Tesco opens first Irish zero carbon store

The new Tesco Cabra store was officially opened today, creating 150 jobs and marking the latest stage in Tesco’s 2011/2012 €120 million investment programme in Ireland.

As part of Tesco’s commitment to reduce its carbon footprint, Tesco Cabra is the first zero carbon supermarket in Ireland and the fifth within the Tesco Group worldwide.

The store features a host of cutting-edge, environmentally-friendly technologies, which help to maintain a zero carbon footprint from the store’s operations.

These include refrigeration which uses CO2 to cool the freezers and fridges rather than traditional refrigerant gases and a bio-diesel fuelled CHP plant that heats the store and generates electricity very efficiently.

Speaking at the event, Corporate Affairs Director Dermot Breen said:

“Today is an important step in our creation of 755 new jobs this year. We believe that the Cabra store will be a very important addition for the community in the Cabra and will greatly help affordability of food for consumers in the area.”

“We are delighted to open this, our first Zero Carbon store in Ireland. It is a very important step in our programme for reducing our environmental impact.”

Tesco’s €120 million investment programme is creating 755 new jobs across the country and construction work on the various projects is creating another 548 building jobs.

Last year, Tesco created 825 jobs in Ireland and now employs 14,000 people in the Republic.

Source : Laura McGuigan – Inside Ireland
http://insideireland.ie/2011/11/21/tesco-cabra-store-creates-150-jobs-42296/