W ay back in 2008 we started some big changes to our store with having 14 solar panels installed to help support our electricity supply.

Our grocery store here in Cook has ALOT of output with our fridges and freezers to make sure everything stays at the perfect temp 24/7. It made perfect sense for us to begin reducing our emissions and our utility bills locally 13 years ago. Those 14 solar panels did begin the start of how we wanted to reduce our footprint for the better.

In 2017 we developed our environmental impact statement called Our Sustainable Future – it gave our community an overview of what our journey has looked like so far, what our short term goals are and what we wanted the future to look like. We begun working with the ACTSMART to become a fully accredited business in Sustainability, really committing to our goals to reduce our footprint.

Our goal in 2017 was to fill the whole roof for the shop with solar panels. It has been a dream for quite some time.

Last month we did it with 134 additional solar panels!!

We are extremely proud of our decision as this will help considerably lower our bills but also help reinvest back into the store to further minimise our consumption. Our next mission will be to purchase new dairy cabinets with doors on them as they are getting to the end of their life.

Shutting down in the middle of the night, lose of stock (melted and spoiled) and combine that with current times of needing more stock in store to keep up with demand. We need to upgrade these fridges from this perspective but also the hefty heating bills this attracts due to being open air cabinets. 

Welcome to the insider’s guide to running a grocery store!

We will have all our commissioning done next week by Evo Energy and ACTPLA and will be running on 28% solar energy – Let the SUN SHINE!

A big thank you to the team from SolarHub for their advice and professionalism throughout the whole process. Equally big thank you to Jo Clay, Member for Ginninderra and the ACTSMART Business Energy team

Big thanks as well goes to a local business Virtue Electrical, who have looked after us every step of the way to get this install just right – thanks to the whole crew!

And now we get to go and set some new goals for Our Sustainable Future, as the current ones need a refresh!

Read more about what Our Sustainable Future looks like here.

Shout out to Joel Ryan who was able to film the roof for us so everyone gets to see exactly what 134 solar panels look like!