The Warehouse Group Announces Solar Switch To More Stores

In sunny news, The Warehouse Group switches another 34 stores and sites across Auckland to solar energy, including The Warehouse, Warehouse Stationery, Noel Leeming and the Group’s Support Office.

This move follows the Groups earlier announcement that saw 23 stores and sites enjoy the power of the sun in February – now taking the total to 57 in the upper North Island.

The Warehouse Group’s Chief Sustainability and Sourcing Officer Mark Anderton says “lighting up stores with solar means cleaner energy and less strain on our national grid.

“Building on our first solar push in February, this latest upgrade is set to slash our Scope 2 emissions by at least 1,000 tonnes of CO2e every year – the equivalent of taking 200 cars off the road each year.

“We’re not just cutting down on emissions, but also contributing to the stability and sustainability of New Zealand’s national grid by increasing our solar energy capacity - which we’ve seen under intense pressure recently as winter arrives.

“More than 210 of our stores and sites will switch to solar by 2026 and help us achieve zero operational emissions by 2040. We're in this for the long term and are committed to making changes that benefit everyone.

“While solar power significantly reduces our carbon footprint, we’re also making more sustainable choices for our entire supply chain - from our packaging, the materials we make our products with and the factories that make them, to how we move the goods. Our broader sustainability strategy includes reducing waste, rolling out recycling programs, and using more environmentally friendly materials like Better Cotton,” says Anderton.

The Warehouse Group have tapped into Lodestones 50-hectare Edgecombe solar farm, Rangitaiki, to fuel its 34 sites and stores.

Lodestone Energy’s Managing Director Gary Holden says, “we’re excited to see this milestone reached today, following the completion of Rangitaiki in April this year. We believe that engaging customers to be part of the solution is key to keeping the energy transition moving forward and for keeping electricity prices in check.

“With two farms completed, and our third farm in Waiotahe on track to be generating by the end of the year, we are pleased that Lodestone and The Warehouse Group are joining forces at this critical time,” says Holden.

Note:

In our initial announcement, The Warehouse Group committed to transitioning more than 250 stores and sites to solar power by 2026. Please note that this target has been updated to over 210 following the sale of Torpedo7 in March 2024. This revised figure encompasses the remaining The Warehouse Group stores, distribution centres, and support offices.

Rangitaiki, boarders the Rangitaiki river on the Edgecumbe plains. The farm consists of nearly 60,000 solar panels supported by more than 6,300 piles across an expansive area spanning 50 hectares. The site has a capacity of 32.4 MW and is expected to produce approximately 54 GWh annually, which is enough energy to power over 7,500 households.

The use of renewable electricity certificates will ensure that electricity consumed at our sites will be matched and verified against solar electricity produced by Lodestone’s solar farms. Working with a retail service provider, Lodestone have also implemented market-leading metering and billing techniques to enable Lodestone’s solar farm production to offset the demand of The Warehouse Group’s stores.

TWG stores and sites include:

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