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Sustainability at Prides Corner

Striving to Keep the Green Industry Green

At Prides, our goal is to produce large numbers of great quality, healthy plants. While doing so, we believe it is our responsibility to be conscious of the resources we use and how they impact the earth. Prides strives to lower our impact on the environment and we have many sustainability initiatives to achieve this.

• Between our Lebanon and West Suffield growing locations, we have 1584 solar panels to generate a large portion of our electrical needs! The carbon dioxide emissions that we save are equivalent to planting more than 13,000 trees annually!
• Prides recycles 40 million gallons of water per year by recapturing it. We also follow water conservation protocols and use wetting agents in our soils to reduce the amount of water that plants need.
• We use rice hulls on 80% of our containers to reduce weed pressure, this lowers our herbicide usage. Rice hulls allow plants to retain more water, allowing us to conserve moisture and water less frequently.
• Prides uses controlled-release fertilizers. This has a low environmental impact and is safe for animals, birds, and fish. The fertilizer is released slowly over time; we only use what we need.
• We use biological, natural fungi in our soils to promote root health and plant performance.
• Herbs, edibles, and veggies grown at Prides Corner are completely free of pesticides. We use 20 billion beneficial insects in our biocontrol programs every year to protect plants from pests naturally.
• The majority of our new plastic pots contain 100% recycled plastic! We are currently researching plastic pot replacements and will have prototypes in your garden center soon!
• Because we are a large nursery, we produce enough waste to recycle it in bulk. Every year we recycle: 400,000 pounds of greenhouse film, 150,000 pounds of used plastic containers, and 25,000 pounds of cardboard

While we are very proud of our sustainability programs, we will continue to build upon them. We have many exciting goals for the future, including: efficient and environmentally friendly trucks, a compost facility, more bio control programs, additional solar arrays, and a pot recycling program for customers.