The Gardens Group has revealed the results of its annual audit by sustainability certification scheme, Planet Mark, reporting significant carbon reductions across its three garden centres in Sherborne, Yeovil and Poundbury. During its third year as voluntary members of Planet Mark, which is backed by the Eden Project, The Gardens Group has achieved a 29.3% absolute carbon reduction. 

Engaging its 160-strong team at all stages of the process, from idea generation and target setting to measurement and review, The Gardens Group began by establishing key areas for improvement that would need to be measured, including Buildings, Travel, Waste, Water, Procurement and Homeworking. Through hundreds of new initiatives, pushed forward by smaller groups of staff assigned to each task, the independent garden centre group has managed to substantially reduce carbon emissions in nearly all areas during 2022. 

Over the past year, The Gardens Group measured significant reductions in carbon emissions relating to waste, business travel and buildings. Procurement emissions remained steady, while water emissions saw a slight increase following a large reduction during 2021. This came despite considerable investment in rainwater collection initiatives, including the integration of a brand new 50,000-litre rainwater harvesting tank into an underground Victorian brick-lined well and plumbing system, highlighting the challenges posed by The Gardens Group’s weather dependent requirement for watering its stock. 

Having introduced dozens of eco-friendly initiatives across Castle Gardens, Brimsmore Gardens and Poundbury Gardens over recent years, from water collection projects to reducing delivery miles through innovations in route planning and offers, The Gardens Group decided to join the Planet Mark community in order to implement a framework that would facilitate more substantial progress in its efforts to reduce the business’ impact on the environment. Through Planet Mark’s process of engagement, education, measurement and reporting, The Gardens Group has already achieved significant carbon reductions and is now working towards becoming a net zero business. 

Mike Burks, managing director of The Gardens Group, commented: “Looking after the environment has always been central to our ethos, but our work with Planet Mark has allowed us to put structured plans and communications in place to ensure that everyone can play their part. As a result, environmental impact is now at the forefront of our minds in everything we do. On setting out, we were hoping to see steady success across all areas of carbon reduction, but I’m delighted to say that we have surpassed these expectations and are now reducing carbon emissions by big percentages each year. Through our links with the Garden Centre Association, we’re feeding these ideas back into the garden centre industry as a whole and we also encourage the team to help apply these sustainable principles to community projects. By engaging with our customers and supporting their own sustainable initiatives, including at schools, garden clubs and community groups, the benefits of our efforts are felt far beyond the confines of the garden centres.”