By Juha Maijala, CEO, Blockstore Group
Sustainability - a top priority for our company. At the beginning of our journey, we faced some challenges in pitching our solution. Many were skeptical of the need for a closed intelligent cabinet solution (with a single cooling engine and glass door).
But although there are doors consumers need to open before having access to products, our data showed that a closed cabinet system consumes up to 300% less cooling energy than traditional open shelves.
Grocery supermarkets still operate with those in use, but luckily many are shifting to closed-door cooling units.
Blockstore Smart Stores consume
62 % less energy
compared to traditional
grocery store cooling systems
We compared the current situation between our smart grocery store and traditional grocery store, focusing on cooling energy consumption in both environments. The results surprised us positively!
Currently, our solution can bring up to a 62% reduction in cooling energy consumption, compared to traditional stores having sizes around 110-130m2. The results are illustrated in Picture 1 below.
As you might have noticed in the picture, we listened to our customers and started to improve and refine our approach, incorporating modularity.
Modularity means here that one intelligent unit with multiple cabinets is cooled with only one optimized cooling engine, may it be remotely outside the actual store (remote) or in the module itself (plug-in). This will further improve our energy efficiency, and this is the direction we are going.
Our focus on energy efficiency is only part of the story. Smart stores sustainability is evident as our intelligent grocery stores also offer logistical benefits, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by up to 87%. This is achieved while ensuring the convenience and accessibility customers demand.
On this topic, we need to provide more insights with our customers and combine it with online delivery optimization.
We believe that the future of local grocery lies in the combination of local supermarkets and online click-and-collect capabilities.
And we are committed to leading the way in providing innovative solutions that benefit both our customers and the environment.