Costa opens up its Eco Pod

A Costa Coffee outlet in Telford has become the United Kingdom’s first ‘zero energy’ coffee shop and arguably one of the company’s best designed stores.

As technology advances along at an alarming rate, a number of businesses and domestic addresses have begun to adopt and utilise renewable energy sources for their own use. But after a few years in the design process, Costa, one of the UK’s largest coffee chains, has just opened up its first solar powered store.

Located in a retail park in Telford, an hour’s west of England’s second city of Birmingham, this free-standing store (dubbed the Eco Pod by Costa Coffee) is fitted with oodles of eco-friendly technologies, including 100 photovoltaic solar panels and an innovative passive ventilation system.

“Telford is a pioneer project,” said Andy Oram, of EH Smith Sustainable Products, who provided the solar panels for the building.

“Somewhere at the top Costa have had a moment where they decided this is the right thing to do for both business and environmental reasons.

“They have obviously got their Fairtrade coffee supply chain and now they are looking at lower impact buildings for their customers.”

Although the solar panelling can provide the power needed to heat and cool the store, even during peak trading hours, they cannot, yet, power the entire store. Consequently, the building needs to be connected to the main grid. But progress is progress; and this represents a giant leap forwards.

Speaking about the Eco Pod, Costa’s Energy and Environment Manager Oliver Rosevear had this to say: “Our latest data indicates that the store has reduced its pure energy usage by 54%, compared to a ‘conventional’ unit – showing that the building is performing as planned.”

Rosevear also alluded that Costa could bring this philosophy to pre-existing stores in the near future, a sentiment echoed by an official statement released by Jim Slater, the managing director of Costa UK and Ireland.

“This is an exciting first for coffee shop and retail design here in the United Kingdom,” Slater stated.

“[It] has the potential to transform not just how we build new stores at Costa but [in the wider] industry.”