Hubbard - Innovating with John Lewis Partnership

Hubbard Products has a long history of working closely with a wide range of partners throughout its business chain involving suppliers, staff and customers to develop innovative and challenging solutions to commercial issues in a corporately responsible manner.

Hubbard have adopted a corporate approach that reflects the importance of 'partnering' as a way of transforming commercial beliefs and behaviour for positive outcomes allowing suppliers, staff and customers to co-operate for common benefit and achieving better success than would be possible from working individually.

As a result of this approach Hubbard are now working with the John Lewis Partnership to develop a range of environmental and ecologically sound refrigeration solutions that will assist JLP in reducing vehicle carbon emissions, noise from its refrigeration trucks, boosting its green fleet credentials and reducing the carbon footprint of its Waitrose stores.

As a firm supporter of the Kyoto Protocol, the John Lewis Partnership has made a public commitment to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 10 per cent by 2010, relative to its trading pattern in the year 2001.

John Lewis turned to Hubbard in 2008 recognising the company's expertise in both the transport and static refrigeration sectors and as part of the Zanotti Group offering access to a wide source of technical knowledge gained through partnering on a worldwide basis.

The John Lewis Partnership is a member of the Corporate Leaders' Group on Climate Change, part of HRH The Prince of Wales's Business & the Environment Programme. The Group brings together business leaders from 20 major UK and international companies who believe that there is an urgent need to develop new and longer-term policies for tackling climate change.

JLP's target is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions per £ million sales by 10 per cent by 2010 against its 2001-02 baseline, 20% by 2020, and 60% by 2050. Working with partners like Hubbard it is fully on track to meet the first of these targets.

Over 60 per cent of its emissions are generated from Waitrose, which has more stores and longer trading hours than John Lewis. Hubbard is working with JLP to develop an electric fridge that uses energy efficient scroll-compressor technology, the first of which is now in long term trials at Waitrose alongside a low-noise, energy-efficient undermount trailer refrigeration unit.

The importance of addressing all elements of the cold chain made Hubbard the front-runner from the outset and with its knowledge and experience in 'partnering' progress was rapid, with the first trailer featuring a development of Hubbard's Europa Undermount System, entering service in the Waitrose fleet at Bracknell in November 2008.

Currently Hubbard is working in conjunction with JLP to develop further innovative refrigeration solutions involving research into alternative energy sources that, if successful, will be of benefit to a much wider range of stakeholders establishing both JLP and Hubbard as partnering and environmental 'champions'.