Certificates
Kekkilä-BVB introduces sustainability roadmap for 2030
KEKKILÄ-BVB PRESS RELEASE 28.1.2020
Kekkilä-BVB has set demanding targets to become a net positive company by 2030, guided by our sustainability roadmap with eight concrete targets. One example of Kekkilä-BVB´s sustainability actions is to launch products containing sphagnum moss for professional growers and retail customers.
“It is quite natural for horticultural companies to talk about sustainability, since we are all contributing in making the world a greener place one way or the other. But that is not enough. It´s all about how we do it”, says Juha Mäkinen, CEO of Kekkilä-BVB.
Kekkilä-BVB became the leading horticultural company in Europe after Finnish Kekkilä and Dutch BVB Substrates joined forces.
“With big size comes also big responsibility. It is our obligation to promote biodiversity and to participate in preventing the effects of climate change. We have taken the stand to be a promoter for sustainable horticultural business and to enable our customers to meet their sustainability goals”, Mäkinen says.
Sustainability roadmap steers actions
Kekkilä-BVB´s sustainability work is guided by a sustainability roadmap. It consists of four focus areas with measurable targets. These focus areas are related to the wellbeing of people in the value chain, creating sustainable new innovations for food production and living, promoting circular economy and enhancing biodiversity.
“Concreteness is very much needed in sustainability work. This was a very clear message both from our customers and personnel when we made our sustainability roadmap. One way to add concreteness is to openly measure the negative and positive impact. This is why we are participating in Growing Media Europe´s work in calculating LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) for different growing media materials. This builds the base for the sustainability standard for the European growing media industry”, concludes Mäkinen.
From talk to action
An example of Kekkilä-BVB´s sustainability driven business approach is the launch of substrates containing sphagnum moss at the global horticultural fair, IPM Essen.
Sphagnum moss grows on top of the peat bogs and has not started to decompose like peat. As a living material it regrows relatively quick. Less water is needed for crops grown with sphagnum moss, since it has a large water holding capacity. Tests have also shown excellent growth results.
“To ensure our customers’ success and that the growth results are optimal, we have done extensive tests before launching our products with sphagnum moss. We see that as part of our responsibility.”, adds Mäkinen.
Since sphagnum moss is a novelty raw material and acts differently than peat, it is not yet RHP (quality mark for substrates) certified. Kekkilä-BVB is co-operating with RHP to have it certified according to RHP´s standards.
Read more about Kekkilä-BVB´s concrete sustainability cases here: kekkila-bvb.com/sustainability
Contact:
Juha Mäkinen, CEO, Kekkilä-BVB: juha.makinen@kekkila-bvb.com, tel. +358 40 046 4549
Nina Kinnunen, Director, Sustainability, Brand and Communications: nina.kinnunen@kekkila-bvb.com, tel. +358407775333
Retail
Kekkilä PrimeFLOW brings a unique air and water management solution for growers of young plants
Today at IPM Essen Kekkilä Professional introduces a new product, namely Kekkilä PrimeFLOW, a unique substrate mixture containing renewable wood fibre. Kekkilä PrimeFLOW is produced with inventive solution in Kekkilä-BVB’s factories, which ensures uniform mixing so that the wood fibre is properly fluffed. This enables easy and smooth potting without oversized lumps of fibre or impurities. Kekkilä PrimeFLOW offers growers a product that has good air/water balance, for a competitive price compared to perlite. Kekkilä PrimeFLOW is in production and ready for orders.
Kekkilä PrimeFLOW is developed and tested to improve the growing conditions for bedding plant growers, young plant growers and tree nurseries. “We want to offer both sustainable and cost-efficient solutions for our customers. In continuous dialog with them we are constantly improving our offering for a better growing environment. Kekkilä PrimeFLOW answers some of the requirements of our customers such as products with improved drainage in finer fractions without perlite. With this new product we can bring solutions for tray mixes at a lower price and high-quality material for robotic transplanters.” says Guido Linders, Director, BU Professional growing.
Kekkilä PrimeFLOW solves several issues in small pot production
Nedeljko Basic, the product manager for Kekkilä PrimeFLOW highlights the unique benefits for the growers: “The clear benefits for the small pot grower are tangible. The wood fibre in the mixture ensures reduced shrinkage and increases solids in the mix, improving physical properties. The best usage of fertilizers and water thanks to Higher EAW (Easily available water) is one of the key features of Kekkilä PrimeFLOW. It brings along specific pore size distribution which is the most important factor for the plant’s growth. Furthermore, the optimum level of capillarity forces for all types of irrigation systems makes this product available for all small pot growers.”
