Aldi is opening a new eco-friendly store in a bid to reduce carbon emissions by up to two-thirds and make recycling easier for customers.
The store - opening today in Royal Leamington Spa, Warwickshire - was built with sustainable materials, such as timber fibre insulation, cement replacement concrete and recycled lighting columns.
The building has solar panels and uses chiller doors to reduce energy consumption, the German discounter giant said.
Its structure was redesigned to help reduce overall energy demand by 57% compared with a normal store.
Features in the store include a "hard to recycle" unit to allow customers to recycle items not collected by local authorities, such as coffee pods, medicine packets, batteries, soft plastics and cosmetic packaging.
There will also be a nuts and coffee refill fixture to help customers shop more sustainably, using their own containers or a free paper bag.
The car park has dedicated Electric Vehicle Charging Ports, with capacity to expand these in the future as demand for the spaces increases.
Aldi also wants to learn which characteristics work best in the new store in order to integrate them across other of its shops around the UK.
The company's UK and Ireland CEO, Giles Hurley, said: "Now more than ever, we must do our bit for the environment and this store offers us the ability to easily explore new in-store initiatives and low carbon store designs.
"We are committed to reducing our environmental impact in any way we can and are continuing to explore new initiatives all the time.
"What's even better is that many of the changes made to this store, whether it be the energy saving initiatives or our latest packaging-free trial, could allow us to put even more money back into the pockets of our customers.
"We're focusing on continuing to deliver our longstanding price promise by offering the lowest possible prices in Britain, every single day."
Earlier this week, Aldi promised customers it will continue to offer the lowest food prices in the UK to help households get by amid soaring living costs.
The retail giant attracted an extra 1.5 million customers to its stores over the past 12 weeks as squeezed shoppers switch to the budget brand.
The company said more of its existing customers have changed their grocery spending and are now using it as their first and only supermarket choice.
In its annual trading update, Aldi said trading boomed in the past six months despite the slow down of sales growth in the UK and Ireland last year.
Aldi is making record sales according to the latest data which shows 18.7% growth in sales and a market share of 9.3% – the highest at any point during its 32-year history.
It means the brand is now Britain's fourth largest supermarket, having recently overtaken Morrisons.
