Arboretum leads the charge with green energy upgrade programme

ARBORETUM, the Carlow family-owned lifestyle and gardening centre business based in Leighlinbridge, has been able to generate enough power to run 70 semi-detached homes for a year since installing solar panels in 2024.

“Solar was obviously a quick win,” said the business’s chief commercial officer and chairperson of Retail Excellence Ireland Fergal Doyle.

With the large amount of roof space, the company realised solar would be very effective, but upfront costs stretching to millions of euros were a barrier. To avoid this “huge burden”, Fergal said they partnered with Vivid Edge to implement an energy-as-a-service model.

This means Vivid Edge installs, maintains, operates and finances the solar panels and Arboretum pays the company a monthly fee to use the energy generated. He estimates that this upgrade has already led to 25-30% savings in energy costs.

But they didn’t stop the energy retrofit there. The Arboretum’s latest innovation sees heat from the kitchens and food serving areas captured, cleaned and reused to heat the 350-seat restaurant in the Leighlinbridge campus and the rest of the building. It expect that this new heating system will be able to service about 80% of the heating demand of the Carlow location each year.

Arboretum turns 50 years’ old next year, having started life in the garage of Fergal’s parents’ bungalow in 1977. Far from its humble beginnings, the Leighlinbridge campus has “become a destination day out” for people, noted Fergal. It employs more than 170 people across three locations in Dublin, Wicklow and Carlow and boasted a turnover of €17 million in 2025.

While the Carlow building was being retrofitted, the team was doing a €4.5 million renovation to a new shop in Wicklow, where sustainability principles are embedded throughout.

“We’re in the green industry,” Fergal noted. “Our core business is plants, trees and shrubs. So if we’re going to build something new and if we’re going to look at what other development we can do in Carlow, we need to look at sustainable models,” Fergal said.

From travelling to the International Garden Centre Association conference each year, of which Fergal is currently president, Arboretum learned from other garden centres across the world about how it could implement sustainable energy and waste systems.

“To view sustainability as a revenue stream and brand asset as opposed to a cost was an ambitious risk to take, but it has completely paid off,” said Fergal.

Around 85% of Arboretum’s plant stock is sourced from Irish growers and its ranges include wildlife-friendly planting, native species and recycled plastic garden products.

“We’re looking at wind power and we’re already doing rainwater harvesting in Wicklow,” said Fergal of plans for furthering the net zero ambition for the business. The collected rainwater is poured into plant benches and waters them from the roots upwards.

Fergal’s sage advice for businesses looking to green their energy? “Don’t jump onto the first thing that comes your way. There’s obviously a lot of providers of solutions there. We happened to find a model, but you can’t speak to enough people to find out what is the next best thing.”