A FAMILY-RUN department store is continuing to do its bit for the environment after reaching an eco-friendly milestone.

Last year Barretts of Woodbridge teamed up with the town’s East Green Energy to install solar panels on a south-east facing roof.

The scheme feeds electricity directly into the store and it has now passed the milestone of generating 1,000kWh (or one mega watt hour).

The moment was captured on the East Green energy display board in the Barretts showroom, which also shows instantaneous electricity generated and total CO2 emissions saved to date, already amounting to more than half a tonne.

Jill Barrett, of Barretts, said the store team was delighted by hitting the mega watt target.

“I can’t wait for the sun to come back so we can generate a lot more,” she said. “Becoming a greener business is very important to us, and teaming up with East Green Energy was an easy decision.

“They were so helpful and very quick once we gave the go-ahead. They are also local, and shopping local is obviously something we are very keen on.

“We’ve had so many lovely comments on the display, which is right above our till in the main showroom.

“Our customers are always amazed about the solar panels, as you can’t see them at all from the ground and it helps bring home the need to ‘go green’.”

The 16 250W solar panels were installed on the roof of the bed department in July last year.

Linda Grave, East Green Energy sales director, said the firm were thrilled to team up with the store.

“Barretts has such a strong reputation and its commitment to a cleaner environment was clear to us from the start,” she said. “This collaboration has been great for us and they are lovely people to work with.

“The need for greater adoption of renewable energy sources is becoming ever more compelling, with unreliable world supplies and shrinking fossil-fuel based supply leading to rising costs.”