14 DAY TRIAL // Retail giant John Lewis has announced that, starting January 2015, 387 of its Waitrose supermarkets and John Lewis department stores will be powered by green energy alone.
Information shared with the public says that the company has entered a partnership with green power provider SmartestEnergy, whose business agenda boils down to purchasing eco-friendly electricity from small-scale independent projects and then passing it on to whatever companies wish to reduce their carbon footprint.
As part of this partnership, SmartestEnergy will see to it that whatever energy hundreds of independent eco-friendly generators produce is used to keep Waitrose's selected 387 stores up and running.
“The John Lewis Partnership has signed a new energy supply deal which will provide a major boost to renewable generation projects owned by communities, farmers and small businesses across the UK.”
“The agreement will see SmartestEnergy, which buys electricity from hundreds of independent generation projects, supply more than 380 Waitrose and John Lewis sites with 100% renewable electricity,” SmartestEnergy details in a press release issued earlier today.
Commenting on the importance of this collaboration, Nigel Keen with John Lewis pointed out that, apart from helping the retail giant improve on its ecological footprint, this partnership will benefit independent green energy generators in the United Kingdom.
Besides, it will also help the country achieve its goal to up its dependence on renewables in the years to come, Nigel Keen wished to stress.
“Working with SmartestEnergy means we can support independent renewable generators and contribute to progress towards the UK's target for 15 per cent of energy demand to be met from renewable sources by 2020,” he said in a statement.
As mentioned, SmartestEnergy will start providing green power for John Lewis' 387 stores in January 2015. The contract between the two companies is, at least for the time being, one of just three years. No information concerning how much this partnership will cost the retail giant has thus far been made available to the public.