14 DAY TRIAL // Back in 2007, Marks & Spencer announced plans to become one of the world's most sustainable major retailers. Fast forward a few years, and it appears that the British multinational retailer is nothing if not determined to stick to this promise.
Long story short, Marks & Spencer says that it is now carbon neutral and that it no longer sends any waste to landfills. What's more, it claims to have won nearly 190 environmental awards.
Most other retailers would have pulled the plug on efforts to go green after having reached these goals. But not this British multinational retailer. No Sir, Marks & Spencer is now busy investing heavily in renewables.
Not to beat about the bush, it was this past October 23 that the retailer told the world that it had started work on a single roof-mounted solar array that, when completed, would be the largest to have ever been installed in the UK.
The UK's largest single roof-mounted solar array
In a statement, the British multinational retailer details that this latest green energy project on its working agenda boils down to installing as many as 24,272 solar panels on the roof of its distribution center in Castle Donnington.
When up and running at full capacity, these solar panels will have an overall electricity output of 5,000MWh per year. This means that, at least during daytime, the distribution center will be nearly self-sufficient.
Looking to put things into perspective, Marks & Spencer explains that the energy its solar array in Castle Donnington will very soon start producing could easily meet the demand of as many as 1,190 households.
It is expected that, over the course of the following 20 years, this solar array will help the British multinational retailer reduce its carbon footprint by as much as 48,000 tonnes. This will in turn help limit climate change and global warming.
The best is yet to come
Marks & Spencer says that, over the course of the following 12 months, it will continue to implement such green energy projects at several of the sites it owns and operates across the globe. The end goal is to have 50% of the energy used in its building operations come from small scale renewable sources alone by the year 2020.
The British multinational retailer is interested in investing in renewables not just because such projects are a sure way to achieving sustainability, but also because harvesting green energy sources instead of relying on coal-fired plants and the like goes hand in hand with spending less money on the energy needed to keep a facility or another up and running.