Our Values, Environment & Sustainability
As a garden centre, we understand the importance of protecting the environment for future generations. We are committed to reducing our impact on the climate, we continually strive to improve our sustainability as a business by: reducing our carbon footprint, promoting sustainable gardening practices, reducing waste, using environmentally-friendly products, and supporting local and sustainable suppliers.
Proudly Planet Mark Certified
We’re furthering our sustainability commitment by becoming Planet Mark certified through measuring and reducing our carbon footprint.
Planet Mark is an internationally recognised sustainability certification for every type of organisation, for real estate and for products.
Our Planet Mark certification recognises continuous improvement, encourages action, and builds an empowered community of like-minded individuals who make a world of difference.
At St Peters Garden Centre, our Vision is: ‘To Lead the Way in Sustainable Garden Centre Retailing’.
We are very aware that almost everything we do as a business, and as individuals, has an impact on the planet.
Since the day we were established the impact we have on the planet has heavily affected us as a business, such as the type of building, how we source water to irrigate the plants, and the waste we produce.
This year we plan to decrease our carbon footprint by at least 5% / 8.1 tCO2e to 153.8 tCO2e. Getting to this mark will take a huge effort from all parts of the business but is something we are all committed to achieving.
We are not perfect…we are on a journey, and we haven’t got it all right yet. We are learning, and we are doing our best to put the right things in place.
- William Blake, Managing Director
What we've done...
Planting Trees
We have planted hundreds of trees around the garden centre, these will...
✅ Improve air quality by releasing oxygen into the atmosphere.
✅ Provide homes to hundreds of species.
✅ Help climate change by absorbing greenhouse gases.
Recycling
Our first aim here was to reduce our usage. We also:
✅ Recycle all our cardboard, plastic & glass
✅ Encourage customers to bring in their spare plastic garden pots
✅ Use non-black polypropylene plastic pots, which can be placed in mixed recycling wheelie bins
Peat Free Since 2023
We consider ourselves industry leaders in using and selling Peat Free products.
Our nursery and all of our homegrown plants have been Peat Free since 2023. Taking this huge step forward will help:
✅ Save peat-rich environments and habitats
✅ Reduce our carbon footprint
Site Bio Diversity
Poppy's Farm
We have preserved an acre of our seven acre site (14%) to create a nature trail and allotment. Not only does this give local wildlife a fantastic habitat in which to thrive, it also highlights to customers how to create similar areas in their own gardens.
Solar Energy
We installed 486 solar panels in 2021.
On a sunny day these generate over 1/3 of the energy required to run the site.
Reducing Water Usage
Our onsite reservoir has been helping reduce our impact on the environment since we built it many years ago. All rain and run off water from throughout the Centre is collected in the reservoir. This provides us with all the water we need to water the plants in the Garden Centre and on our Nursery.
Background
Our Plant Nursery
Did you know that 20% of our plants are grown on-site in our nursery?
This means zero plant-miles! Increasing this percentage is huge to us, you can now count in steps the distance a plant travels from seed to sale.
We are one of the few garden centres to still operate its own plant nursery as it benefits the local environment and massively reduces our carbon footprint.
This year we will be creating a huge range of our own seasonal hanging baskets and containers, completely bespoke to St Peters Garden Centre.