Retailer Woolworths has confirmed a further investment of over R17.5 million in renewable energy projects.
The latest investment includes solar installations to the value of R10.5 million and a renewable energy agreement to the value of R7.3 million per annum at key locations including the company’s head office and distribution centres in Cape Town, as well as its stores in Phalaborwa Mall in Limpopo and Greenacres Shopping Centre in the Eastern Cape.
These store and head office installations are projected to have a payback period of 4-5 years.
The expansion of the solar installations at Woolworths’ head office building triples the capacity of the initial pilot completed in 2013, adding an additional 357 kilowatts. This will increase the solar energy capacity at the Woolworths head office to 465 kilowatts.
Following this extension, approximately 11% of the energy requirements at the retailer’s head office will be met through solar power, including its always-on power intensive national data centre operating round-the-clock.
At the retail level, transitioning to renewable energy requires substantial investment and collaboration with shopping centre owners. Retailers like Woolworths often face challenges because they don’t own the roof and rely on progressive and flexible landlords like Phalaborwa Mall with whom Woolworths partnered to install a 165 kilowatt-peak(kWp) grid tied system on the mall’s roof, generating 30% of the stores energy needs.
Similarly, at its Greenacres store in Gqeberha Woolworths is investing in a 300 kWp solar system, benefiting from partial roof ownership of the shopping centre.
“We have an ambitious goal to source all our energy from renewables by 2030,” said Feroz Koor, Woolworths Group Head of Sustainability.
“Working with the renewable energy industry, energy traders, retail landlords, government and local municipalities has been crucial in making this shift.
The group's 2030 goal encompasses not only switching to renewable energy but also maximising energy efficiency.
"Through numerous interventions, including the installation of fridge doors in 348 of our foodmarkets, smart technology and energy efficiency practices across all our stores, we have achieved a two-thirds reduction in our stores’ energy intensity over the last 15 years.”
Dash
Over the past year, Woolworths’ on-demand delivery platform, Dash, achieved impressive sales growth of 71%. In addition to this, it improved its operational performance, with 95% of Dash orders delivered on-time or early – a 10% improvement on last year.
The expansion of Woolies Dash has created an additional 2 200 jobs across the value chain in the past 12 months alone, a meaningful boost towards job creation in South Africa.
A key development in the Woolies Dash journey has been the introduction of its first dark store, situated in the Cape Town CBD and servicing the city bowl and surrounding areas.
A dark store is not open to the public and is solely dedicated to fulfilling orders that are placed online.
“Investing in dark stores is testament to our focus on creating a future-fit omni-channel offering, that leverages and transforms existing assets to continuously improve our customer’s experience,” said Liz Hillock, Woolworths director of Online & Mobile.
The dark store in Cape Town has had a significant impact on product availability for online orders in the relevant area. Woolies Dash orders are usually fulfilled via local Woolworths stores, which means online orders compete with in-store shoppers.
The dark store eliminates this competition, and customers enjoy quicker delivery, thanks to a dedicated environment designed to be online-first. Excitingly, more Woolies Dash dark stores will be rolling out across the country soon.
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