The Sitari Village Mall, in Cape Town, has rolled out a 100% renewable-energy solution, generated from wind and solar sources.

The mall is owned by the Shoprite Group, and has one of its Checkers supermarkets as its anchor tenant.

The move to renewable energy is part of Checkers’ ongoing commitment to environmental sustainability.

Enabling the facility to run entirely off renewable energy is the result of a 635 kWp rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) installation, as well as an agreement with Eskom’s Renewable Energy Tariff (RET) programme, which allows customers to source up to 100% of their electricity from renewable resources.

The Sitari Village Mall will generate 35% of its electricity from its rooftop solar PV system. The remaining 65% will be sourced from an Eskom wind plant through the RET programme.

This is enough to power the entire centre.

This initiative forms part of Checkers’ new environmental campaign, which includes recycling cardboard and plastic; using recycled content in packaging; reducing food and plastic waste; sourcing products with sustainably sourced ingredients; and increasingly using renewable electricity.

“The commitment to renewable energy is part of Checkers’ wider climate change strategy, which acknowledges that climate change will, directly and indirectly, impact our business and the communities we are a part of,” says Shoprite sustainability manager Sanjeev Raghubir.

“Therefore, we commit to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, continuously improve energy efficiency, and strengthen the resilience and adaptive capacity of our operations and that of our communities.”

The Shoprite group last year doubled its solar capacity and announced its intention to power 25% of operations with renewable energy.

The group has committed to procuring 434 000 MWh of renewable energy a year from a specialist energy trader through its renewable-energy procurement project.