HORTICERT certification ensures compliance with the following requirements:

• No violations of sustainability requirements: The entire supply chain, from the extraction of raw materials to the production of the final substrate, must comply with the HORTICERT environmental, social and economic sustainability requirements.
• Transparent quantity flows: The incoming and outgoing quantities certified as sustainable must be stated correctly and transparently. This allows transparent tracing of the certified quantities from raw material extraction to production of the final substrate. In order to reduce the documentation effort for companies in the future and to facilitate auditing, a digital traceability system, “HORTI-TRACE”, is currently being developed for this purpose.
• Correct mass balance: Under HORTICERT, products can be certified according to the mass balance method. Under mass balance, certified and non-certified materials may be mixed during transportation, storage and manufacturing. However, only that proportion of the goods that has been received as sustainable may also be resold as sustainably certified. It is not allowed to declare a higher share of the goods as sustainable than actually certified.