The energy used to light and heat our stores, distribution centres and offices is the greatest contributor to our carbon footprint and also represents a significant cost to the business. During the year, new legislation has also come into force in the UK, the Carbon Reduction Commitment, which has increased the costs associated with energy use, giving a further imperative to reduce the amount of energy used in our business.
In Travel stores, the requirements for in-store lighting and heating are set by our landlords, so we work in consultation with them on any changes we may want to make. During the year, we have been in dialogue with some of our largest landlords to better understand their approach to energy reduction and to identify ways to work together. Our Travel store teams have also been focusing on regular review of heating controls to ensure that our heating systems are at the right level for the weather conditions with no wastage. We have also increased the use of chiller blinds and introduced more energy efficient drinks chillers in some stores. We will continue to work with our landlords and to apply learnings from High Street where appropriate.
In our High Street stores, we set the requirements for in-store lighting and heating or cooling ourselves. We use a system of Automated Meter Readers to closely monitor the energy use in each store and to identify any discrepancies quickly. In recent years, our focus has been on making energy efficiency part of the culture of the business, giving our staff clear accountability for making savings wherever there is an opportunity to adjust lighting or heating levels, for example. This approach has enabled us to deliver consistent improvement year on year.
Lighting uses more than half of the energy of a trading store and, during the year, we have been trialling improvements to our lighting equipment in High Street. We conducted a trial of new LED lighting at our Newbury store and saw significant reductions in energy usage, with no impact to the levels of light within the store. The outgoing lights were recycled, and the new ones will last around ten years, reducing the environmental impact of disposing with old tubes. Based on our learnings from the Newbury trial, we plan to roll out similar lighting upgrades to other High Street stores during 2011/12 and would hope to accelerate our energy savings programme as a result.