonnes of CO2 diverted from landfills.

Sainsbury's move is in line with the Scottish government's Zero Waste initiative.  Let's hope that their example will spur supermarkets around the world to do the same.