LIDL NEDERLAND

Almere Oosterwold, sandwiched between the A6 and A27 motorways, is home to the Netherlands' very first energy- and CO2-neutral supermarket. In late 2020, Lidl gave the go-ahead for construction since 2021 the branch will be open. 'Sustainability just suits Lidl, we feel particularly good about it. This also allows us to keep prices low. And ultimately the customer benefits from that too,' said Marcel Ganzeboom, senior Manager Construction Lidl.

'Lidl is a modern company at the heart of society and takes all social issues to heart. Sustainability is in our genes, I think that also suits a discounter. Many people think that sustainable business is expensive. But for us it is a business model, it makes us money. Moreover, we are lucky not to be a listed company. Whether the payback period of an investment is five or seven years is not an issue for us. We are not into short-term politics.'

One step further

Why an energy- and carbon-neutral supermarket? 'We want to be prepared for the future,' is Marcel's answer. 'For years we have been building shops with the energy label A++++, the highest level currently achievable. But we like to go one step further. Therefore, in 2017 we launched a study together with TU Delft, focusing on the transition to circular operations. In September 2019, we opened our first energy-circular supermarket in Woerden: Lidl Zero. There, we not only consume as little energy as possible, but also generate all the energy needed to keep the shop running. So that the energy bill at the end is zero or zero euros. We even go so far as to allow customers to charge their electric car for free while visiting our shop.'

Not much later, a wonderful opportunity presented itself in Almere Oosterwold, Marcel continues. 'At a fantastic high-visibility location and with a unique zoning plan.' With the latter, he refers to the fact that Oosterwold offers plenty of space for residents and entrepreneurs to shape their living environment, in line with the Environment Act. 'That suits us perfectly. We wanted to surpass our Lidl Zero concept in Woerden and started investigating whether we could also build this new branch in a CO2-neutral way.' And we succeeded. As many sustainable materials as possible were used in the construction. The shop, for instance, consists mainly of wood, which requires hardly any maintenance. Special detail: old polo shirts of Lidl employees were reused for the building's insulation material. Moreover, the building is completely demountable. In the future, the building materials used can therefore be reused for other purposes.