THE Midcounties Co-operative has announced that the Kidderminster Funeralcare outlet is its best performing one in the West Midlands in its effort to boost the society's green credentials.

The top store in the West Midlands was highlighted after The Midcounties Co-operative published its annual Social Responsibility Review, which revealed the society’s results for recycling and reducing energy waste over the past year.

The results revealed that the funeralcare home, in Lion Square, had worked to reduce its energy use by six per cent over the past year, in line with The Midcounties Co-operative's commitment to build a more sustainable environment in the areas in which it trades.

Over the past three years the society has increased its recycling from 37 per cent to 75 per cent across all its operations.

The overall reduction in energy usage has been five per cent as a whole, delivering a saving of 2,000 tons of CO2 emissions.

Mike Pickering, sustainability manager at The Midcounties Co-operative, said: “One of our core values as a co-operative is to minimise our environmental impact across all our trading outlets to help develop a sustainable future for the communities in which we operate.

“Thanks to our colleagues’ hard work over the past year, we have worked towards making the co-operative a more sustainable business by recycling three quarters of our waste.

"Our colleagues across the West Midlands have made a significant effort to make changes in the way they work to help us reach this fantastic achievement and this is testament to the results we are now seeing.”

For the second year running the society has been recognised with a "Big Tick" as part of the Responsible Business Awards 2014 for its commitment to increasing recycling and reducing energy usage.