Alosra supermarket launched its Green Week on Sunday, November 29 in collaboration with the Ministry of Works, Municipality Affairs and Urban Planning, and the Supreme Council for Environment.

Alosra’s Green Week introduced several initiatives in-line with the supermarket’s commitment to continuously decrease its environmental impact and raise community awareness about the importance of striving towards a zero-waste lifestyle.

The supermarket collaborated with the Ministry of Works, Municipality Affairs and Urban Planning to present the Zero-Waste-Lifestyle outdoor exhibition adjacent to the supermarket in El Mercado Mall, Janabiya. The exhibition features recycled furniture and home waste, live demonstrations of creative recycling ideas by local artists and the placement of waste sorting containers around the mall.

Additionally, the supermarket’s outlet in El Mercado Mall was announced as Alosra’s inaugural green store.  Alosra took a number of steps to ensure their first green store minimises environmental impact and waste as much as possible. These include using LED lights that generate less heat, leading to a decrease in both power consumption and the amount of air conditioning needed. Additionally, Alosra’s state-of-the-art refrigeration systems uses R404 gas, which is considered more environmentally friendly in comparison to R22 gas.

To tackle food waste, products that are safely edible but not fit for sale are donated to the Conserving Bounties charity that helps feed those in need. Furthermore, Alosra’s Think Local programme lends a hand to local farmers and producers and encourages the sale of local products in their stores. This in turn results in a lower carbon footprint.

To help reduce plastic waste, the Janabiya outlet uses paper bags for their bakery items and plastic alternatives across various departments. Alosra also encourages customers to bring their own reusable containers from home for packing their deli and bakery items, or purchase reusable jars from the supermarket, to benefit from a discount on their purchase. Recycling bins are also provided in store, to make it more convenient for customers to recycle plastic.

Alosra also continues to encourage the use of reusable eco-bags. The supermarket first launched their eco-bag line in 2015 to offer customers the ability to purchase a reusable alternative to single-use plastic bags. As part of their Green Week, Alosra collaborated with local artist Leena Al Ayoobi to launch a specially designed eco-bag to mark the occasion.

Commenting on the launch of Alosra’s Green Week, the supermarket’s General Manager, Jaffar Al Asfoor said, “Alosra supermarket has always been committed to try and reduce our environmental impact through various initiatives and our adherence to our ISO 14001:2015 Environmental Management Systems certification.  With the launch of Green Week and our first green store concept, we hope to further minimise waste and help raise awareness in the community. We will continue to further examine methods to reduce our impact on the environment and we are very grateful for the support of our customers, employees and various entities, especially the Ministry of Works, Municipality Affairs and Urban Planning, as well as the Supreme Council for Environment for supporting our Green Week.”