They say good things take time and after many months of hard work and planning, Countdown has unveiled their greenest store yet – in Richmond.
The 3450m2 store is the first Countdown with solar panels, which will deliver an impressive 10-15% of the store’s energy. There are also plenty of other features that make it their most sustainable store yet, including doors on the fridges and freezers to reduce energy use, digital shelf labels to reduce paper use, water-saving taps to reduce water use, EV chargers for customers choosing to drive sustainability, and plenty of bike parks for people choosing pedal power instead.
The Countdown team will be working with the NZ Green Building Council on Green Star accreditation for the new supermarket. As part of Countdown’s 2025 sustainability commitments, Countdown is aiming to achieve a 4 Green Star design and as-built rating for all of its new property developments, and a 5 Green Star minimum standard by 2025.
Countdown’s General Manager Property, Matt Grainger says he’s excited for customers to experience what the future of supermarkets will look like.
“We’re really determined to make sure we’re building not just a Countdown of the future, but stores that help protect that future too,” says Grainger. “Countdown Richmond is the first of many steps we’re taking to meet our ambitious sustainability goals.”
Grainger says working towards the Green Star accreditation hasn’t just been about new features – the whole construction process was equally important. “We’ve made a conscious effort to reduce the amount of waste going to landfill – in fact, we reduced construction waste to landfill by a massive 83%. We’ve recycled demolition waste where possible and used more sustainable and recycled products within the build including using fly ash in the store’s foundations and recycled aggregate in the asphalt.
“Constructing and delivering a store like this was not as easy or as cheap as a typical build, but it’s an investment that our business was willing to make to drive meaningful change for our environment,” says Grainger.
Did you know?
Countdown is part of Woolworths New Zealand, which is also the franchise co-ordinator for the Fresh Choice and SuperValue banner groups.
For more information on Countdown’s 2025 Sustainability Strategy, Kia pai ake te āpōpō, visit: https://www.countdown.co.nz/media/1659431/countdown-nz-sustainability-2025-plan.pdf
