The building is a combined effort between Sainsbury, which is one of the world's largest retailers, and Prologis, which is one of the world's largest real estate developers. It demonstrates the new standards that are being established for sustainable construction.

The 60,000 m2 (645,600 ft2) Sainsbury warehouse incorporates 950 m2 (10,200 ft2) of grey SolarWall panels. Sainsbury and Prologis chose the SolarWall system for their facility because it satisfies the 10% renewable energy target that is in place in the United Kingdom.

This performance value was confirmed by BSRIA (Building Services Research and Information Association) after conducting a 12 month long monitoring program on a SolarWall installation at the CA Group headquarters in northern England to verify the actual energy and CO2 savings.

This data then formed the basis of a thermal modeling study undertaken by leading environmental architects, Battle McCarthy, which concluded that in many applications, SolarWall by itself more than satisfies the overall 10% renewable energy target by actually delivering up to 20% of a building's total energy requirements.

Andrew Brewster, The CA Group SolarWall Design Engineer said "We're delighted that World Business have recognized the true value of specifying simple and effective renewable technologies like SolarWall, which can provide up to 20% of a building's energy requirements. But the real praise has to go to Prologis and Sainsbury's for their foresight in specifying the system".

This particular building is the first to be completed under the Plant PositiveTM initiative, which has been spearheaded by Prologis and the CA Group. The goal of this initiative is to offset 110% of the CO2 generated in the construction of the completed project. As a result of this, Prolgois was awarded two World Green Building Awards for "Most Efficient Green Business" and "Best Overall Green Business".

The SolarWall air heating system was developed by Conserval Engineering. It provides substantial onsite energy reductions by heating the ventilation air required in commercial and industrial buildings using a patented perforated collector.

It has received commendation from both Natural Resources Canada and the U.S. Department of Energy, and set the global standard for solar air heating in commercial and industrial buildings. It has been used in 30 countries around the world by private and public sector organizations like the US Army, Canadian Government, NASA, Ford, Federal Express, Wal-Mart and 3M.

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