Environment

At Burston Garden Centre we recognise that there are important environmental issues associated with the retailing and distribution of horticultural products. We believe that good environmental practice is an integral part of how we run our business.

In order to manage these issues effectively we are committed to:

  • Using resources efficiently and minimising their consumption by using materials that are renewable, recyclable or reusable. We are increasing our range of environmentally friendly products; our Teak and Iroko is from well-managed forests and plantations, whilst our Karri and Pinewood is FSC certified. The FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) is an international network to promote responsible management of the world’s forests. (For more information, please see our ‘Environmental Sourcing of wood for our garden furniture’ below.)
  • Minimising waste generated by our business, promoting recycling and reusing materials where applicable. We recycle batteries for customers, cardboard, paper, glass, plastic bottles, plant trays, tins, ink cartridges and toner.
  • Meeting or exceeding the regulatory requirements that relate to the companies activities.
  • Promoting plants and other products that have associated environmental benefits and to provide, where appropriate, information relating to these products. We buy from local suppliers where possible. We get our bedding and roses from our own on-site nursery, reducing our carbon footprint.
  • Promoting awareness of environmental issues through communication with new and existing staff and providing training opportunities to support this. We encourage staff not to print emails.
  • Providing reusable bags that are available for our customers to purchase. These are promoted at our Till Points and our Information Desk.
  • Ensuring all our packaging material at our customer srvice points are recyclable where possible.
  • Recycling all food waste, paper, cardboard, plastics, glass and tins from our Restaurant.
  • We have a comprehensive ‘Peat Policy’. It is our intention to promote the use of peat-free products by raising awareness of the issues and selling peat replacement products at similar prices to products containing peat. More details are available below.

We will continually monitor and review our environmental policy in order to further improve its performance.

Environmental sourcing of wood for our Garden Furniture

Alexander Rose, who supply us with the majority of our wooden garden furniture, are committed to only sourcing their various types of wood from environmentally sustainable areas.

Teak Garden Furniture

All Alexander Rose’s Teak wood is made using only premium grade FSC timber from responsibly managed forests in Brazil.

Mahogany Garden Furniture

Alexander Rose use selected FSC timber from responsibly managed forests in The Congo in Central Africa

Karri Garden Furniture

Alexander Rose’s Karri is FSC certified from responsibly managed forests in South Africa, making it another environmentally acceptable choice.

Pine Garden Furniture

Only carefully selected FSC timber from responsibly managed forests in Eastern Europe is used.

FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) is an international network to promote responsible management of the world’s forests. Appropriate forest management ensures that the harvest of timber protects the forest’s biodiversity and ecology, whilst at the same time being beneficial to local peoples and society at large. Operations are structured and managed to be profitable, but not at the expense of the forest resources, the ecosystem or affected communities.

Peat Policy

At Burston we support and actively encourage the reduction of peat in growing media. Most of the composts we sell are reduced peat and the rest are completely peat free. Our suppliers are relentlessly researching and testing alternatives to peat, some of which have comfortably out-performed their peat-based counterparts.

Our peat free multipurpose compost from supplier Westland New Horizon.

WEEE Distributor Take Back Scheme

Burston Rose & Garden Centre – Registration Number 400087 – is fulfilling their distributor obligations as a member of the WEEE Distributor Take Back Scheme and is providing consumer information through www.recycle-more.co.uk in accordance with The Waste Electrical & Electronic Equipment Regulations

This is given under authority of The Rt Hon John Gummer, Lord Deben, Chairman and Steve Gough, Chief Executive, Valpak Weee Retail Services.