Campaigners argue that retailers should keep their doors shut, but how much energy does it actually save?

Yet again this winter all the shops on my high street have their doors open, with heat pouring out. But is it really a serious problem? How much energy/CO2 are they wasting by doing so?
D Moore, by email

Every year this question comes around and every year the vast majority of retailers seem to ignore it. Campaign groups such as Close the Door have conducted a valiant effort to nudge politicians and shoppers into pestering retailers about the wastefulness of leaving their store doors wide open during cold spells, but many retailers seem to cling onto the belief that shutting their doors will reduce customer footfall and, therefore, eat into their profits.

You can see both sides of the argument, but, personally, I like the approach I recently saw being utilised at the Whiteley’s shopping mall at Queensway in London where the automated doors are kept shut during the winter, but are graced with clear, prominent notices explaining the energy-saving policy to customers.

Last week, Close the Door attracted headlines when it published the results of a study that showed shops could cut their energy bills in half by shutting their doors. The study also dismissed the claimed efficiency of the “air curtain”, which many shops say they use to both keep their doors open and their energy costs down.

This column is an experiment in crowd-sourcing a reader’s dilemma, so please let us know your views below and I will join in with some of my own thoughts as the debate progresses. I will also be inviting various interested parties to join the debate too.

• Please send your own environment question to ask.leo.and.lucy@guardian.co.uk.
Or, alternatively, message me on Twitter @LeoHickman

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