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Waitrose and John Lewis publicizes plans to finish the usage of fossil fuels

Waitrose and John Lewis announce plans to end fossil fuel use

Waitrose and John Lewis have announced plans to significantly increase the use of electric vehicles to meet the goal of ending fossil fuel use across the transportation fleet by 2030.

The John Lewis partnership will use two new designs of the vehicle for its Waitrose.com grocery deliveries and smaller John Lewis deliveries, and will save over 20,000 tons of CO2 each year, which is the carbon footprint of 2,500 UK households.

Electric vehicles are following the retailer's recent announcement that it will build a special biomethane gas station so that its largest heavy-duty vehicles can use a low-carbon alternative to diesel. This reduces CO2 emissions by 80%, with each truck saving over 100 tons of CO2 every year.

The revolutionary electric vehicles, highlighted in the retailer's Ethics & Sustainability Progress Report published today, will be tested early next year. The retailer has worked with manufacturers and data scientists to source vehicles that are the most efficient and environmentally friendly.

State-of-the-art electric vehicles not only produce fewer pollutants, but also have a larger capacity than their diesel counterparts. In some cases, this means replacing three diesel vans with two electric ones. Electric vehicles are also quieter, which is important to reduce noise pollution in built-up areas.

The vehicle can also be upgraded with advancing technology, which means that the electric vans can have a very long lifespan of up to 20 years or more. This is a significant advantage that really contributes to the sustainability of the vehicle.

Justin Laney, partner and general manager of Central Transport at the John Lewis Partnership, said: “As our online services grow rapidly, we are working hard to achieve our goal of not running fossil fuels in the next ten years.

Our new electric vehicles are an ideal solution for home delivery. The innovative design means that they are more efficient, but also respect the environment and the growing number of neighborhoods in which we deliver. "

Waitrose.com has grown significantly to prepare for customers to be the only place to buy Waitrose products online in September. Since Waitrose accelerated its online expansion in the face of Covid-19, Waitrose has expanded its service to include more than 100,000 customer order slots per week (now more than 160,000 slots per week) and have placed at least 25% of Waitrose.com orders with vulnerable and vulnerable customers older customers, including those on government lists.

Waitrose.com now delivers to almost 90% of postcodes across the country through a network of stores and two (three by the end of this year) fulfillment centers in London.

The Waitrose Rapid Service has also tripled its deliveries to 7,000 p / w, with at least 40% of the slots reserved for vulnerable customers. The service offers up to 25 products for delivery within two hours.

The partnership's ethics and sustainability progress report also describes the retailer's commitment to increasing the number of charging stations for electric vehicles for customers and partnership vehicles in its parking lots.

In March 2019, the company owned by the employees committed to be net zero carbon in all of its operations by 2050 at the latest. The retailer has already announced that it will build its own biomethane gas station so that its largest heavy-duty vehicles can use an alternative to diesel.

The vehicles are operated with approx. 120 Waitrose trucks and run on biomethane from food waste and food waste instead of diesel. At the Bracknell site alone, the biomethane gas trucks will save over 70,000 tons of CO2 over the next seven years.