Calculations by technology platform and advisory company Avani Solutions reveal that Australian supermarkets could reduce their energy usage by over 12% in one year simply by eliminating inefficiencies in their building, store, workforces and maintenance systems.
For Woolworths group, which uses around 2,241,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) of energy per annum, a 12% reduction would eliminate approximately 268,920 MWh – enough to power all of NSW for more than a day.
For Coles Group, which uses approximately 1,581,154 MWh per annum, this would mean eliminating approximately 189,738 MWh – enough to power 31,000 average Australian homes for a year.
The combined elimination of 458,658 MWh by the two major supermarkets is equivalent to powering around 62,830 average Australian households per annum (7,300 kWh per year).
From data to actionable insights
The 12% figure was derived by analysing the average energy savings achieved by Avani within hundreds of buildings and stores over a period of 20+ years when using its proprietary real-time data extraction and smart automation platform.
This is the most conservative figure in Avani Solutions’s calculations, however, with their assessment revealing that the average could range from as low as 12% to as high as 30%, depending on the unique properties of the building or store portfolio.
These types of results are achieved by the Avani framework that integrates directly into the operational systems of commercial buildings and retail portfolios to extract data in real time then turn it into actionable insights that are sent back to these systems so they can autonomously implement the insights.
This now removes the need for manual human interventions, monitoring, or a reliance on incorrect or historical data.
Sustainable supermarkets
All major and minor supermarkets across Australia produce energy from similar sources that suffer from comparable efficiency issues, including refrigeration systems, lighting, HVAC systems, hot water, and electronic devices such as bakery equipment, tills, and doors.
The financial opportunity for supermarkets to reduce their carbon footprint could be far greater than the cost of inefficiencies, given the growing demand for sustainable consumption options by Australians.
It’s pretty clear that the world as a whole is increasingly demanding more sustainable options,” says Chantel Zamparutti, Head of Strategy at Avani. “Larger organisations like national supermarket chains are also in a great position to be able to make a real difference, given small changes to the way they operate can have oversized results.
“We applaud the sustainability work of all major and minor supermarkets, and encourage them to seek out technology solutions that can aid them further in their efforts.
“Importantly, while it may have cost more to be more sustainable in the past, we’re now able to achieve these huge sustainability benefits at the same time as decreasing operating costs. So there’s no excuse to be letting these inefficiencies continue.”
