Sustainability starts in the substrate

HORTICERT certification ensures that substrate components are produced and processed sustainably and that their traceability along international supply chains is guaranteed. In addition, HORTICERT verifies the carbon footprint of certified products.

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Our system documents, flyers, fee structure, and more can be found under Documents.

Once you register with HORTICERT, you will soon get access to all preparation materials, audit checklists, and more resources in the Client Section.

What our system users say about HORTICERT:

As partner of HORTICERT, toom Baumarkt and Gebrüder Mayer highly value their certification process as a means to safeguard social, ecological and economic aspects of peat substitutes. The rigorous traceability and sustainability standard resonate with our commitment to produce sustainable and climate-friendly products without peat. With HORTICERT, we can verify our value chain and thus credibly support our customers in making sustainable purchasing decisions. 

Dominique Rotondi, COO toom Baumarkt GmbH

“It was a natural consequence for us to actively accompany and support HORTICERT right from the start. HORTICERT brings us significantly closer to our most important corporate goal: the increased use of sustainable and climate-friendly peat substitutes. Thanks to our successful HORTICERT certification, we can transparently demonstrate our CO2 footprint in substrate production to professional gardeners and set new standards for the industry. At the same time, the certification of our raw materials increases their acceptance in the market – along the entire value chain.”

Ulrike Fockenberg, Head of Sustainable Product Development at Gramoflor

October 2024

HORTICERT Celebrates First Certificates

On October 10, 2024, we hosted the 7th HORTICERT Stakeholder Workshop – the first time the event was held in a hybrid format, allowing participation both virtually and on site in Berlin at the Bundesministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft.

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September 2024

HORTICERT Stakeholder Workshop

In December 2023, HORTICERT has started the third and final project phase for the “Development and implementation of an international certification system for peat substitutes”. 

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September 2024

First HORTICERT Certificate Issued

We are pleased to announce that Erdenwerk Gebrüder Mayer, the growing media producer of the German DIY store toom Baumarkt, is the first company in Germany to pass the HORTICERT audit successfully and thus receive official HORTICERT certification.

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Peatland Protection is Climate Protection

Globally, peat is still the most widely used raw material for potting soils and growing media. However, peat extraction in drained peatlands is associated with high greenhouse gas emissions.

Peat is created by the accumulation non- or barely decomposed organic material in the absence of oxygen. This process occurs in intact, water-saturated peatlands. Intact peatlands bind six times more carbon in the soil than forests in the same area. Therefore, they are crucial for climate protection.

The certification system is developed and implemented by Meo Carbon Solutions GmbH on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL), represented by the Agency for Renewable Resources (FNR).