Kekkilä PrimeFLOW is completing the Kekkilä FLOW family, which already includes three sustainable products that improve water management: Kekkilä SafeFLOW, Kekkilä EasyFLOW and Kekkilä SteadyFLOW.
Read more: https://www.kekkilaprofessional.com/products/ornamental-and-pot-plants/flow/
Read more about Kekkilä-BVB´s concrete sustainability cases here: kekkila-bvb.com/sustainability
Contact:
Guido Linders, Director BU Professional growing: guido.linders@kekkila-bvb.com tel. +31 (0)653273109
Nedeljko Basic, Product Manager: nedeljko.basic@kekkila-bvb.com, tel. +358 (0)406324837
Kekkilä Professional is a premier brand of high-quality growing solutions for global modern horticulture. Kekkilä Professional is a brand of Kekkilä-BVB, the European leader in horticulture. We provide products and services for professional greenhouse growers, consumers and landscapers to over 100 countries worldwide. We have strong product brands within the professional and consumer growing markets, trading under the names of BVB Substrates, Kekkilä Professional, Kekkilä Garden, Hasselfors Garden, Jardino and Florentus. Together with our customers we grow for a better future. Kekkilä-BVB is a part of Vapo Group.
www.kekkila-bvb.com
Peat and after-life concept
Sustainable peat harvesting and after-life
Together with stakeholders, Kekkilä-BVB will develop the sustainable harvesting and after life concept for peat bogs. We own peat bogs in Finland, Sweden and Estonia. To ensure sustainable harvesting and after life processes, we will combine current best practices with a future look. A part of this is RPP certification.
1 Select peat area
Kekkilä-BVB peat is harvested only from carefully selected sites where specific extraction permits have been obtained from the local government. These areas are selected, in part, because they have no conservation value. We are not harvesting peat from protected areas. In European Union, peat extracted for fuel or horticulture is harvested from only 0.4 % of all peatlands.
The most regulated companies are those that have an impact on peatlands. From the initiative, it takes several years until all permissions are granted and extraction of peat can start. This includes assessing the site for its conservation values as well as making specific plans to ensure that the bog can be regenerated, when the peat extraction is finished.
2 Preparing for harvesting
After obtaining the necessary permits a series of ditches is dug across the peatland to drain water from the bog. This allows the surface the bog to dry out in order to enable peat extraction. In its natural state the peatland has an extremely soft surface which prevents machines to operate on the bog. It can take up to three years until extraction can start after the first ditches have been excavated.
Responsible Produced Peat (RPP)
By 2024, Kekkilä-BVB will have 80% of used peat RPP certified. Responsibly Produced Peat certification ensures that peatland will be used, managed and restored in a responsible way. The RPP certification system does not allow peat extraction from high conservation value areas.
It stimulates peat extraction from highly degraded areas followed up by appropriate after-use measures. It also implies leaving all ecological valuable areas, with or without a nature conservation status, undisturbed. Responsibly Produced Peat certification secures the best possible development after completion of peat production, with preference for restoration.
3 Harvesting
In Kekkilä-BVB the best available technology (BAT) is used for the water protection in the preparation and production of peat in order to protect the environment and to ensure sustainable production. Peat producers are under very strict regulations. However, we are not sustainable just because the law says so. It is our values and most importantly our customers, which oblige us. We are setting the industry standards as member of Growing Media Europe (GME). We follow EPAGMA’s strict Code of Practice for Responsible Peat Management and are working actively to establish the environmental certification called Responsibly Produced Peat.
When peatlands are drained and degraded, they emit CO2 (carbon dioxide). These degraded peatlands can be perfectly used for peat production. Their rehabilitation afterwards will reduce the emission of CO2 significantly. About 58 % of the peatlands in the EU are degraded.
Different types of sphagnum peat for growing media
The colour of sphagnum peat – white, brown or black peat – reflects its degree of decomposition. The level of decomposition is expressed in the von Post scale and divided into ten classes from very slightly decomposed (H1-H2) to completely decomposed peat (H9-H10). The best peat for substrates is from H1 to H6 in the von Post scale.
Different types of peat are physically and chemically different. For example, dark or “black” highly decomposed sphagnum peat has the highest water holding capacity, whereas the white sphagnum peat has the highest air capacity. Calcium and magnesium concentrations as well as pH-values also vary between the different peat types.
