VDE Plant, grower of tropical plants in Woubrugge, is the first that did a footprint calculation of several products with the Flori Footprint Tool. This online tool was developed by Greenhouse Sustainability, together with software partner Simapro.

The tool became available at the end of last year, and already in the pilot stage VDE Plant expressed its confidence in the Flori Footprint Tool, which has set up according to the concept of the FloriPEFCR. This is the European calculation standard that stands for reliable and easily comparable measurement results.

INVESTMENT ASSESSMENTS

VDE Plant (90,000 m2 greenhouse, 85 employees and 8 million plants per year) has been on a sustainable course since 2016. From that time on they were already busy with footprint calculations. But according to cultivation manager Robert-Jan Veens, they were still very limited in their options. “You had to provide a lot of data and then only one answer came out. The Flori Footprint Tool gives us much more insight. For example, we can now consider investments in advance based on their CO2 impact.”

The new tool also makes it possible to calculate the footprint in a more detailed way. The effect of artificial lighting is now assigned to separate plant types at VDE. "The fast-growing plants are assigned with less impact than the slower growing plants."

GREEN HEALTHY LIFESTYLE

With the Flori Footprint Tool, the moment that supermarkets and florists will soon be able to indicate the footprint per plant is one step closer. For Edwin van der Eijk, responsible for marketing and sales at VDE Plant, this is another important contribution to the green, healthy lifestyle that the company advocates.

On April 6, VDE Plant hosted some 60 participants and interested parties from the network of Horti Footprint Circle. According to van der Eijk, collaboration with all links in the chain is a prerequisite for taking sustainability in the sector to an even higher level. “We have no secrets, and I am going to present our sustainability plan that afternoon in the hope of inspiring others to start working on it as well.”

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