Green commitment at Highfield Garden World

Commitment at Highfield

Holding 216,000 litres, a vast new irrigation water tank has become the latest planet-friendly addition at Highfield Garden World, Gloucestershire.

Water efficiency at Highfield Garden World has been drastically improved following the installment of a new water tank. The whole business will benefit from this latest development which is one of many in its drive to adopt more eco-friendly ways of working.

The tank collects rainwater from the garden centre’s various roof sections which is then used to water the 1000’s of plants on-site and to flush customer toilets. With predicted longer periods of drought interspersed with dramatic periods of rainfall, this pioneering approach will help the business moderate and plan water use to minimise its reliance on mains water.

“Research confirms that most of us want to adopt more eco-friendly ways of doing things in our everyday lives, and we know from talking to our customers they are ever more focused on ways they can do their bit for the planet,” says Tim Greenway, Co- founder and Director. “We’ve noticed that it isn’t just our customers who feel good about our sustainability initiatives –our staff do too.”

While the irrigation tank is just one of the ‘behind the scenes’ green initiatives at Highfield others are more obvious and customer-facing. Social media messaging and signage in-store helps customers wanting to make more ethical buying decisions, and in the planteria there is information to support customers as they look to increase biodiversity in their own outside spaces. The range of peat-free products is set to expand while pollinator plants and biological pest control products are enjoying a rise in demand.

The buying team at Highfield seek out suppliers – as local as possible offering more sustainable versions of popular products across the board from plant-based foods to pots, pet toys and ‘wicker’ furniture made from recycled materials such as plastic bottles. British made greetings cards with no plastic packaging by Woodmansterne now line the shelves and customers are encouraged to use cardboard boxes for their shopping and pick up free packs of coffee grindings from the cafe for their compost. Changes have also been made in the restaurant to reduce food waste and during lockdown the business took time to understand what customers like best and buy most. “Then we devised better ways of buying the ingredients and scheduling food prep tasks so customers,” says Tim. “We are thrilled with how little food waste we now produce,” he adds. Elsewhere in the business when choosing new floor surfaces and wall paints, the business is opting for lightreflecting options which help reduce its reliance on electricity for lighting. “A bit like offering old wooden pallets to customers to make planters and garden furniture from - these are all relatively small changes. But put them all together

Three generations of the and you start to see a worthwhile shift

Greenway family that built towards more planet-friendly and ethical

Highfield and continue to ways of living our lives,” says Tim. improve its green credentials. L-R Emma Russan, Sue Weaver, Joan Greenway (seated), Tim Greenway, Bobby the dog and Saffron Weaver. Rain water collected and stored on site is used to irrigate plants.