The music of rapper Timbaland is so loud with Captain Candy that the noise of the air conditioning is barely audible this Monday morning. Yet they are definitely on in this candy store on the Kalverstraat in Amsterdam, where barrels with colored goodies are meant to lure the passing public in just behind the entrance. ‘It’s always cool here. For the customers and the candy’, company manager Jiri Humpal laughs, ‘Otherwise there will soon be melted chocolate and peanut butter everywhere.’
Last week, when temperatures soared to 38 degrees, keeping all the candy in the warehouse was a disaster. ‘Cooling is hardly possible, because the municipality does not allow cooling systems at the back of the building.’ This is no problem in the store. Potential customers who walk by in their summer outfits are welcomed by a cold breeze before the doorstep.
In fact, it feels a few degrees cooler on the entire Kalverstraat on Monday than in the rest of the city. Almost all shops here have one thing in common: the doors are wide open, while the air conditioning is blaring inside to keep the temperature around 21 degrees.
Until now, this has also been the most normal thing in the world in the French shopping streets. But with the sky-high energy prices, an acute gas shortage and major concerns about the climate, a number of French city councils have decided that the energy waste is finished. Since Monday, shopkeepers in Paris, among others, have been risking a fine of 150 euros if they open their doors while the air conditioning or heating is on.
Warm welcome
A good idea, thinks sustainability advisor Willemien Troelstra of Stimular, a foundation that helps companies to become more sustainable. According to Troelstra, how much energy stores save with this depends on the size of the store, the type of doors and the outside temperatures. ‘But it is clear that part of the functioning of an air conditioner is lost if a door is open. Especially when it’s as hot as last week.’
Yet the entrepreneurs in the most famous shopping street in the Netherlands – from large fashion stores to sustainable soap shops – are in complete agreement. A closed door means no customers and so the doors remain wide open. ‘We receive orders from the head office not to close the doors,’ says an employee of Berskha, one of the retail chains of the Spanish fashion group Inditex. The same noise can be heard in other clothing stores. In addition, the employees of some large chains cannot regulate the temperature in the building themselves. “It’s all automatic.”
Smaller shops also have their reasons. ‘If we close the door, we’ll miss sales,’ says Shwan Tawfik, who runs a Jamin branch where the entire storefront is open. “Besides, we already have an air curtain.” With such a ‘curtain’, warm air is partly kept out, explains sustainability advisor Troelstra. ‘But that also costs energy.’ Enforcing closed doors would therefore be the best, according to her. ‘If the rules are the same for everyone in the shopping street, the loss of business won’t be too bad.’
Save energy
The municipality of Amsterdam does not want to go that far to save energy for the time being. In the office flats on the Zuidas, the lights do go out at night. The thermostat goes down in buildings where the Amsterdam civil servants work. Energy coaches and the so-called FIXBrigade, which provides savings tips at home, are getting more work. But, unlike in Paris, people don’t touch the shop doors.
Interest group INretail also finds regulations superfluous. At last week’s 38 degrees, a number of shop owners in the country kept the door closed on their own initiative, spokesman Paul te Grotenhuis knows. According to him, this proves that the market ‘organises itself well’. ‘Entrepreneurs are already looking at the costs of their energy consumption.’ Te Grotenhuis also points out that not every retailer has air conditioning: ‘In some old buildings, only a fan buzzes.’ The air conditioning issue is also hardly an issue at supermarkets, according to the CBL, because almost every store has an automatic sliding door.
Sustainable shopping street
Nevertheless, the Ministry of Economy and Climate calls on companies to ‘do what they can’, also when it comes to saving on air conditioning. “There is really something going on in the world, so energy conservation remains important to reduce our dependence on Russian gas,” said spokesman for climate minister Rob Jetten. Through an information campaign, the government suggests that the cooling of buildings be set at a minimum of 24 degrees. There is currently no question of recommending (let alone obliging) to close the shop doors when the air conditioning is on. Large companies can expect an extension of the energy-saving obligation, legislation that orders investments in the field of insulation.
The American Book Center on the Spui, near the Kalverstraat, wants to keep all doors and windows closed as much as possible soon. ‘Once the new parts for our broken air conditioners have arrived,’ says manager Tiemen Zwaan, pointing to one of the older air conditioners in the building. Sales employee Bob Ouwehand still has a hard time with it. ‘Customers often leave the door open.’
Fortunately, the store already knows how to save energy in other ways. For example, by turning off the lights more often, says Zwaan. The roof of the store has also been a lot greener for a few years now. ‘We have a roof garden to retain heat in the winter and to cool more in the summer.’ According to Zwaan and his colleagues, subsidies for such initiatives are essential to make shopping streets more sustainable more quickly. Especially now that energy prices are rising and air conditioners are turning on more often because of the hot summers. ‘Although we might as well start with a tropical schedule.’