The secure printing company finished installing the system of 557 panels across the 2,900sqm site in May, and has already found itself selling energy back to the grid.

Datagraphic’s head of sustainability and commercial manager, Peter Wells, told Printweek the company - and its customers - were delighted with the installation.

He said: “A lot of people tend to talk about protecting the planet, but this is the real thing. 

“Once it’s done, it’s done: it will continue [cutting emissions] for years and years.”

Datagraphic, he explained, has been working for a number of years now to a science-based carbon reduction strategy.

Now, having largely cut its scope one and two emissions - those produced directly, or from purchasing power - the company will focus on working with suppliers and customers to reach carbon neutrality along its supply chain (scope three) by 2040.

This can be a challenge in the printing industry, Wells added: “[Printers] are big pieces of gear, they use a lot of energy.

“The more that we can get from sunlight, the better.”

Datagraphic’s £250,000 installation, however, has not been the only effort in the company’s climate strategy.

More efficient machinery has saved the business a significant amount of electricity - 8,000KW each year since 2016, by its reckoning - and an air circulation system that draws cool air over the machinery has massively reduced its reliance on expensive air conditioning.

Wells added: “It’s been really good for us and it’s better for the kit as well, not making them freezing cold, which the machines don’t like.”