Waste-powered shopping: John Lewis to build biomethane filling plant

John Lewis Partnership has unveiled plans to build a new bio-methane gas filling station that would allow Waitrose lorries to run on fuels derived from food waste and other waste materials instead of diesel.

The retail giant launched the plans today, as it announced a fresh commitment to wean its 4,800-strong transport fleet off fossil fuels by the end of the decade.

The filling station will be built by the end of the year at the firm's head office in Bracknell, in partnership with French gas company Air Liquide, the company said.

The John Lewis Partnership revealed it has ordered 143 biomethane trucks in anticipation of the project's completion, a purchase it claims is the UK's "largest ever" order for green gas vehicles.

It said the new filling station would allow Waitrose Bracknell's 120-strong heavy-goods lorry fleet to fully transition to biomethane.

Commenting on the new announcement, Justin Laney, partner and general manager of central transport at the John Lewis Partnership, said:  "The evidence of climate change is all around us, so it's important we act now using available technology rather than wait for unproven solutions to appear. We are working hard towards our new aim of removing all fossil fuel from our transport fleet by 2030, which will reduce our carbon emissions by over half a million tonnes and gets us well on the way to our ultimate target of operating a net zero carbon emission fleet."

Biomethane trucks, which produce roughly 80 per cent less carbon emissions compared to diesel trucks, are a central plank of John Lewis' sustainable transport strategy.

Last year, the company vowed to switch all 600 of its heavy goods vehicles to the low carbon fuel by 2028.

At the Bracknell site alone over the next seven years, the shift away from diesel should save 70,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, or the equivalent emissions produced by 13,000 households, the company estimated.

The 85 biomethane trucks already operated by the John Lewis Parternship currently fill up at sites near John Lewis and Waitrose distribution centres in Leyland, Lancashire, and Northamptonshire, the firm explained.

The John Lewis Partnership today also provided an update on its green transport efforts to date, confirming that it reduced transport emissions by 6.9 per cent and operational emissions by 6.6 per cent last year, as it continues to work towards its goal of net zero emissions across its entire operations by 2050.

The company stressed today that it intends to complement its ongoing efforts to decarbonise its heavy goods fleet with initiatives that eliminate fossil fuels from its smaller vehicles. As such it is working on plans to introduce 1,750 electric vans and light trucks to its fleet, and transitioning some 1,300 cars and 750 fridge trailers to electric power, it said.

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