Greenwood Plants named ‘Sustainable Business of the Year’ at Central South Business Awards 2022

Greenwood Plants has been named ‘Sustainable Business of the Year’ at the 2022 Central South Business Awards, held at the prestigious Ageas Bowl in Southampton on 28th September.

The awards ceremony was hosted by star of ITV’s hit show The Chase, Paul Sinha, and recognised the outstanding achievements of the region’s business community.

The ‘Sustainable Business of the Year’ award recognises the pioneering sustainability practices that Greenwood has established across its business, exercising responsible planetary stewardship, and demonstrating sustainability leadership by applying innovative processes and techniques to minimise its imprint on the planet.

“We are delighted to win the Sustainable Business of the Year award as it shows appreciation for the hard work and determination that we have demonstrated across our nurseries as we strive to become carbon neutral”, explains Sales and Marketing Director, Melanie Asker. “Sustainability is one of our brand values and the G Team have embraced their role in contributing to our sustainability goals.”

Over the past year, Greenwood launched its new sustainability strategy and initiated several practices to use resources efficiently, reduce waste, encourage biodiversity, and improve its carbon footprint – such as switching diesel forklifts and other vehicles to electric, reducing waste, recycling water, and using biodegradable sundries.

Greenwood has committed to being fully peat-free by the end of 2023, years ahead of anticipated industry regulation. The nurseries are currently carrying out extensive trials with alternative growing media to support Greenwood’s annual production of more than six million plants.

Greenwood launched its innovative G Cycle scheme in 2021. The recycling scheme reduces the amount of waste going to landfill and helps to preserve valuable resources, by encouraging our clients to return their crates, pallets and pots, thus creating a shared standard of sustainability within the supply chain. G Cycle collected a staggering 15,000 crates and pallets in its first year, that’s a 72% return rate.

Greenwood has invested in its water harvesting and collection systems, as well as state of the art sprinkler systems, to ensure minimal reliance on external water sources. This enables most of its nurseries to be fully sustainably watered.

Greenwood works closely with the local community as part of its Greenwood Community scheme, donating plants to schools, charities and village gardens, to create green community spaces with enhanced biodiversity.

If you’d like to find out more about Greenwood’s sustainability efforts, visit our webpage: