For those of with northern roots (that'll be me then) the familiar shout of "shut the door" would ring out fairly regularly whether at home, at the pub or at the shops to stop the icy blast from outside and the desperate desire of heat to rush to the nearest exit.

That has now taken on a far greater significance with the rise (and rise) of energy costs and with the upcoming end to the short term subsidy later this month.

Whilst there is a strong ESG case for actions listed below it often does take hard financial measures / risks to trigger action however its good to see some  logic being combined with the use of modern technology and the use of renewable energies to lower energy costs and reduce energy consumption generally.

Here are some examples of positive action being taken by retailers :-

• Upgrading of refrigeration units,
• Installation of blinds onto freezers
• Shifting away from frozen foods to "room temperature" goods
• Installation of LED lighting
• Reducing brightness on TV screens / monitors
• Installation of motion detection
• Dimming lights outside of core trading hours
• "go dark" - lights out on window displays overnight

They may not seem entirely ground breaking and those of a certain vintage would just call this nothing more than good old fashioned common sense but the knock on effect of all of this has the opportunity to be extremely positive.

So turn off the light and shut the door - the fire's burning !