Sustainability
Natural production at Saterplant
One of the most important guiding principles of our actions is sustainable management. On many levels, we strive to minimize our CO₂ footprint and make our plant production a CO₂ neutral cycle from all perspectives.
Peat
This starts with our subtrata: for instance, we are minimizing the use of peat and rely heavily on the use of wood fibre (currently 20%, we are working to increase this to 30%), as well as green compost (trialling at 10%) in our mixes. In summary, we aim to reduce the proportion of peat in our substrata to a maximum of 50% 50% reduction.
Pots
Our plant pots and containers are doubly smart: on the one hand, they are made from 100% recycled, or reused, plastic. And on the other hand, our pots are also fully recyclable after use and thus remain in the material cycle. This is how we avoid the use of new plastics.
Fertilizer
We provide our plants with organic mineral fertilizer as much as possible. We have drastically reduced the use of conventional, partially plastic-coated fertilizer solutions in recent years – and we aim to do away with them completely as soon as we have developed satisfactory organic-mineral fertilizer concepts for all our crops and in all locations.
Plant Protection
In plant protection, we are moving forward on the path to sustainability: we are using for example manual collection rather than chemical pesticides for beetle infestation in our crops. Where plant protection is necessary, we apply it as sparingly and selectively as possible, rather than using the old “a lot helps a lot” method of unnecessary management. We follow the principle of “less is more”. Also in plant protection, we are experimenting with natural, ecological alternatives to conventional agents and aim to switch completely to green solutions.
EU organic certification
Our efforts are bearing fruit: in 2021 we were the (as far as we know, the first in Europe) company to have our production for Prunus completely EU-organic certified. In other words, our cherry laurel is an excellent product in terms of sustainability – we are proud of that!
Energy Consumption
A conventional nursery has considerable energy consumption. Regardless of the question whether to use for example green energy solutions, our goal is to minimize consumption. We are constantly optimizing our logistics concepts so that plants do not have to be moved unnecessarily and distances are kept as short as possible during operation. Our irrigation solutions are computer-controlled so that energy for our pumps is used as precisely and as briefly as possible.
Active nature conservation
We are proud to have acquired an area in the “Esterweger Dose” nature reserve that was formerly used for peat extraction. On our 26,336 m² plot 10/5 in the by far largest nature reserve of the former Weser-Ems administrative district with around 4,700 hectares, a complete regeneration of the moorland should be made possible in the long term. A concern that we are happy to support – the Esterweger Dose is, among other things, the home of one of the last breeding populations of the southern golden plover in Central Europe.
Beyond the Nursery
And in other ways? Let’s keep our eyes and ears open so that we can make a contribution to climate-friendly action outside the box in our tree nursery. We are active as a registered bee-friendly cultivator and have established several large flowering meadows for insects and bees. We press our own apple juice from farm-grown apples. And vehicle by vehicle, we are switching to electric mobility for our company vehicles. We also support the fight against climate change by investing in tree-nation projects.
Thank you very much for your attention!
The Team at Saterplant
One rating = one tree
For every rating received, we plant a tree via tree-nation. Your feedback – regardless of whether it is full of praise or critical – actively binds CO2.
