Sainsbury's won back-to-back awards in 1989 and 1990 for two of its stores, Wolverhampton and Streatham.
St George's Parade in Wolverhampton saw the listed, derelict church of St George the Martyr being redeveloped and incorporated into the scheme. The Streatham store also saved a derelict building, this time an old silk mill built in 1820. By using these buildings, Sainbury's reduced the environmental impact during the construction phase of the development and helped preserve historically important buildings.
Sainbury's impressed the judges in both years for its consideration in all aspects of operations from site development, landscaping and architecture. In both buildings, and others developed in the same period, Sainbury's demonstrated a comprehensive approach to managing its environmental impact. Everything from energy consumption to the products it sells were considered. Sainsbury's also tried to encourage staff and customers to change the way they thought about environmental matters.
The launch of its own range of cleaning products called 'Greencare', which were specially formulated to 'give priority to the environment', was included in the winning entry and played a part in the company winning the award twice.
This demonstrated a new tactic being employed by retailers in trying to attract customers. They identified the fact that people were becoming more conscious of the consequences of their activities and concerned about the environment. It was the start of a now common trend among retailers, Sainburys showed it was willing to change its practices radically to reduce its impact on the environment.