Ministop Launches Eco-Conscious Outlet on College Campus

Copyright Ministop Co.

Ministop Co., a major convenience store chain in Japan, opened an environmentally-conscious store on October 1, 2009 in the campus of the Mie University in Tsu, Mie Prefecture. The store does not supply or sell plastic shopping bags but encourages customers to use reusable shopping bags instead. It is Japan's first convenience store to use no plastic shopping bags at all.

In the first few days after opening, the store distributed an originally-designed reusable shopping bag to each shopper and asked them to use it at the store. Since that period, the store has been keeping a stock of the bags beside the cash register and will lend one when needed. In addition, it introduced a photovoltaic power generation system and energy-saving lighting systems such as LED lighting and cold cathode fluorescent lamps, expecting to reduce annually about 11,600 kilowatt-hours of electricity consumption.

Moreover, with an electricity monitoring device installed in the store, Ministop and the university intend to utilize the store as a data source site for students' research. Based on the results of analysis or verification of the measurement data acquired by the monitoring device, students are able to improve their research and jointly work on developing next-generation eco-conscious equipment.

Co-op at Japan's Mie University Sees Dramatic Drop in Use of Plastic Bags by Charging Fees (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/027077.html
Japanese Convenience Store Chain Starts Selling Fair Trade Products (Related JFS article)
http://www.japanfs.org/en/pages/028817.html

Posted: 2009/12/14 06:00:15 AM