21 april 2022
RHP, the knowledge centre for substrates, joins the Floriculture Sustainability Initiative (FSI2025), the most important sustainability initiative in the floriculture sector. FSI2025 has more than 80 members, including producers, traders and retailers. RHP joins to share its knowledge about the safe use of peat and peat substitutes with the floriculture chain, where phasing out peat is becoming an increasingly high priority for retailers.
“We are talking more and more to growers, traders and retailers about growing media. And especially about the phasing out of peat and the use of new raw materials. At the moment, peat is still often used in the production of substrates, while several retailers have the ambition to use less peat. In fact, many retailers no longer want to have any peat on the shelf in the long term,” says Raymond Hedges, director of RHP. The substrate sector has been working with renewable raw materials for many years. Peat is also increasingly being extracted from RPP (Responsibly Produced Peat) locations, which means that new peatlands remain unaffected. “You see an incredible effort by the sector to become more sustainable and the application of more new growing media. Of course, this must be done without loss of quality and there is a field of tension there. The RHP quality mark assures this quality and our research team is busy with collective research into renewable materials.”
Jeroen Oudheusden, director of FSI2025, is pleased with the connection of RHP. “With the available expertise of RHP, we can further expand our sustainability initiative to the contents of the pot in a well-founded manner.” Hedges agrees: “Phasing out peat and using renewable materials is already in full swing, but is much more complex than many people think. That story, with all its nuances, we will tell at the tables of FSI2025.”
