20 retail outlets completely refurbished, energy savings of 5 per cent and 100 tonnes of CO2 per outlet per year, €33 million in investment and 18 months of work.

These are the figures behind what can be considered the largest energy refurbishment project in large-scale organised retail. An initiative born out of collaboration between Conad del Tirreno, UniCredit, Arpinge and Officinae Verdi. Each player has a clearly defined role. Starting with Officinae Verdi, an energy efficiency company set up by UniCredit in partnership with WWF, which will develop the technological side across the entire supply chain.

"An example of green economy in action, which we developed for the energy refurbishment of Conad del Tirreno stores," declared Paolo Fiorentino, deputy general manager of UniCredit and chairman of Officinæ Verdi. "Energy efficiency is a particularly significant sector, in which we have built up specific expertise, with the aim of developing a new approach to energy and the environment."

20 worksites open across as many retail outlets spread across Lazio, Tuscany and Sardinia. An open laboratory for energy efficiency and savings, which will also generate employment in the wider supply chain. "A strategic project, given that energy is the second-largest cost item for large-scale organised retail companies after personnel costs, with energy supply expenditure accounting for between 1 and 2 per cent of turnover," says Ugo Baldi, chief executive of Conad del Tirreno. "In recent years we have already built significant photovoltaic self-generation plants with a total installed capacity of around 5 MWp in Tuscany, Lazio and Sardinia."

But it is not just renewables. The latest technologies in air conditioning and consumption monitoring on computerised platforms will be used, so as to have real-time control over all of the company's energy-intensive sources. "As financial adviser and arranger, we developed this transaction with a new approach tied to energy-saving performance, which allowed us to finance 80 per cent of the investment through a dedicated credit facility," confirms Massimo Pecorari, Group Head of Project Finance, Energy and Infrastructure at UniCredit.

"We believe," he continues, "that this financing method can already play an important role in energy efficiency investment, both in Italy and abroad, enabling energy-intensive industrial businesses to carry out interventions that would be difficult to approach any other way." For once, Italian large-scale retail becomes a virtuous example to be followed across the rest of Europe as well.