Peat from different sources varies also biologically and in microbial composition. Generally, blond or light-colored peat (H1-H2 in the von Post scale) are known to be very disease suppressive. This is because they can harbor high populations of ‘friendly’ microbes such as Trichoderma and Streptomyces species, which have shown to reduce the levels of pathogenic microbes in soil.
Looking for peat we go to drained bogs with extraction permits, if the bog is untouched or protected, we do not go there. The peat can be harvested roughly from May to September, when the weather is warm, and the surface of the bog dry enough. Horticultural peat is extracted using two different methods to produce two types of peat – milled peat and block peat.
Milled peat
To produce milled peat, 1–3 cm thin layers of peat are milled or harrowed loose from the surface of the drained peat bog. After several days of drying under the sun the peat is sufficiently dry (approximately 40–45% moisture content) to be harvested. It is collected from the surface of the peat bog by vacuum harvesters or collected from previously built ridges. Stockpiles of peat are formed at the edge of the bog and covered. Finally, when required at the factory, the peat is transported for further processing.
Block peat
In order to produce block peat, big blocks of peat are dug out up to a depth of approximately one metre. These blocks are left on the surface of the bog to drain excess water. As the blocks dry they are turned and finally piled manually in small piles to dry until they are dry enough to be processed in the substrate producing unit.
4 After-use for regenerating the bog ecosystem
Once peat extraction is finished the land is still valuable. We make sure life continues in the bogs long after we leave them. Nature is often richer then before we came. The land can be used for other purposes which have been pre-determined. The after-life of a peat bog is often determined by 2 factors. First, we harvest from owned and rented peat bogs. Whereas with the owned peat bogs we retain control during the after-life stage, with a rented bog the owner makes the final decision. However, in both cases, after life is determined in the harvesting permit. The second factor is the natural state of the peat bog. Due to natural factors, some bogs are more wet than others making them more suitable for re-wetting. Others naturally stay dry making them more suitable for forestry and agriculture.
The most common types of after-use are forestry, agriculture and re-wetting. During the process of re-wetting, ditches are blocked in order to re-wet the area and native plants are planted to encourage the regeneration of a natural bog ecosystem. In many cases, the restored areas have even higher biodiversity than before peat production.
During the re-wetting, the emission of CO2 is significantly reduced, and the bog will again start absorbing CO2.
We at Kekkilä-BVB are constantly studying and testing alternative materials. All materials have their pros and cons and none of them is perfect. However, peat performs best in overall comparison combining both quality and environmental criteria.
Small carbon foot print for transport
Peat has a low bulk density and is easy compressible. This makes it very fuel efficient for transporting over long distances. This helps to keep transportation costs low and to reduce impact on climate change.
A comparison – this is how much peat we use at Kekkilä-BVB
Let´s imagine that all EU peatland was found in Finland. That’s 282 000 km2 which is 92 % of Finland’s area. Peat producers use 0.4 % of the total 282 000 km2. That’s about 1 100km2. And only half of that is used by companies like Kekkilä to grow something. That’s about 500 km2 and that is smaller than the area of Helsinki. In the whole of EU!
BVB Substrates introduces sustainable new innovation for acid loving crops
The new product in BVB Substrates’ portfolio, BVB Quick Rooting Acid Loving Substrate, is a mixture suitable for the cultivation of acid-loving crops. BVB Accretio is used as one of the raw materials. Its unique physical and chemical properties help crops to develop strong root systems more quickly. BVB Accretio is a new raw material made of sphagnum moss. It offers many advantages for growing acid-loving crops, such as quick rooting, which is important for enclosing the roots well while providing sufficient drainage.This ensures the availability of air to the rootzone.
“Recent research shows that adding BVB Accretio to substrates quickens the rooting of crops thanks to the increased porosity of the mixture. BVB Accretio ensures that the plant roots can access water evenly at any time due to the improved water holding capacity it gives the substrate.” says expert product manager Bram van Brommel.
The chemical characteristics of BVB Accretio are particularly suitable for acid-loving crops e.g. due to a low pH level. It provides a good pH-buffer which steadies the pH level throughout the growing stages, making the mixture reliable and stable.
BVB Accretio – a sustainable raw material
The origin of BVB Accretio is in Finland where there is approximately 300.000 hectares of land area suitable for the collection of this moss. Sphagnum moss is a renewable material, which means that it grows back after harvesting and is ready to be harvested again in 20-30 years. Research shows that the harvest doesn’t have a negative impact on the environment.
