May 21, 2010
– Beginning June 1, garden centres in North America can seek
certification under the MPS ABC
environmental sustainability program.
May 21, 2010
– Beginning June 1, garden centres in North America can seek certification under the MPS ABC
environmental sustainability program.
For the past
15 years, growers worldwide have been certifying their operations on
sustainability criteria, with the levels MPS-A, B or C. Now MPS has developed
an MPS-ABC program for garden. centres
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Theo de Groot, CEO of MPS, at left, presents Doug Cole with an MPS-ABC certificate during the 2009 Ohio Short Course. |
Several MPS
members in the U.S., operating both production facilities and garden centres,
have been requesting the ability to certify their retail operations. “Now there
is a program to do just that,” said an MPS spokesperson.
Participants
can easily add the garden centre as an additional registration to their current
account, which allows them the opportunity to promote the sustainability
certification of their garden centre. Among the parameters recorded are the use
of chemicals, energy and water usage, and the recycling of used plastic and
paper.
MPS
participant Doug Cole, from D.S. Cole Growers, explained why they requested an
expansion of their greenhouse MPS-ABC rating for their garden centre.
“Since we are
certified as an MPS grower, we are able to show our wholesale customers that
that our products are grown in a sustainable manner. Our customers can then use
this information to show the consumer that they are purchasing sustainably
grown plants. When it comes to our garden centre, we will now take on the new
MPS program focused on garden centres. With the new program geared specifically
for garden centres, we will be able to add more legitimacy to our actions and
to our marketing.”
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