Supermarket goes off the grid

You know there’s hope for the environment when big business starts taking climate change, waste and energy issues as seriously as the giant supermarket chain Sainsbury’s. The UK firm has just disconnected its first supermarket from the national electricity grid, powering it instead with energy generated from its own food waste.According to its head of sustainability, the entire company sends “absolutely no waste to landfill” from its 1106 stores. Instead, good food that is beyond its use-by date goes to local charities, while slightly spoiled food becomes animal feed – and anything really rotten goes into a specialised bio-methane digester plant. This breaks down the waste to create methane, which is then clean-burned to generate electricity that powers the off-grid store – plus over 2000 homes.Capturing and using the methane from the waste is doubly good, as the company avoids releasing the greenhouse gases that would be created if the food rotted in landfill, plus it doesn’t need to use electricity generated by coal- or gas-fired stations.