At the last Sustainable Advisory Panel meeting in early July, passions were running high as we discussed peat.  I’m a keen gardener myself and whilst I do compost all our garden and food waste back into the soil, I still hadn’t fully appreciated how important it is to go ‘peat free’ in the garden. 

Christopher Broadbent, who chairs the Panel, is uncompromising in setting out the case for retaining our peat bogs; “The industrial scale removal of peat for gardening compost is causing irreparable damage to one of the most overlooked but priceless eco-systems we have”, says Christopher, adding, “the development of peat bogs is positively glacial – it takes many, many centuries and yet we dig them out at high speed.  They are unique eco-systems and provide a habitat for plant species that cannot live anywhere else. Perhaps most critically, they are an extraordinarily powerful carbon sink. Britain’s peat bogs hold more carbon than all of the UK and France’s forests put together – 5,000 tonnes per hectare. They continue to absorb carbon at about 0.7tph per annum, and this country has 15% of the entire world’s peatlands. They are a huge resource and we damage them at our peril.”
 
The fact Britain’s peat bogs hold more carbon than the UK and France’s forests combined highlights how important peat bogs are in combating global warming; and in the week that the Forestry Commission has introduced a new Government approved woodland carbon accreditation scheme to provide improved transparency and credibility to UK woodland projects designed for carbon capture and storage, perhaps the UK Government should also be considering stronger measures to protect our peat reserves as carbon sinks?

At Green Rewards I’m pleased that we are doing what we can to raise the peat issue, and it’s very exciting for me as a tree lover that we have a new corporate partner, Barcham Trees, and with them we’ve this week introduced a new range of peat-free instant impact trees to Our Green Shop . These medium-sized trees will be delivered to your door and they’ve all been grown in a peat-free environment.  As well as the majestic beauty the trees will bring to people’s gardens, they will sequester harmful carbon dioxide as they grow, thereby doing their bit for climate change. 

Our Green Shop also has some grow-it kits which comes with pots and compost disks made from coir (waste coconut husk) and other coconut husk materials - 100% peat free and makes for wonderful gifts. I’m always keen to hear from companies with interesting peat free products so do please get in touch if you want to work with Green Rewards in promoting a peat-free future.

SAP meeting July 2011, from left to right: Matt Prescott, Dave Hampton, Christopher Broadbent, Trewin Restorick and Leona Mani