industry insight
Keep our seas clean and our fingers green
The Horticultural Trade Association’s Sustainability Matters event took place at Horticulture House, Chilton, on 30 April giving attendees a deeper insight into sustainability issues across the industry and wider business arena.
H
TA president Adam Taylor opened the day looking at the definition of sustainability, and how it is about so much more than just plastics. With TV programmes gaining more
public momentum, there has been no time more important than now to make it top of your priority list. It isn’t about pointing the finger and giving blame, it is about working together and finding strategies that work across the industry. Director of Gardenforum George Bullivant, who was chairing the day, then followed discussing how important the matter of sustainability is for the industry. He said it is a subject that has an emotional connection with so many people, and if as an industry we get it wrong, it will have a detrimental effect across the whole industry. The statistics around sustainability were then looked at by David Denny and Laura Jeffery, marketing and insights manager and market research executive of the HTA, who talked about how consumers and the government both believe that it is down to businesses to respond to the drive for sustainability. The government are involved in a range of treaty obligations, including a target to keep global warming less than two degrees by 2050. They also highlighted how there are 222.9 million tonnes of total waste in the UK per year - that is 277 times the weight of the Golden Gate Bridge; one fifth of that waste is industrial and commercial waste, 24.4% of the total waste goes to landfill, and in 2017 45.7% was recycled. The biggest culprits are 14 billion plastic drinks bottles and currently 30% of food waste is not recycled. There is seven million tonnes of household food waste a year, of which five million is categorised as edibles which equates to the same as 250 million meals a year. Pret a Manger have a food donation called ‘The Pret Charity Run’ where they take their food waste and donate unsold food to hostels and charities supporting the homeless, something that garden centres can look to doing with its own restaurants.
Be transparent with your customer
Programmes like Blue Planet II brought sustainability straight to the heart of millions, and this has had a lasting effect. The main issues driving consumer concern are the high media profile it has been given, the concern for health and wellbeing, and performative perfection. The performative perfection element draws from the idealistic perception that people want to give on social media, and this has driven a desire to show a sustainable lifestyle and #ZeroWaste on social media. 20% of people want to cut down on how much water they use, and 20% of people look for ‘eco-friendly’ on packaging. Sustainability policy adviser at the British Retail Consortium, Leah Riley
Brown then raised that she believes building trust is key to the issue of sustainability with the public, and the best way to achieve that is through transparency. She said if you are not talking to consumers about the things that you are doing and the steps that you have taken, even if it is only half way there, there is the chance that consumers will assume that you are doing harm. There are reports coming out that we have 12 years to make changes to save the planet before it becomes too late, and
GCU June 2019
www.gardencentreupdate.com | 19
whilst this may seem like long time, in reality and especially in business terms that is no time at all. It should be the default that products that are put to market are sustainable, and if they are not that they should be labelled as such. Consumers are starting to see through a label stuck on a product saying it is green or sustainable, so there needs to be more meaning and explanation behind this. Leah also highlighted that she believes collaboration is key when it comes to sustainability in business. Leah discussed proposed changes including extended producer responsibility for packaging so that ‘producers’ pay the full cost of disposal for packaging they place on the market. There are also talks to introduce a deposit return scheme for single use containers, and there is an increasing need for consistency in collection for local authorities: something that the HTA have been lobbying for alongside the recyclability of taupe pots. Leah finished by saying that your business case for sustainability needs
to be about establishing trust with your consumer by using transparent goals or metrics. Collaborate with your sector and others to strengthen your own sustainability efforts. Keep up to date with current sustainability issues, but also keep one eye on the horizon for new opportunities. A good starting point for this is the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals -
https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org or the British Retail Consortium’s ‘Better Retail, Better World’ initiative -
https://brc.org.uk/making-a- difference/priorities/better-retail-better-world
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