Grodan and sustainability
The consumer wants safe, sustainably-grown products. This requires a style of entrepreneurship in which the interests of people, the environment and profitability are in balance. Corporate social responsibility allows businesses to operate profitably while also helping to preserve the planet for future generations. Grodan has always been a great advocate for this working method. With the introduction of clean stone wool substrate, Grodan has made a substantial contribution to the environmentally-friendly cultivation of flowers and vegetables, without the need for expensive soil. The strive of Grodan for sustainability also plays an important role in the future.
Grodan has been producing cultivation solutions on the basis of stone wool substrate for forty years. Stone wool is a genuinely “green” product. It is not only based on a natural raw material, it is also sustainable in production and easy to recycle. Cultivation on stone wool substrate is environmentally-friendly and guarantees safe, healthy, high-quality products; exactly what today’s consumers are demanding.
Stone wool substrate: sustainable from extraction to recycling
Stone wool is sustainable from extraction to recycling. The raw materials required for stone wool have natural origins: volcanic rock. This rock is present in almost inexhaustible quantities on the planet. Grodan does not extract any of this rock from protected areas. Also the production of the substrate satisfies both the requirements of ISO 14001 and the objectives for CO2 emissions. Stone wool substrate is also naturally free of fungi, bacteria and weed seeds. The use of disinfection agents and pesticides can thus be kept to a minimum, which promotes food safety.
Cultivation on stone wool substrate is also environmentally friendly. Instead of using chemical agents, the grower can make use of biological pest control (predators) to combat vermin. Excess water and a surplus of nutrients can be reused in a closed system after purification. Thanks to the greater yield, the energy consumption per unit of product is lower and an energy surplus could even be created. Stone wool substrate is also fully recyclable. At the end of cultivation, the material can be turned it into raw material for the production of new stone wool products or bricks for the construction industry.