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Supermarket group J Sainsbury is to invest part of its £1 billion annual sustainability budget with Imperial College London in a bid to accelerate carbon emission reduction programmes across its stores.

Chief executive Justin King said the tie up with the Grantham Institute for Climate Change would help address Sainsbury's knowledge gaps in areas such as carbon measurement, renewable energy generation and the impact of smart meters.

The move is part of Sainsbury's ambitions to become fully sustainable by 2014, partly because it has become clear that sustainability in the retail sector can drive profitability.

Among the initiatives under consideration by Imperial College is the potential for Sainsbury's to generate energy from its food and packaging waste to heat homes in its local communities.

The supermarket already supplies waste from more than 100 stores to two anaerobic digestion plants, which create energy from waste.

Speaking at the Base conference, King added: 'We spent a lot of time talking to our customers about what the sustainability issues were for them. We came up with the top seven...packaging, waste, sourcing, Britishness, employees, animal welfare, suppliers. Our ambition is to lead on all of those.'

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