Navigating the carbon landscape with sustainability grants and training for horticulture
Our new sustainability grant and training programme has launched. Following a successful pilot, Growing Green is designed to inspire and train businesses to implement innovation that not only reduces their carbon footprint, but helps create new value and revenues from their production.
Improving sustainability is a high priority for many horticultural growers, particularly as their customers set stringent environmental standards through their assurance schemes. While there is widespread awareness and willingness to reduce their carbon footprint, knowing which measures to invest resources in can be challenging. With many ways to measure your environmental sustainability, identifying which changes will have the biggest impact, on both emissions and bottom line, can be difficult to navigate.
Step in Growing Kent & Medway’s sustainability training programme, Growing Green. Successfully piloted in 2022, and previously funded by the UK Government’s Community Renewal Fund, the training programme trialled an innovative approach to incentivising the move to net zero for SMEs in the horticulture, food and drinks sector. Following its positive feedback and results, Growing Green is being rolled out in 2025, with improved features.
The programme is tailored specifically for the sector. It focuses on upskilling and improving the knowledge of the participants, so they can confidently implement strategic improvements to their business. Networking with similar businesses to share ideas and learn from each other is another important element.
Businesses participating in Growing Green in 2025 can apply for a grant of up to £7,000, receive accredited training and get a professional membership.
Creating value from waste
Innovation within the sector has highlighted exciting opportunities to create new products and markets while lowering emissions, cutting waste, and reducing costs. Horticultural crop by-products have the potential to contribute to a biobased circular economy. High-value compounds from crop residues, such as polyphenols from grape waste and essential oils in hops, can be upcycled and used in industries like cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
Roughway Farm, a fruit farm run by the Cannon family in Kent, was supported by the pilot in 2022. Kent Cobnuts are one of their speciality crops, however, their existing de-husking process led to damaged fresh nuts, which reduced their market value and storage potential, leading to food waste.
Through Growing Green, they worked with a local engineer to innovate a new de-husking process. It removes the leafy outer husk, separating the husks and nuts with minimal damage to the fruit. The team have found an opportunity to valorise the waste husk material, creating a new revenue stream. They are also able to offer a de-husking service to other local growers.
The new system also means they can process the produce closer to harvest, dry them more quickly and store them at ambient temperatures, rather than the normal cold stores. This further reduces their carbon emissions and cuts their energy costs.
Tom Cannon, Roughway Farms said: “The [Growing Green] programme has been helpful in giving us business tips, like developing waste streams. There are many areas in our business where we can reduce our carbon emissions. It has helped us think about how we de-carbonise but also grow the business, and you want to do both.”
Watch: Tom Cannon, Roughway Farms on how Growing Green helped find new value from his waste nuts
Reducing inputs and protecting soils
S C Berry Ltd is a mixed farming business in Faversham, Kent, that includes hops, vineyards, apples & pears, and cereal crops. They were looking to expand their regenerative horticulture approach and so joined Growing Green in 2022.
Following support from the specialist team and a grant from Growing Green, they purchased a subsoiler with a precision fertiliser applicator for use on their hops and vines. Their goal was to reduce their fertiliser use and remove compaction on their soils by using a low-disturbance subsoiler. By subsoiling on rotation, they aimed to improve their soil structure and its ability to hold nutrients, further reducing the need for fertiliser use.
Their fertiliser cost savings were estimated at £4,000 per year, with an annual carbon saving estimated at 9,518 CO2eq.
Another mixed farm, E H Holdstock and Son, based near Canterbury, used their Growing Green grant to move from an overhead irrigation system to a trickle irrigation system in their orchards. Their action plan estimated this would save around 58% of water use, and reduce their diesel use by 71% due to reduced evaporation and water run-off, and shorter running hours. Support from the team also enabled them to introduce dosemeters, so their fruit trees could be fed while irrigated.
Grow your business greener
Applications for Growing Green are now open again to horticultural or plant-based food and drink businesses based in Kent and Medway. There will be four groups throughout 2025, and places are limited.
This article originally appeared in the Winter 2024/25 edition of Niab’s Landmark magazine. Landmark features in-depth technical articles on all aspects of Niab crop research, comment and advice. You can sign up for free and get Landmark delivered to your door or inbox: Sign up
