The city centre store, in Northumberland Street, will feature a heat reclaim system to use waste heat generated from the refrigeration system to heat the food hall and deliver energy savings, and LED fridge lighting.

It will also be one of the first stores to trial intelligent door sensors which can differentiate between a passerby and a shopper intending to enter the store, saving energy and retaining warmth in the food hall.

The green wall will include nearly 16,000 individual plants, offering a source of nectar for butterflies and bees and seeds for birds, and be irrigated by rainwater captured on the roof by the rainwater harvesting system.

The green features are set to improve the store’s energy efficiency by 20 per cent.

Chris Marney, Head of Engineering and Energy Efficiency at M&S, said: “M&S Newcastle is our first large store in the UK where we are refitting a wide range of sustainable features of this nature and scale. These changes will bring us one step closer to achieving our Plan A 2020 energy efficiency targets.”