Sector:  Retail
No.of Employees:  1-20
Region: Yorkshire & Humber

Summary
Located near Grimsby, the Oaklands Nursery and Garden Centre have developed creative solutions to reduce their heating costs, water use and to develop a new product using garden clippings. Together these innovations have made the business more profitable and allowed them to expand.

Background
Steve Clark and his wife Lorraine founded Oaklands Nursery, near Grimsby, fifteen years ago. It is a family business specialising in growing bedding plants and shrubs, and they even produce their own compost, which is sold on site.

Responsible Business Objectives

• Reduce energy costs by reducing energy use. Steve explains his motivation for action: "I have always known that to increase my revenues and to expand the business, we would have to become more energy efficient. Due to planning restrictions in our area, we had to grow plants under polythene tunnels which were very uneconomical to heat - it's like having your central heating on at home with all the windows and doors open! Heating bills topped £5000 a year, so something had to be done"

How they do it

• Creative solutions to reduce heating costs. Recycled waste wood to power a home made radiator system that supplies heat to the glasshouse.

• Reuse organic waste to make compost. Once they realised how much their plants thrived with the compost, Oaklands Nursery began accepting green waste from their local authority and recycling green waste from around the community. They now sell this compost at their nursery and are considering supplying it to supermarkets and garden centres for resale.

• Water use reduction. The nursery has installed a semi-automatic irrigation system in their growing areas, which saves 89,000 gallons of water a year. In addition they have created a filter system that collects water in the lowest point of the nursery for re-use.

What impact it has

• Reduced water use. With a limited amount of natural resources to go around, the community benefits from water-use efficiency.

• Recycling of organic waste. By reusing organic waste to make compost, Oaklands Nursery is both reducing landfill waste and producing a useful product for the community.

Business Benefits

• Reduced water costs.

• Development of new product.

• Reduced heating bills.