THE John Lewis Partnership is building a dedicated biomethane gas filling station in Bracknell to power its largest heavy goods vehicles on a low-carbon alternative to diesel.

The filling station, which will open in December at the business's head office in Doncaster Road, will fuel around 120 Waitrose trucks on biomethane gas made from food waste and waste materials.

It is part of moves to switch the John Lewis Partnership fleet of 600 heavy goods vehicles to low-carbon biomethane by 2028.

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The business has also announced ambitions to stop using fossil fuels across its entire 4,800-vehicle fleet by 2030, with electric cars, vans and light trucks and refrigerated trailers converted from diesel to electric drive.

It has replaced 85 of its heavy diesel vehicles with biomethane trucks since 2015 and a further 143 will be purchased and in operation by the end of the year, in what it says is the largest order of these trucks in the UK.

Using biomethane instead of diesel for the 120 trucks using the Bracknell filling station will cut carbon emissions by around 80per cent, with each lorry saving 100 tonnes of carbon dioxide every year, the business said.

The gas-powered lorries will also be quieter than the diesel versions, reducing noise pollution for urban deliveries, the partnership said.

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The Bracknell filling station, built in conjunction with Air Liquide, will complement gas filling stations already in use near John Lewis and Waitrose regional distribution centres in Leyland, Lancashire, and in Northampton.

It is part of efforts by the John Lewis Partnership to meet goals to be net-zero carbon across its entire operations by 2050 at the latest.

Justin Laney, partner and general manager of central transport at the John Lewis Partnership, said: "The evidence of climate change is all around us, so it's important we act now using available technology rather than wait for unproven solutions to appear.

"We are working hard towards our new aim of removing all fossil fuel from our transport fleet by 2030, which will reduce our carbon emissions by over half a million tonnes and gets us well on the way to our ultimate target of operating a net-zero carbon emission fleet."