Tesco secured planning permission to erect a mini-wind farm at its St Rollox superstore in the north of Glasgow. It believes three turbines, 60ft high, will create enough energy to power the store. St Rollox will become the second store in Scotland powered entirely by renewable energy.

They have also unvailed plans to open its flagship environmental store in Wick, the first of its kind not only in Scotland but in the UK. The store will be built from approximately 33% recycled material, 33% recyclable material and 33% sustainable material.

Tesco is the UK’s leading retail with stores sprouting up across the country and Environmentalists are less unimpressed, claiming an energy-devourer like Tesco would need to have wind turbines at every one of its stores to make a difference. Tesco now controls 30% of the grocery market in the UK. Some belive the success of supermarkets is partly based on trading practices that are having serious consequences for suppliers, farmers and workers worldwide, local shops and the environment.

In Inverness there are so many stores that it has been dubbed Tesco Town by the press and a campaign has been launched to block any further stores being given the go ahead. In a bid to combat the dominance of supermarkets Friends of the earth have launched a campaign encouraging people to shop locally and successfully pursuaded the Office of Fair Trading to propose an investigation into the negative effects of big supermarket expansion. See websites Tescopoly.org and Asdawatch.org for further deatils on the dominance of supermarkets.