The Environment

We aim to protect the environment and constantly seek new ways to reduce the impact that our business has upon it.

• We find that nature usually has the answer to our problems, so when faced with pests such as aphids and whitefly, we employ natural predators to keep them under control.
• All of our nurseries use bumble bees to pollenate the plants. We use bumble bees because they are the least aggressive of the various species and therefore reduce the risk of the staff being stung!
• HumberVHB operates 3 Combined Heat and Power (CHP) installations, in total these generate more than 12MW of electricity, enough to supply all the houses in a small town.
• CHPs are twice as efficient as normal power stations, burning gas which generates Carbon Dioxide which we use in the glasshouses to help the plants to photosynthesize and to grow. When plants photosynthesise, they release Oxygen into the atmosphere. Therefore because our CHP units are linked to our glasshouses they have no waste emissions.
• Most of our nurseries have the capacity to recycle water around the facility thereby reducing the risk of nutrients getting into local aquifors.
• Across our two Sussex sites we have approximately 2 acres of managed wildlife land, which includes a water meadow and an indigenous tree area. These areas provide habitats for migratory birds such as long tailed tits; grass snakes and stoats and enable rare types of rushes and sedges to grow. A number of wild orchids are now also being found.