WINSTONES Ice Cream has become the first customer to sign up to a new business promising to reduce energy bills while adding another green string to the company’s bow.

Stroud-based Verdant Future employs an innovative approach to meeting energy needs by using the roof of a building to generate solar electricity, which is then sold to the building user and to the National Grid.

A proportion of this income is put aside each month and is eventually used to pay for measures that will make the building and its operations more energy efficient.

Colin Vear, of Winstones Ice Cream, said: “Verdant Future helps businesses to reduce costs, reduce their green footprint, and support local communities.”