About Iron Acton
An independent garden centre with a focus on plants and the local community
Iron Acton Garden Centre first opened its doors in Spring 2010.
The site was originally a garden centre and underwent a large transformation with an extension and rebranding. The centre has continued to be improved over the years, with new walkways, displays and a refurbishment of our Garden Cafe.
Iron Acton has remained an independently run garden centre with a focus on plants and keeping everything as local as possible. The core values of Iron Acton have remained providing excellent customer service and the garden centre has grown in popularity over the years.
Looking to the future, we will continue to invest in ways to improve our services, what we offer, where we source it from and of course maintaining our high standards of customer service.
The Road To Energy Efficiency At Iron Acton Garden Centre
In April 2024, we had a Carbon Survey done by West of England Combined Authority funded by the Green Recovery Fund. The report identified ways that we could decarbonise our activities, become more energy efficient and at the same time save money.
The report highlighted the ways in which we could do this. These measures included changing our light fittings to LED, changing the main roof on our building, ceasing the use of propane gas and oil for heating and the installation of Solar PV panels to generate electricity for our own use.
We subsequently sought and received permission from South Gloucestershire Council to change our roof and to add Solar PV panels.
What we have done so far
1. We have an ongoing programme to change our light fittings to Low Energy LED fittings. This is now 75% complete.
2. We are phasing out our oil and gas heaters.
3. Our Café and main shop areas are now heated by energy-efficient Air to Air Heat pumps, which has phased out two oil-fired blow heaters.
4. We have replaced the roof on the Old Aquatic building with a Rockwool insulated Roof.
5. The boiler in the Toilet block has been switched from Propane gas to electric.
6. All the equipment in our kitchen area is now electric.
7. We have replaced the roof on our main building with insulated panels which should reduce heat loss by approximately 60% as well as making the building cooler in the summer.
Next Phase:
The next phase in our journey is to add 60kW system of PV solar panels, generating an estimated 52,200kWh of electricity and saving 10,808 kg of CO2 per year.
This is now planned for Spring 2026.
We also plan to collect water from our roofs to use for watering plants.
