UK retailer Marks and Spencer has announced plans today (1 March) to open its “most sustainable” UK store in Sheffield.

The retailer said the new 12,400 square foot Simply Food store is the first of a number of planned ‘Sustainable Learning’ stores and will “further increase M&S’ understanding of sustainable construction techniques and processes”.

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The store, which is set to open in April, has been built from scratch on a former brownfield site incorporates “a host of sustainable and innovative design and construction features”.

The retailer said steps taken to make building the Ecclesall Road outlet more sustainable will include: FSC certification for all the timber used in the store; recycling of all construction waste; reclaimed bricks and polished concrete floors.

It will use harvested rainwater in its toilets and its green ‘living wall’, heated using expelled heat from its refrigeration units and LED lighting.

The store will also create habitats for wildlife, including a sedum roof and green ‘living wall’ which will also insulate the building and act as a pollution filter, birdboxes around the perimeter wall and some 62 types of plants.

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“Each of these sustainable features is remarkable in its own right, however by bringing them all together in one development, something that is rarely done by retailers, we will achieve a whole that is worth far more than the sum of its parts, said Clem Constantine, director of property and store development at M&S. “The learnings we have taken from building the store, coupled with those we will make over its lifetime, will help us achieve our goal of becoming the world’s most sustainable major retailer by 2015.”

The announcement is part of plans to open at least two Sustainable Learning Stores a year.