Distribution facility operator ProLogis is to develop a 49,000 industrial warehouse for Sainsbury's, one of the main supermarket chain in the UK. The facility will be built at ProLogis's Park Pinham in the Midlands and will serve 50 Sainsbury's stores in the central part of the UK. The distribution centre is scheduled for completion in the second half of 2007.

Distribution facility operator ProLogis is to develop a 49,000 industrial warehouse for Sainsbury's, one of the main supermarket chain in the UK. The facility will be built at ProLogis's Park Pinham in the Midlands and will serve 50 Sainsbury's stores in the central part of the UK. The distribution centre is scheduled for completion in the second half of 2007.

ProLogis said the facility, leased to Sainsbury's on a multi-year contract, will be developed using a variety of advanced environmental technologies designed to significantly reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions. The sustainability features include wall-mounted photovoltaic panels that generate electricity; solar walls that produce heat from sunlight and an on-site power plant that reuses the heat produced by air conditioning.

Roger Burley, Sainsbury's head of supply chain commented: 'We recognize that virtually every business decision we make has an impact on the environment, and that we can minimize that impact by improving our stores and business facilities, reducing packaging, promoting recycling and improving transport'.