Scotsburn Nurseries' Environment

We had our EcoHort and NIASA audits last week. Not confirmed yet but we pretty confident of retaining our industry accreditations. What am I talking about?  Follow the links for some pretty dry back ground on these programs run by the Nursery and Garden Industry Association.  In simple terms these are business development programs promoting best practice in environmental sustainability (EcoHort) and nursery production (NIASA).  We are audited regularly to ensure we maintain the highest standards.  

If you have noted our letter head you know we are very proud of our EcoHort certification.  We are careful not to claim to be 'organic' but EcoHort has helped us develop practices to minimise our impact on our environment.  With time and care I would like to work towards NASAA but I don't want to lose many of the benefits that come with modern horticulture like consistent quality and reliable results for our consumers.  Yeah, and I'm just that bit conservative so we'll go slowly.

Key thing to come from our EcoHort audit is we need a written environment policy.  So here goes...
Scotsburn Nurseries Environment Policy

Great gardening is healthy, beautiful, richly variable and environmentally positive.  So are our plants.

It is our policy to supply the Victorian garden industry with ornamental plants that are of themselves environmentally positive and are produced and distributed in a manner that actively minimises damage to our local and the global environment.

To achieve this we:

·        Maintain Nursery industry best practice currently defined in NIASA EcoHort certification.

·        Commit to complying with environmental regulations and laws.

·        Provide information, resources and training to continually improve workplace environmental performance.

·        Consult with employees, customers and consumers of our plants about environmental issues and concerns to manage risks to improve standards.

Implementation of this policy is the responsibility of everyone at Scotsburn Nurseries.  It is a condition of employment that all staff will:

·        Understand and comply with Scotsburn’s policies, practices and procedures.

·        Identify, report assess and control environmental concerns.

This policy will be used a core criteria in all business decisions and will be reviewed annually by nursery staff.
   
There you go... I got worried once I started about where this would take me but keep it short and to the point works for me.  I'd love some feedback, please let me know what you think.  I've still got to work on some of the specific 'practice' documents, specifically a waste management plan. I might bore you with this another time.
I've been looking for a good excuse to use these terrific pics from Upwey Primary School.  I think the link to our Environment policy is pretty obvious.