Sustainability
Environmental awareness
Gerbera is a wonderful product. However, it’s also a luxury article. We are aware of this, and always try to minimize the influence on our environment.
Biological control
If you grow flowers on a commercial basis, it’s very difficult to avoid some kind of crop protection. At Esmeralda, we try to control pest insects through biological control. Almost weekly, we introduce natural enemies into our greenhouses. Amongst others, we use natural enemies against leaf miners, white fly, spider mite, thrips and different kinds of caterpillars. Compared to pure chemical crop protection, this makes it a lot easier to keep the level of pests on an acceptable level. Moreover, this way of crop protection is much more future-proof! Pest insects will not develop resistance against their natural enemies and of course this way of crop protection is better for humans, animals and the environment. If we have to correct pests with chemicals, we try to do this with selective pesticides that do not harm our beneficial insects. We are quite keen to keep them alive!
Energy
Growing our gerberas takes energy. Especially during the dark winter months the plants need warmth and light. Therefore we use artificial lighting, for which we produce the electricity ourselves, using gas turbines that produce heat and electricity. The heat that is produced in this way is stored in our heat-buffer, if is not used during the day. Furthermore, also CO2 is produced during the production of our electricity. This is purified and then led into the greenhouses to increase the photosynthesis and therefore the production.
Water recycling
Every day our gerberas are provided with water and fertilizer multiple times. On hot summer days this may be more than 10 times per day. The plants don’t use all the water that we offer them. Approximately half of the water (and nutrients) flows back to our water storage. This ‘drainwater’ is then disinfected by means of UV-radiation. Fresh fertilizer and rainwater is added, and the next day this is used for irrigation again. In this way we recycle all our water and fertilizer, and don’t harm the environment by spilling water and nutrients.
Waste
In our company we separate our waste in different waste-categories: organic waste, paper, cardboard, plastics and residual waste.
Certificering Kwekerij Esmeralda
Kwekerij Esmeralda participates in the 'Milieu Programma Sierteelt (MPS)' and has had the MPS-A status since many years.
MPS-Group offers a package deal to create, measure and proove quality and sustainability.