Mission Statement
Our business recognizes that we has a responsibility to the environment beyond legal and regulatory requirements. We are committed to reducing our environmental impact and continually improving our environmental performance as an integral part of our business strategy and operating methods, with regular review points. We will encourage customer, suppliers and others to do the same.
Water
The majority of our glasshouse roofs have a collection system where rainfall is collected directly into storage tanks. It is then pumped to a reservoir for storage. This reservoir supplies water for the whole nursery after going through a complex filter and sterilisation system.
Energy
All of our newly built glasshouses are controlled by environmental computers which allows us to more accurately control our use of heat. In addition the glasshouses have thermal screens to reduce the energy requirement.
Realising the need to support the world’s carbon reduction requirements, in 2012, we installed a one megawatt Biomass Boiler. This boiler is very capable of burning most organic matter with considerable efficiently in a totally automatic manner. The main fuel used in our Biomass is locally sourced woodchip.
Chemical usage.
Our customers demand that our products are free of pest and disease which to fulfil means we continue to rely largely on chemical means of control. However, we continually review and adopt the use biological control agents wherever possible. In addition the use of our glasshouse environmental computers allows us to manipulate the environment to reduce disease pressure on our crops.
Peat Usage
Many of our commercial growing media already contain alternatives to peat in the form of bark, wood fibre, clay and perlite. This typically replaces 25% of the peat. We continue to monitor developments in peat reduced growing media and where they have no detriment to plant health and are commercially viable we will adopt their use.