In This Issue
Wyevale Garden Centres add £16.5m to pension fund and buy £44m policy to secure future benefits
British Garden Centres jump to No 2 while Caulders and Otter Nurseries become equal 10th biggest garden centre groups
Give customers what they really want with elho
Mike Withers sells Trebaron to Newbank
Santorini Swing is another top design from Zest 4 Leisure
Wyevale Elm Court gets to continue as a garden centre
Glee goes Floral Thursday for Greenfingers
Glee New Product Awards 2019 - Winners revealed
Glee New Products 2019 – Shortlisted Products
Glee Buyers Power List Winners Revealed
New Product Awards for Pets@Glee revealed
Boyd Douglas-Davies appointed as HTA President
PATS Telford is the BEST place for garden centres to source new pet products
Prongcroft brings fresh approach to garden care
Woodlodge’s ‘Fountain of Fizz’ raffle helps to raise vital funds for Greenfingers
Garden Re-Leaf 2020 officially launched at Glee
Traditional garden centre category sales soar thanks to hottest July on record
Get your own copy of GTN Xtra
Best Green Heart Display winners confirmed
GMA sets out road map timelines towards sustainable growing media
Travel with the Ball Colegrave Sponsored Scholarship
HRH Princess Alexandra will attend 180th Festival Dinner as guest of honour
The best of last week's
Wyevale Garden Centres announces sale of all remaining centres to British Garden Centres
Wyevale Garden Centres sells remaining trading business
Westland commit to £1.5m TV campaign for peat free growing media
SBM switches to sole distribution deal with Stax
Essex centre's August Christmas launch 'went bananas'
spoga+gafa 2019 - GTN Xtra photo tour
IGCA 2019 - 250 delegates from across the world visit UK garden centres
Garden Centre Photo Tours
Garden Centre Photo Tour - RHS Wisley New Plant Centre
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Buy your subscription to GTN Bestsellers
All the latest news from the world of garden centre catering
110 new products competing for lunch! Innovation Challenge Awards
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GMA sets out road map timelines towards sustainable growing media
 

The Growing Media Association (GMA), a group of manufacturers and suppliers producing over 90% of growing media used in UK domestic and commercial sectors, continue to make progress with the industry road map. Timelines for two initiatives are announced today demonstrating the action and commitment towards achieving sustainable bagged growing media for the consumer market in a manageable timescale.

One of the initiatives included in the road map is the Responsible Sourcing Guide which will allow all growing media ingredients to be consistently labelled. The scheme uses seven criteria for indicating environmental performance for growing media and these are: energy use, water use, social compliance, habitat and biodiversity, pollution, renewability and resource use efficiency.

This unique approach will enable each ingredient to be scored ensuring that environmental performance for all ingredients is taken into account. Once scores are available bags will be able to be labelled using a recognisable traffic light system.  This approach will mean that consumers will be able to understand bag contents at a glance enabling them to make better informed purchase decisions. This demonstrates GMA’s commitment to improved on pack labelling with the aim of introducing such an approach onto bags for the 2020/21 season.

 

Steve Harper, GMA lead for the Responsible Sourcing Scheme comments, “It is important that the environmental performance of all growing media ingredients are assessed and that all growing media is made from raw materials that are environmentally and socially responsibly sourced. This is where the Responsible Sourcing Scheme can make a real difference. By the end of 2019 an auditable scheme will be in place allowing all growing media manufacturers to undertake an audit by the end of 2020.”

 

As part of the road map towards reducing the use of peat to zero in growing media within a manageable timescale, a university research project has been commissioned to look at the socio-economic impact of the use of all materials and the barriers to change. The results of this are expected in 2020.

 

The road map also includes goals such as improving the quality of green compost so that it can fulfil its potential in the growing media market through the widespread adoption of existing protocols.

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