Last week, Young’s Plant Farm, Inc. became the first North American bedding plant grower to use the HortiFootprint Calculator. With over 3 million square feet of production space, this wholesale floricultural company located in Auburn, Alabama strives to produce the highest quality products for their customers.
The company produces annuals, perennials, foliage, and holiday crops for large retailers across the Southeast. They practice sustainability every day in many ways, including collection and filtration of water run-off, as well as water recycling for reuse in production, and research dedicated to selection of production varieties that require the least amount of chemical applications throughout the production process.
In an effort to further achieve their goal of sustainability, Young’s Plant Farm produces a sustainable soil medium on site that reduces their environmental footprint. Through research in conjunction with Auburn University and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), they have successfully implemented a process to transform the entire tree, including the needles, into a soil substrate.
The partnership with MPS began with the implementation of MPS-ABC in an effort to better quantify their sustainability practices. This positive experience lead them to pursue an MPS-GAP certification to promote an efficient approach of increasing the company’s sustainability efforts. The partnership with the HortiFootprint Calculator was derived from an interest in quantifying a complete supply chain environmental impact vs. their direct impact only.
“We appreciate the solutions MPS has provided to our industry, and we look forward to participating in their continued global sustainability efforts,” says Drew Young, Chief Horticulture Officer/Chief Safety Officer of Young’s Plant Farm.
