The Midcounties Co-operative has taken home the Energy Project of the Year accolade at the edie 2023 Awards in recognition of its work to create a sustainable future.
The edie Awards are the world’s largest sustainable business awards which champions bold and brilliant climate leadership and have been running for 16 years.
The Energy Project of the Year Award in particular recognises the best examples of proactive energy management which utilise technologies and systems techniques to achieve significant energy savings.
The Society’s purpose is ‘to be a successful consumer co-operative working towards creating a better, fairer world’ which has seen it carry out extensive research and engagement with its members, broader stakeholders, and industry experts to create its member-led sustainability strategy.
As part of this, Midcounties has committed to reducing its Greenhouse Gas emissions by 50% over the next five years, and its work so far in doing so impressed the panel of 25 judges at this year’s edie Awards.
It has reduced its electricity usage in 2022 compared to the previous year by 8.8% across like for like food stores, saving over 870 tonnes of CO2 and £1.2 million in energy costs. This follows investment in technologies such as LED lighting, energy efficient refrigeration and remote controlling systems across selected Food stores, as well as focusing on driving energy efficiency awareness amongst colleagues.
It has also researched and used consumer trends and insights to identify and provide a range of low carbon products and services to our members and customers, focusing on community renewable energy.
The Midcounties Co-operative’s Community Power Tariff provided by its Utilities business is the UK’s only tariff powered by renewable electricity from community projects, which sees the business work with 200 community energy groups to supply Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), helping to support the growth of renewable energy and providing power to over 60,000 homes per year.
In addition to this, the Society has also established an Energy Reduction Steering Group, consisting of its CEO, board executives, senior management and property experts, who meet weekly to help oversee and drive forward its sustainability strategy and activity.
Phil Ponsonby, chief executive at The Midcounties Co-operative, said: “As a Society, we are striving to make a positive impact. This award recognises that and how we’re leading the way in energy management as we continue to support the growth of community renewable energy projects as well as reducing our energy usage across our operations.
“We’re hugely proud of this achievement and we couldn’t have done it without the support of all our members, customers and colleagues.”
The Midcounties Co-operative is one of the largest consumer co-operatives in the UK, with its 730,000 owner-members at the heart of everything it does. It operates a range of businesses including Food, Travel, Childcare and Utilities.
