Nestled among the wind turbine, solar panels, non-polluting washing powder, recycled glass beads, mouse mats and compost bins in Eco-St's shop at Yarnton is a book called How Many Lightbulbs Does It Take to Change A Planet?

The title sums up the philosopy of the business's co-founders, Liz Parry, Neil Morgan and Jill Holmes.

They believe that small things like low-energy lightbulbs really do make a difference.

Ms Parry said: "The idea came just after the Stern report was published in 2007. We had a few sessions around the kitchen table and discussed what we could do to make a difference.

"We thought of lots of things and came up with this idea. We wanted visible retail units showing people all the products that can help the environment.

"All of us were passionate that we wanted to get involved to show people that we weren't powerless."

The trio had a mixture of experience and dipped into their savings to fund the company themselves so they did not have to rely on outside investors.

Mr Morgan, from Thame, is a serial entrepreneur, having set up an Internet travel company and a South American cattle ranching business. Ms Holmes had marketing experience — her interested sparked when she organised an international environmental roadshow for New Scientist magazine.

Ms Parry worked in corporate IT departments before the global travel and long hours, coupled with young children, led her to retrain as a business coach.

Pooling their experience, they quickly realised that having actual shops would put the operation in a higher cost bracket than many competitors, who sold direct from websites.

"However, we were really determined that we wanted to get as many people as possible to know that they could make a change — big or small. All the newspapers were full of doom and gloom and we wanted people to feel they could do something, not just feel hopeless," said Ms Parry.

"We want to start people on a journey. They might buy one low-energy lightbulb, and that could start them doing more and more."

Realising how costly it would be to find high street outlets, they opted to rent space in garden centres and are now represented at Yarnton Garden Centre as well as centres in Wendover and Syon Park, near Brentford.

Ms Parry said: "We felt it would give us access to the type of people who might be interested in the environment, and we have been reasonably successful."

She added: "Where you might find maybe 20 different types of energy-efficient light bulb in a big supermarket, we sell more than 100, as well as three ways of turning your TV off standby and four mobile chargers that don't involve getting electricity from the mains."

"It's still an emerging market and it's very interesting. We are always looking out for new products and now we are focusing on helping people to save money and not waste so much.

Over three or four years, the plan had been to open more and moreoutlets nationwide.

But a few months after opening, they hit their first major stumbling block — the credit crunch, which grew during their first year of operation from a local US problem to a global economic downturn.

"They say it takes three years for a new retail outlet to establish itself, but we picked the wrong three years," said Ms Parry.

She had to draw on all her business coaching skills as the founders mapped out a new direction for the company, concentrating on products that can save energy for consumers who are facing huge hikes in their power bills.

To cut overheads, any new outlets will be staffed only at weekends. The rest of the time, unmanned booths will spread the message and give contact details for their website.

Eco-St is also stepping up its services to community groups and small businesses, taking its lightbulb library, which demonstrates a selection of the hundreds of different low-energy lightbulbs available to meet special needs, and offering rechargeable batteries for business uses such as dictaphones.

Three staff have been trained to do 'eco-audits' offering energy-saving ideas to small businesses.

"We started with the idea that every product would help the environment in some way," said Ms Parry.

"We still do that, but we are also looking for products that can help people save money at a time when energy costs are rising so rapidly.

"All the staff we have are really enthusiastic about what we are trying to do and we feel we can offer real cost savings that will help people cope with the change to a low-carbon economy."

FACT FILE: Name: Eco-St Established: 2007 Founders: Liz Parry, Neil Morgan and Jill Holmes Number of staff: 15 Annual turnover: £300,000 Contact: 01865 873802 Web: www.eco-st.co.uk