Sustainability
Sustainability at Raglan Garden Centre
At Raglan our ambition is to create the right working and retailing environment to enable a sustainable offering to our customers. We aim to reduce our impact on the environment through mindful product sourcing, efficient waste management and by reducing our carbon footprint across all areas of the business.
We are lucky to be situated in the lush green Monmouthshire countryside with views over the Black Mountains, this idyllic backdrop gives us the impetus to nurture nature, our inspiration is all around us.
We believe in collective responsibility, and everyone involved in decision making at Raglan Garden Centre makes mindful choices. Our staff are ambassadors for the natural world, offering environmentally friendly gardening solutions to our customers and we seek to support our local community in their efforts to improve our environment too.
Solar Panels
We have completed our first solar panel installation in January this year.
The 300 panels installed are expected to generate on average 90,000 kW per year, which will represent about a third of our electricity consumption. We are already seeing the environmental benefits, reducing carbon emissions by 735 KG equivalent to planting 45 trees in the first 30 days of installation.
Peat Free
We made a big pledge, all our composts are now peat free as of 2024.
Gardening should be enjoyable and rewarding. We aim to offer the best possible products to achieve success in our garden, but we need to be aware of the long-term effects on the environment and consciously apply a balance to successful gardening with minimal harm. Peat based composts offer a proven growing medium but are known to be damaging to the environment through habitat reduction and carbon release. We promote the use of only peat free products by raising awareness and offering peat free solutions; peat free products stocked at Raglan are taken from natural wood fibre, sourced from managed forests in accordance with the FSC scheme.
Waste
Waste is not waste at Raglan Garden Centre; waste is an opportunity to reuse or repurpose. We compact both plastics and paper for recycling and work with a reliable waste management company who has been audited to dispose of our recycling and general waste in the most environmentally friendly manner as possible.
Communications with our customers encourage the reduction of their own waste, we facilitate this with the recycling of garden pots in our car park. Customers can return their unwanted taupe pots and trays for onward recycling.
Cardboard
Glass
We recycle all bottles, jars and broken glassware, our glass recycling forecast for 2023 is an impressive 5,000 litres
Food Waste
A new initiative for 2023, we are proud to be sending all food waste to an anaerobic digestion plant. This plant will allow us to convert food waste into renewable energy and organic fertiliser. So not only are we reducing our carbon footprint, we are feeding your future purchases with the best fuel for growth.
Cooking Oil
We run a busy, high footfall, restaurant that produces a significant amount of waste oil. Recently, we introduced a collection of this waste by the oil recovery team who then recycle it into bio based diesel. Bio based diesel is seen as a viable climate change initiative as it’s low cost, low carbon with a high greenhouse gas reducing impact. We are delighted that our recycling can help reduce carbon emissions.
Sourcing
We aspire for our customers to have confidence in buying from Raglan, that each product they put in their trolley or online basket has been sourced, cognizant of its environmental impact. We are only as good as the products we sell. Where we can, we source locally, whether it be plants, foodstuff or furniture. In fact, 80% of our plants are grown in the UK, from trusted suppliers with environmentally sound businesses. In our foodhall, we prioritise local suppliers to reduce food miles and we believe that there are some wonderful small brands in the area that welcome our support. When sourcing garden furniture, we look for suppliers who use sustainable materials like wood or community plastics and when purchasing for our Christmas displays we avoid buying plastic, searching for glass, wood and resin ornaments for our seasonal offering.
When we refurbished the Sugarloaf Restaurant in 2020 we sourced chairs made from recycled fishing nets and we now offer these chairs for sale. This conscious purchasing is not limited to these areas but is across the buying board. We constantly seek to source quality sustainable products with longevity.
Food Sourcing for the Sugarloaf Restaurant…..Our wholesale suppliers roots are firmly grounded in Wales and the surrounding borders; promoting, where possible, regional produce and suppliers as we aim to reduce our food miles. Here is where our food comes from…
- Chilled, ambient & sundries from Castell Howell, Llanelli. Their core value is supplying regional produce
- Butchery from Farmers Pantry Butchers, Llantwit Major ,who specialise in ethical farming for meat reared sustainably
- Fresh fruit & vegetables from PJ Jones, Goytre, a family run wholesaler supplying the local area
- Selected handmade cakes by Nos Da Bakery, Bettws who use loval suppliers for their core ingredients and their cakes are delivered in reduced packaging
- Coffee beans from James Gourmet Coffee, Ross-on-Wye, a coffee roasting company dedicated to producing high quality beans which we grind on site.
Packaging
Seeking to reduce plastic waste is integral to our business and influences our purchasing decisions. No plastic bags, no plastic straws, no single use plastic, where possible. For transparency we would like to be single use plastic free but until some elements of gardening products can be made using biodegradable materials we are beholden to some plastic products.
We purchase products where possible on Blue CHEP pallets which are returned to resupply the pallet network and reduce the need for reproduction
Carbon Footprint
Reducing the centre’s carbon footprint has been a priority since the Davies family took back over the business in 2019. We carefully manage our energy use and output with LED lighting throughout the centre, pre-set clocks thermostatically controlling our heat, automatically closing doors and energy efficient electrical goods.
Our ‘Raglan to the Door’ delivery van operates on a ‘fully laden’ basis through forward panning and the support of our local customers.