UK-based retail giant, John Lewis Partnership has recently announced construction of its dedicated biomethane gas filling station in an effort to curb carbon emission. This move is deemed to be a part of the its vision to become carbon neutral across its businesses by the year 2050, majorly driven by switching 600 of its heavy goods vehicles to biomethane by 2028.

Reportedly, the new gas station will become operational starting December of 2020, at company’s head office in Bracknell, England. The gas station was built in collaboration with Air Liquide, an industrial gas company, and will ensure operation of about 120 Waitrose heavy good trucks.

The company claims the filling station will reduce 70,000 tones of CO2 by 2027. That said, the brand aims to reduce CO2 emission by 80%, given that each truck cuts over 100 tonnes of CO2 annually.

It has also been speculated that the partnership will eliminate use of fossil fuels from its 4,800 commercial vehicles and cars fleet by 2030. Additionally, it is planning to unveil 1,750 light trucks and electric vans, and also convert its 1,300 cars and 70 refrigerated trailers to electric.

Speaking on the move, the Partner & General Manager of central transport at John Lewis Partnership, Justin Laney said that in order to battle climate change, it is important to utilize the existing technology rather than waiting for actionable solutions. The company is working rigorously towards removing all fossil fuel, which will bring them closer to reducing carbon emissions by half a million tonnes and finally achieve a net zero carbon emission fleet.

Previously, in March 2019, the company pledged to become net zero carbon. Since then, the company has already reduced its overall operational carbon emissions by 6.6% and vehicle emissions by 6.9%, cite the top officials.

Source: https://www.essentialretail.com/news/john-lewis-reduce-carbon-emissions/