By David Blake, Manager D.C. Support, Facilities and Sustainability
As Tepperman’s heads towards 100 years in business, we are constantly reinforcing the importance of making decisions that are aligned with addressing the climate crisis head on!
We are committed to making investments that help to reduce our energy consumption at each of our stores that will lead to future reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Over the past 3 years, the electricity grid in Ontario has become “dirtier” through the increase in using natural gas fired electricity generation.
The emissions from the electricity grid in 2020 was at 31 grams of CO2 per kWh. By 2022, it has risen to 43 grams and has continued to rise through 2023 and into 2024. This reinforces the importance of renewable energy projects.
In August of 2022 we turned on the 914-panel solar energy generation system on our Kitchener store and it is performing above the modeled expectations. Year over year it has generated more than 95% of the required energy consumption of the store and has allowed us to avoid more than 25 tonnes of emissions annually and growing.
In May 2024, Tepperman’s will be opening our 7th store in St. Catharines. Once again, we looked for innovative ways to make investments that were good for our planet during the development of this new location.
At each of our stores, we have covered customer pickup areas that allow for our products to be placed in our customers’ vehicles while being protected from the weather. Generally, they are large steel structures covering 6-10 parking spaces. In St. Catharines, we decided to do something different.
We reached out to our partner VCT Group whom we worked with for our Kitchener store’s solar project and asked them to design a custom solar canopy/carport that not only will protect our customers’ products from the elements but will also lower the carbon footprint of our new store.
The solar carport will have 94 panels integrated to a single inverter to be able to generate more than 49 MWh of electricity, which is expected to be about 15% of the consumption of the new store, reducing more than 2 tonnes of emissions.
So, when you have finished your shopping experience and are ready to pick up your purchase, head to the customer pickup area. While you are waiting, look up and know that you are not only being kept dry, but you are seeing another example of Tepperman’s sustainability plans in action.
To learn more about how Tepperman’s works to address the climate crisis, click here.