In addition to the fact that the extraction of the raw material has minimal impact on the ecosystem, it also has a relatively low weight. This means that the transport of BVB Accretio has a smaller environmental footprint.
“For Kekkilä-BVB, sustainability is about a change in how we as a company do business, taking into account the whole value chain. We are focusing on how we can help our customers in the most sustainable way. Using sustainable raw materials such as Accretio in our products helps our customers in their way of doing sustainable business.” says Guido Linders, Director BU professional growing.
Read more: https://www.bvb-substrates.nl/en/bvb-accretio-sustainable-raw-material-for-substrates/
Contact:
Guido Linders, Director BU Professional growing, guido.linders@kekkila-bvb.com,
tel. +31 (0)6 53 273 109
Bram van Bommel, Product Manager for Tree Nurseries, bram.van.brommel@kekkila-bvb.com,
tel. +31 (0)6 55 737 557
BVB Substrates was founded in the Netherlands over 100 years ago. High quality, tailormade growing media under the BVB substrates brand are sold directly to professional growers worldwide. BVB Substrates is a brand of Kekkilä-BVB, the European leader in horticulture. We provide products and services for professional greenhouse growers, consumers and landscapers to over 100 countries worldwide. We have strong product brands within the professional and consumer growing markets, trading under the names of BVB Substrates, Kekkilä Professional, Kekkilä Garden, Hasselfors Garden, Jardino and Florentus. Together with our customers we grow for a better future. Kekkilä-BVB is a part of Vapo Group.
www.kekkila-bvb.com
Grow21 Speakers
Grow22 – Join us to make a difference
Kekkilä-BVB has agreed to acquire Brill Substrate and Brill Papenburg Logistics
Kekkilä-BVB has signed an agreement to acquire German companies Brill Substrate and Brill Papenburg Logistics. The business to be acquired comprises of a German-based factory for the production of professional growing media for the Central European market, and an own port and terminal area in Papenburg, Germany, on the Ems river. Brill Substrates also owns 50% of a growing media factory in Italy and has its own sales company in France.
Brill Substrate and Brill Papenburg Logistics have a combined turnover of more than €25 million and they employ more than 60 people. These figures do not include the turnover and staff of the Italian unit. After the acquisition, Kekkilä-BVB´s turnover will be EUR 350 million and it will employ over 600 people.
Kekkilä-BVB operates in 11 countries and exports already cover more than 100 countries. It is the leading growing media company in Europe. “This transaction will strengthen our foothold in the major European markets of Germany, Italy and France”, says Mr. Juha Mäkinen, CEO of Kekkilä-BVB.
Brill Substrate’s strong position as a supplier of growing media, especially for young vegetable plants and seedlings, is a good support for the product range of Kekkilä-BVB’s twelve growing media factories. “Having own port and terminal area will enhance Kekkilä-BVB’s operational efficiency of raw materials to own Central European production units and partners. We believe that by combining our strengths in production, distribution and sales, we will be able to boost our sales throughout Central Europe. We are also pleased to have Brill employees supporting the success of Kekkilä-BVB, as well as including Brill and TerraBRILL brands to our brand portfolio”, says Mr. Mäkinen.
Horticultural engineer Gerrit Brill, longtime sole owner and managing director of Gebr. Brill Substrate GmbH & Co. KG, explains: “This is the best possible way for the continuity of our family business Gebr. Brill Substrate and the affiliated company Brill Papenburg Logistics under a new strong roof. Kekkilä-BVB has a reliable and highly professional reputation in the market. We have prepared the companies well for the deal and for the coming months so that our employees and customers can start the new season and the further future with confidence.”
Media requests:
Mr. Juha Mäkinen, CEO, Kekkilä-BVB: juha.makinen@kekkila-bvb.com, tel. +358 40 046 4549
Mrs. Nina Kinnunen, Director, Sustainability, Brand and Communications, Kekkilä-BVB nina.kinnunen@kekkila-bvb.com, tel. + 358 40 046 4549
At Kekkilä-BVB we are creating green growth. As the European leader in horticulture we promote professional growing, home gardening and landscaping. We provide products and services to over 100 countries worldwide. Our net sales is 325 M€ and we have about 600 employees. We have strong product brands within the professional and consumer growing markets, trading under the names of BVB Substrates, Kekkilä Professional, BVB Landscaping, Kekkilä Garden, Hasselfors Garden, Jardino and Florentus. Together with our customers we grow for a better future. Kekkilä-BVB is a part of Neova Group.