The grocery chain J Sainsbury is to open its flagship green store in Dartmouth, Devon, which is expected to become the model for all its new supermarkets.

The store, which has been built from timber rather than steel and will be heated by a biomass boiler running on wood chips, is also expected to save Sainsbury about a third on its energy bills.

The company said that all new stores would incorporate as many of the new green features of the Dartmouth site as possible and pledged that two supermarkets a year and one convenience store would look to “stretch” the group’s thinking on the environment by testing innovative technologies.

The retailer will stress that the opening in Dartmouth is not simply a concept store to display what can be done but will be used as a template for new openings.

Sunday Times