PEAT FREE ON ALL OUR COMPOSTS & SOILS
We only sell peat free compost at our plant nursery in Longstock. We’re looking to do more and are working with growers to reduce the amount of peat they use. We aim to remove peat from all the plants we sell by 2025.
REDUCING, REUSING & RECYCLING PLASTIC
We know there’s more to do to remove plastic from our operations, but we’re making progress where we can. We’ve reduced the amount of single-use plastic in our farm shop and nursery, we reuse plastic pots and offer a pot swap facility for our old plant pots and we use a recycling service that repurpose the plastic and metals into other goods, meaning around 80% of plastic from our nursery and farm shop is recycled or reused.
Where there’s a need to use packaging, we make sure it’s nearly always recycled or made from recyclable or compostable materials and if not, we’ll look to reuse it.
RESPONSIBLE SOURCING
We work with local and regional suppliers who share our ethical values. We believe in supporting our local economy and community for now and for the future. Over 40% of products sold in our farm shop and nursery are from local and regional suppliers.
WASTE LESS
We’re reducing waste across the estate. We want to waste as little as possible and know that some waste is inevitable but find solutions for the waste where we can. From used mushroom compost to excess fresh produce, we’ve found ways to reuse and redistribute.
We use rainwater captured in our reservoirs to water plants in the nursery. As a water supplier, we regularly monitor water usage across our operations so we can identify water leaks and carry out timely repair work.
FARMING RESPONSIBLY
We are regenerative farmers. We produce food in a way that enhances the natural environment. From the way we plough our fields to the way we maintain our hedgerows, means we are increasing the biodiversity of the land we farm and improving the environment we work in.
REDUCING OUR FUEL USAGE
We’ve reduced the amount of fuel we use, because we’ve changed how we farm and how we look after the estate. Just by minimising soil disturbance in our farming operations, we’ve saved enough fuel each year to run a typical family car for 125,000 miles - that’s a lot of car journeys! In other areas we let nature get on with its own thing by mowing and cutting less, saving even more fuel and also encouraging beneficial insects and wildlife.
We’ve replaced two of our diesel powered maintenance vans with electric vehicles. We already power some of our farming operations using solar panels and will continue to look at renewable energy sources to power our daily operations. Converting our natural byproducts into biofuel is another way we are making changes to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. Work is already underway to power our first tractor using biomethane.
TAKING ACTION TO ACHIEVE OUR GOAL
We are rising to the challenge through our regenerative land management strategy across the estate, focusing on practices that improve the health of our soils and enhance overall biodiversity on our estate.
In our farming enterprises, we follow the principles of integrated crop management (ICM), using the best of modern technology and traditional methods - such as 'precision farming' and crop rotations - to produce profitable yields of high quality food whilst protecting our natural resources - soil, water, air, flora and fauna.
Our beef herd grazes not only the forage crops within our wide crop rotation but also much of the area of the estate managed primarily for biodiversity - our water meadows and chalk grassland. The integration of ruminant livestock within our regenerative land management system helps to reduce our reliance on external inputs (especially synthetic fertilisers), and also helps us sequester more carbon into our soils, supplementing the carbon sequestered by our many miles of hedgerows and over 150 hectares of woodland.
Our integrated crop management approach has already generated a significant improvement in organic matter over the past 10 years. We have been sequestering over 2,500 tonnes of carbon per year in our soils and are on target to reach over 4,500 tonnes per year under our better targeted regenerative farming approach. With future reductions in the use of artificial inputs - fertilisers and agrochemicals - and our reduced reliance on fossil fuels, we anticipate achieving our carbon net zero target within farming by 2023/24.
BECOMING CARBON NET ZERO
Our target for the wider business is to be carbon net zero (CNZ) by 2035 which means we’re making changes now.
There’s still lots to do to achieve this by 2035 but as we are already a LEAF Marque business (Linking Environment and Farming) we have detailed records which will allow us to track the trend towards our goal.
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT OUR WORK TO DRIVE CHANGE
We are part of the John Lewis Partnership, and our business is working hard and is fully committed to reducing its impact on the environment while still offering products and services that our customers love.
Find out more about the work we are doing to achieve our environmental goals:
