Close the doors campaign hits the High Street

Winchester Green Party has written to dozens of retailers asking them to keep doors closed, and to stop wasting heating and energy.

Even in snowy weather, many shops in the High Street have been keeping their doors wide open, while turning the heating up, in the hope of attracting more customers. 

Alison Craig says: ‘This practice is barmy at a time when we need to bring down climate change emissions. It’s a myth that a shop with open doors draws in more customers than one with closed doors. A recent study has proved that shops which close their doors not only save hundreds of pounds a year in heating costs but also do better business.’ 

She went on: ‘Winchester has one of the worst carbon footprints in the country, and our District’s emissions are the highest in Hampshire. We won’t hit reduction targets unless every sector ‘does its bit’, including retail.’ 

‘We have written to over forty retail giants, including Next, the Body Shop, Nokia, and HMV, to ask them to adopt a closed doors policy. If they agree to, we could save thousands of tonnes of CO2 emissions per year nationally.’

• Winchester Green Party has written to the national headquarters of the following chains:  Monsoon Accessorize Ltd, Blacks Leisure Group plc, The Body Shop plc; Card Factory, The Carphone Warehouse, Cath Kidston Ltd, Clarks International, Clinton Cards, Early Learning Centre, The Edinburgh Woollen Mill, Ernest Jones, Fat Face, Game Group plc, Greggs plc, HMV UK Ltd, Hobbs Ltd, Holland & Barrett Retail Ltd, Jack Wills, The Jessop Group Ltd, Jigsaw Women’s Clothing, Joules Clothing, L.K. Bennett, Lloyds TSB, Montezuma’s Chocolates, Next plc, Nokia Group, Past Times Trading Ltd, Pasty Presto, Phase Eight, Reeve The Baker, River Island, Russell & Bromley Ltd, Shoon, Superdrug, Thorntons plc, Timpson, Waterstones, West Cornwall Pasty Company, Whittard of Chelsea. They have also written to the following local shops: All That Glitters, Bellis Jewellery, Urban Nature, and Zoo Jewellery.

• The report commissioned by the Close The Door campaign showing that shops with closed doors save money and carbon emissions is: Interim report on the energy appraisal of retail units: assessing the effects of open doors on energy consumption and thermal comfort, University of Cambridge Department of Engineering, Technical report number: CUED/D-STRUCT/TR232, 18 October 2010. See  www.closethedoor.org.uk

• At 8.4 tonnes of CO2 per person per year, the Winchester District has the highest greenhouse gas emission level in Hampshire, and the sixth highest in the South East of England.  Under the Climate Change Act 2008, the government aims to reduce CO2 emissions to 34 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020. Winchester City Council has pledged to cut the carbon footprint of Winchester by 20 per cent by the end of 2012.

ENDS