Energy efficiency

To actively reduce energy consumption, K Group must make long-term investments and continuously monitor and optimise consumption and technical systems, as well as react to deviations.

Our energy strategy aims to improve energy efficiency by 10% between 2024 and 2030. To reach this target, we need to implement energy efficiency measures totalling 95 GWh in all operating countries. 

In October 2025, Kesko was one of the first companies to sign the new Energy Efficiency Agreement for the retail sector over the years 2026–2035. The cornerstones of Kesko’s energy efficiency improvement target of 16%, which is equivalent to 140 GWh during 2021-2035, are the stores’ energy renovations and innovative energy solutions. 

Kesko also participated in the previous joint Energy Efficiency Agreement of the retail sector over the years 2017–2025, and it achieved its 7.5% efficiency target four years ahead of schedule.

Systematic measures to improve energy efficiency

Of the K Group stores, the grocery stores’ energy consumption is the highest because they need energy to safeguard the cold chain of their products. In fact, the key means of improving energy efficiency are upgrading refrigeration units and lighting, as well as new innovations, such as a heat recycling system that recycles the waste heat from refrigeration systems, and the use of analytics services that analyse and optimise energy consumption at stores.

Major energy renovations in grocery stores are generally carried out in conjunction with store renovations, during which K-food stores and Kespro’s wholesale outlets renovate their refrigeration units. In the sites of the building and technical trade and the car trade, the renovation of building services systems is one of the key energy-efficiency measures.

Our heat recycling system efficiently utilises as its energy source all the waste heat in a property, such as the condensation heat of the refrigeration system and the waste heat of exhaust air, and generates energy for all the heating and cooling systems in the property. By recycling waste heat, we generate on average about 50% of the heat demand of renovated stores.

New energy-efficient LED lighting will be installed in stores when they are renovated. Switching to LED lighting will reduce the electricity consumption of one K-Citymarket by an average of about 550 MWh, which is equivalent to the annual consumption of about 30 electrically heated detached houses. In total, the LED lighting upgrades in K-Citymarket stores have already saved around 28 GWh, which corresponds to around 15% of the chain’s electricity consumption.

In 2025, we implemented energy efficiency measures totalling approximately 17.6 GWh. The most significant measures included the installation of an energy recycling system using waste heat in nine sites, which is estimated to reduce district heat consumption by around 3.5 GWh. In total, we carried out approximately 730 energy‑efficiency improvement measures recorded in the data system in 2025.

Energy consumption

In 2025, Kesko consumed a total of 516,759 MWh of purchased electricity, district heating and district cooling. The figure includes Kesko’s all operating countries.

The table includes Kesko's purchased electricity, district heating and district cooling consumption, as well as its own energy production for all our operating countries.

Energy Management programme

Kesko’s energy efficiency system is a documented management system based on the ETJ+ model. The document includes descriptions of the roles, responsibilities, and schedules of the stakeholders involved in implementing energy management. In addition to outlining the management of operational activities, the programme also describes our energy‑efficiency targets, the underlying energy policy, and management’s commitment to improving energy efficiency.

The Energy Management programme is available here.