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Sustainability

We are here to support you, our members, on your sustainability journey

We launched the Sustainability Roadmap in 2020, and have since been working to provide you with all the help and resources that you need along the way.

The HTA's Sustainability Roadmap is a framework for helping members to increase the commercial, environmental and social value their business delivers. It aims to build on the good practice evident among HTA members so as to put the UK horticulture and landscaping industry at the leading edge of sustainable business. 

We will provide information, advice, networking and training to help members build sustainability into their business plans. We will provide data and benchmarking to help members benchmark and plan. And we'll champion the industry to government and other allies so as to achieve the support we need in contributing ever more positively to our environment and society.

Top Resources

HTA Sustainability Roadmap Charter

HTA Sustainability Roadmap: Smarter Horticulture for a Better Future Our Goals and Pledges 2021 to 2025

HTA Sustainability Roadmap Impact Report 2021

One Year On - Progress Achieved and Next Steps

Writing a Sustainability Plan

A practical how-to guide, developed with Planet Mark, to be used with the Sustainability Plan Template. It will help you embed sustainability into your business plans

Sustainability Plan Template

A template document, written by Planet Mark, for you to fill in, expand and use as a practical tool for writing a Sustainability Plan for your business.

Complying with Regulations on Environmental Claims in Marketing

A how to guide developed to help HTA members understand the changes in consumer protection law, focusing on making environmental claims in marketing

Market Research

Market Trends and Gardeners' Attitudes to Sustainability

With increasing attention on the environment, this report for HTA members provides some of the latest market and consumer trends in this area.

Plastics and Packaging

EPR Summary for HTA members Sep 2022

Growers, retailers, manufacturers, and suppliers may all find that they are obligated producers under EPR from January 2023, so you MUST understand what this means for your business. Obligated producers will experience greater costs and increased reporting requirements, and noncompliance will be penalised.

The roadmap's 2025 goals

We've consulted with hundreds of our member businesses to identify five areas for the roadmap to focus on. We've picked these areas on the basis that they are fairly unique to or industry - if we don't lead on these issues as an industry no-one else will. They're also areas where we feel there's most at stake for us as an industry - in short, areas that are critical to the planet and our industry commercially. 

We've set our targets for 2025 so as to drive actions that will set us on the pathway to bigger goals by 2040. Both the NFU and British Retail Consortium have set net zero ambitions for CO2 emissions 2040. We support these ambitions, and our roadmap is designed as a first step for HTA members to move towards this at least as quickly. The roadmap also sets goals for other areas particularly relevant to horticulture and landscaping.

Find out more about our roadmap focus areas and resources below: 

  

HTA Sustainability Impact Report 2021

We have published the HTA's impact report for our Sustainability Roadmap after its first year and details of the work we'll be doing for members in 2022.

As well as outlining progress, the report also describes the support you can draw on as a HTA member, and what you can expect from us in 2022. In particular, we're aiming to do more to connect members with each other to share experiences and support, and to promote our members' work on greater sustainability to the public, media and government. 2022 is a real opportunity to show how much our industry has to contribute to nature and the environment; everyone at the HTA is looking forward to working with HTA members on this in the year ahead.

Get in touch

Do you have any questions relating to sustainability? Would you like to share your experiences with us? Could you be a case study for sustainability? 

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