Reducing Energy Consumption in Retail Branches: The Case of Woodie’s 

At a time of escalating environmental concerns and rapidly changing consumer preferences, business owners around the world are being forced to re-evaluate their practices and adopt sustainable approaches to reduce energy consumption in retail. Among them, the retail sector has become a focal point for energy management and conservation efforts.  

This article focuses on the success story of Woodie’s, a well-known Irish DIY Store and a subsidiary of Grafton Group plc. Woodie’s used a combination of energy management solutions and energy saving measures to reduce energy consumption and CO₂ emissions. 

This retailer recognized that it was imperative to reduce energy costs and their environmental impact. Woodie’s is supported by Energy & Technical Services (ETS), a European energy management and building technology consultancy. ETS follows a data-driven approach that uses real-time energy consumption data to generate sustained energy and CO₂ savings.  

The Energy Challenge in Retail

For retail sites such as Woodie’s, understanding and managing energy consumption is crucial for cost control, sustainability and operational efficiency. However, without accurate and real-time energy usage data, sites face various challenges: 

• Limited visibility into energy usage makes it difficult to understand where and when consumption occurs. This lack of insight prevents teams from identifying inefficiencies or prioritising the areas with the greatest savings potential.
• At the same time, insufficient monitoring restricts progress towards broader sustainability goals. Without reliable data, it becomes harder to reduce carbon emissions, justify investments in energy-efficient technologies, or clearly demonstrate environmental performance.
• Finally, the absence of continuous tracking means that issues such as unexpected energy spikes or equipment faults can go undetected. This not only increases energy costs but also raises the risk of system failures and operational disruptions.

During this project, all these challenges were addressed and managed with ETS and Spacewell Energy with real-time energy monitoring, data analysis and insights, automated alerts and notifications as well as benchmarking and comparison between stores.  

The Solution for Woodie’s to Reduce Energy Consumption Across Stores

ETS successfully implemented Spacewell Energy across the 35 stores and head office with the objective of helping their client Woodie’s to improve energy performance and achieve cost savings.  

• 74 new meters were installed
• 36 sites were included in the project
• over 300 site specific alerts were set up to automatically monitor energy use

Spacewell Energy enabled real-time monitoring of energy consumption, automated alerting, data analysis and reporting capabilities. The alerts and the information gathered allowed ETS to find opportunities for improvements for Woodie’s. 

Woodie’s also uses Spacewell Energy to monitor energy consumption across sites on a half-hourly basis. The map function of the Spacewell Energy platform provides a geographical view of each branch and a color-coded benchmark to facilitate transparency. Each branch, with the lowest to the highest energy consumption, is categorized using various criteria. This function shows the user immediately which branches in the entire portfolio are performing best or worst. 

Over the years, the implementation of the energy management software has helped Woodie’s achieve improved energy performance across the sites and with that, reduce the money spent on energy.  

• Automatic alerts were configured to promptly notify stakeholders of any energy deviations or anomalies, allowing for immediate action to mitigate risks and avoid unnecessary costs. 

• Data collected by the platform was leveraged to generate various reports, visualizations, and insights into energy consumption patterns. 

• Opportunities for optimizing energy usage and reducing costs were found and implemented. This empowered Woodie’s to identify energy-saving opportunities, prioritize investments, and make informed decisions regarding operational changes. 

• Energy savings from other projects (e.g., BMS installations) were tracked through Spacewell Energy, providing valuable insights into their success, and informing ongoing operational efficiency plans.  

Overall, the use of Spacewell Energy gave Woodie’s a better understanding of their energy behaviors and therefore allowed for better energy management across all sites.