Crowley Carbon and the Irish retailer Londis have announced the launch of a joint initiative that will reduce energy costs in the company´s stores by a minimum of 15%.

Energy reduction specialists Crowley Carbon were selected by Londis to offer retailers energy efficiency solutions that will reduce their carbon footprint and save them approximately €35,000 per year.

The Green Scheme initiative represents an investment of approximately €12,000 per retailer – an amount that Crowley Carbon estimates will be recouped in energy savings within two years. Indeed, the estimated savings of 15% could be considerably higher depending on a retailer’s past focus on energy conservation in store.

Crowley Carbon expects that at least fifty Londis retailers will carry out energy efficiency work in the first 12 months. Thirty-five retailers have already committed to the initiative and, if each of these were to reduce their energy bills by 100,000 kWhours or 50 tonnes of Co2 per year, it would be the equivalent to taking 250 cars off Irish roads.

Explaining how the Green Scheme initiative will work, Ray Lucy – the Area Sales Manager for Crowley Carbon – said: “There are many areas within stores where energy can be wasted. Our team will go to stores and carry out an audit based on current energy use”.

“All elements will be analysed including lighting, fridges, heating systems, ovens and hot counters. Following this we will install individual solutions per store and demonstrate how these lead to a reduction in energy usage having significant benefit to a store’s bottom line and of course the environment.”

Speaking on the launch of the initiative, Robert Galster – the Project Manager for ADM Londis – said: “We are delighted to launch the Green Scheme to our network of retailers across Ireland. We are very conscious of the financial pressures our retailers are faced with and believe that the opportunity to reduce energy costs by on average 15% per store will be met with significant interest amongst our retailer members”.