The Southern Co-operative switches lights to LED across its estate

The Southern Co-operative expects to save close to £400,000 a year after installing LED lighting throughout its estate.

The £2m project will also save more than 1,800kg of carbon a year, the equivalent of that produced from 164 flights around the world.

The society has 250 outlets including 192 food stores, across 11 counties in southern England.

It worked with lighting specialist Vision Accendo to install LED lighting in all new stores and retrospectively in existing ones. The change includes upgrades to all main lighting, sales areas, chiller cabinets and fascia signage.

“Over the four years since we standardised our use of LED lighting, the technology has improved considerably, in terms of output, energy efficiency and equipment costs,” said head of trading formats - and the project sponsor - Steve Tremlett.

“We felt the timing was now right to convert the whole retail business to LED, and as well as contributing towards our environmental goals, we anticipate this programme will deliver savings of over £375,300 a year.”

Commercial development manager Justin Jones said as well as saving over 1,812kg of carbon a year, the new lighting felt ‘fresher’ for customers and colleagues and cut maintenance costs.

The Southern Co-operative has been adopting energy-saving technologies such as building management systems, chiller doors and LED lighting in all new-builds since 2012.

Gemma Lacey, director of sustainability and communications, said it had now achieved a 38% improvement in energy efficiency over the past six years.

“The LED lighting rollout helps us deliver further energy and carbon savings and forms part of our long-term commitment to being a responsible and sustainable business.”