At Hills Plants, we believe in making a positive impact on the environment while providing our customers with top-quality, beautiful houseplants. Our commitment to sustainability is at the heart of our business, and we’re excited to share one of our most significant steps forward: our journey to becoming peat-free. This change not only ensures our plants grow in the best conditions but also supports a healthier planet. Here’s everything you need to know about our switch to peat-free houseplants and why it matters.
Our Sustainability Journey
Four years ago, we embarked on a mission to make our plant production more sustainable. From day one, our goal has been to offer our plant-loving customers the highest quality houseplants, grown right here in Britain, while minimizing our environmental impact. Our approach includes:
- Growing the majority of our plants locally in West Sussex to reduce our carbon footprint
- Packaging in fully recyclable materials to minimize waste
- Partnering with like-minded suppliers who prioritize ethical and sustainable practices
- Recycling our plastic waste to be used again
We’re now proud to introduce our next big step: growing our houseplants using peat-free soil.
Why Peat-Free?
For those unfamiliar with peat, it’s a material made from decayed vegetation found in peatlands like bogs and moors. These landscapes are critical as they act as carbon stores, provide unique habitats for wildlife and help control flooding. Unfortunately, the process of extracting peat for use in compost has serious environmental consequences.
Harvesting peat releases significant amounts of carbon dioxide, contributing to global warming. To make matters worse, peat takes hundreds of years to form, growing back at just 1mm per year. This makes it a non-renewable resource, meaning peat mining is unsustainable.
By choosing peat-free, we are joining a global movement towards more sustainable horticulture. At Hills Plants, we’re proud to be ahead of the curve, offering our customers houseplants grown without peat.
Finding the Perfect Peat-Free Mix
After more than three years of research and trials, we’ve developed the perfect peat-free soil mix. This mix provides the ideal environment for our houseplants to thrive, ensuring healthy, vibrant growth without the environmental harm associated with peat.
What Does Peat-Free Mean for Your Plants?
Peat-free compost has several benefits for both your plants and the planet:
- Porous and well-draining, which helps roots to grow strong and healthy.
- More frequent watering may be required, so you might need to check your plants more regularly, especially when you first transition them to peat-free soil.
We are confident that our peat-free houseplants are of the same high quality you’ve come to expect from Hills Plants. You can also feel good knowing your purchase is supporting a more sustainable future.
What’s Next?
Our peat-free journey doesn’t stop here. While most of our plants are now grown in peat-free soil, a small percentage are still grown by specialist growers in Europe who are in the process of transitioning to peat-free. We’re working closely with these suppliers to achieve a 100% peat-free future. In addition, we are collaborating with industry leaders to explore alternatives to peat and help the horticultural sector move towards a sustainable future. This includes being members of the RHS Transition to Peat Free Fellowship which is the largest peat-free collaborative research project globally. More information about this project can be found here.
If you have any questions about our sustainability journey or want to learn more about our peat-free options, we’d love to hear from you. You can reach us using out Contact Page.