Highfield Garden World in Gloucestershire is on track to hit a new green energy milestone within the next few days. Since the completion of a substantial solar panel installation last Autumn, the amount of electricity generated on-site is about to hit the carbon offset equivalent of planting two thousand trees.
The family-owned independent installed just under 900 solar panels across its considerable roof space last Autumn, and the team uses an app to monitor in real time how much electricity the business is both using and generating.
Tim Armstrong, Director and General Manager of Highfield, enthused; “Investing in solar panels is proving a real success story for us. We use around 600,000 KVA a year, but when the sun shines, we’re generating enough electricity not just to cover that, but also to push some back into the grid. We’re helping reduce our impact on the environment whilst giving our customers something to smile about and saving money at the same time. The visibility afforded by the app is helping push change through the business at every level too. Energy usage is right up there on the management agenda where it should be, and our behaviours are changing; we’re all increasingly careful to only put lights on where needed, and not to leave things on standby for example.”
Adopting and investing in green initiatives has long been at the forefront of future planning at Highfield. The family business worked with award-winning Gloucestershire sustainability charity Severn Wye Energy Agency to access a £50k grant towards the solar panel project (see photo). This supplemented Highfield’s own investment of £283k.
Other green investments include new LED lighting throughout, a vast 216,000 litre tank which harvests rainwater for reuse, and a fully retractable planteria roof which maximises daylight to reduce reliance on electricity whilst enhancing the customer experience. On a more everyday level, all plastic and cardboard is recycled, buyers actively seek out local and eco-friendly suppliers and products, and customers take coffee grinds home for their gardens.
