Opinion

Two minutes with…. Green Square

Who are you? Richard Hiblen, managing director of Green Square home energy centres

What do you do? I have worked in and around the renewable energy industry for more than 15 years so in March 2013 I opened the UK’s first dedicated renewable energy centre,  Green Square in Raynes Park. Where are you? Green Square’s flagship store is based in Raynes Park and we’ve recently opened in Kelso, The Borders and are set to open the doors to our Tunbridge Wells branch shortly – watch this space!  Our head office is based in Suffolk where we started from and our training centre is based.  Green Square covers all of England, Scotland and Wales.

How’s business at the moment? The company, which isn’t two years old yet,  has seen outstanding success and we are rapidly growing and opening stores across the UK .  We are still finding many early adopters are our main customer type, either through a self-build project or major renovation.  Distress purchases that are more commonly part of the oil and gas boiler market only currently account for a very small percentage of customers moving to a renewable boiler system.

How could business be better? High street financing packages that incentivise the consumer to look at a renewable systems as an option would help and build confidence and trust within consumers and would generate more purchases.

What’s the best business advice you’ve ever received? Listen and learn.

How are you going green? We’re not going green, we are green! Our stores are carbon neutral so we practice what we preach when it comes to environmental issues.   We use Biomass boilers for our heating and hot water, and where possible LED lighting.