LOOKING TO THE FUTURE: LONG TERM SUSTAINABILITY IS KEY
05 February 2010
Shoppers care about the environment. They want products that solve their problems but they want them developed, distributed and packaged in a way that minimizes the environmental impact and propagates responsible use.
Alison Mulvaney, product manager at Bayer Garden explained: “Long term sustainability is key. All of us in the industry need to put it at the heart of our business, consistently improving both our products and the way we operate; consumers, and retailers, demand nothing less.
“New product formulations that continue to solve gardeners’ problems with the minimum environmental impact are essential. As a result we focus on creating active ingredients that work in ultra low doses and are highly targeted at specific organisms. We are also reducing the historic dependency on oil based solvents, turning to renewables such as sunflower oil.”
Keeping road miles to a minimum and adopting innovative packaging solutions are also crucial.
“We know gardeners’ would prefer not to handle chemicals, particularly if they are not experienced,” continued Alison. “It is also easy for novice or inexperience gardeners to overdose. We have used the packaging to help tackle these issues.
“Our soluble sachets, introduced last year, are now in a broader range of products. All the gardener has to do is drop it in the watering can, add water, dissolve it and then apply it to the relevant area. No handling or measuring is necessary, far less packaging is required than for either ready to use products or concentrated liquids and since it is cardboard and not contaminated it can simply re recycled.”
Bayer Garden has also introduced a new dosing cap for it Bio Slug and Snail Killer and organic Slug Bait. Laura Varey, product manager at Bayer Garden explained: “It‘s common for people to overdose with slug pellets, presuming the more pellets they deposit the more effective the solution; but this is not true and can introduce a threat to pets and wildlife. Our new dosing cap minimises this problem, propagating responsible use by dispensing the exact number of pellets required to cover an area, 1sq.m of Slug Bait and 5sq.m of Slug and Snail Killer.”
Road miles can tot up quickly so Bayer Garder aims to source locally and distribute efficiently to keep them to a minimum. More than 90% of its products are produced in the UK, with 75% of all production within 100 miles of the company’s distribution centre. Products are delivered to customers‘ central warehouses so that consolidated orders can be sent on to individual stores. This means the lorries are always full so minimising CO2 emissions.
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