Constant Commitment
For Berger, Sustainability Will Always be About Striving for the Next Level
It’s a substantial responsibility, but Berger’s Resource department has met the challenge, which is to ensure the company has enough peat moss to meet its customers’ demands, not just this year but for many years to come. And in fulfilling their needs, Resource Counselor Pierre-Olivier Sauvageau and his team must also ensure sustainable practices, from the time a bog is harvested to the time it is restored, and even before it is opened.
Sauvageau, an expert in natural resource management and environmental impact assessment, considers Berger, which celebrates its 60 anniversary this year, a leader and pioneer in peat management practices. For instance, he says Berger holds itself to a high degree of commitment and accountability when restoring a harvested peat bog – a multi-year process involving growth of various vegetation communities – to its exact original ecosystem so it can re-establish itself naturally and continue to accumulate peat.
“To do that is huge in regard to sustainability – to make sure that bog will function the way it’s supposed to in the future,” Sauvageau says. “My job is to make sure we manage the resources carefully.”
Berger, a third-generation family business that currently operates 18 peat moss bogs and nine plants in North America, has always treated the peat bogs it operates like “small treasures,” Sauvageau says. “We treat them as a resource that is finite,” he adds. “We need to meet demand for the next 50 years and longer, so we don’t want to consume peat too fast.”
Peatlands represent about 2.8% of the world’s total land surface, according to the Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss Association (CSPMA). Canada contains 27% of the world’s peatlands and is the second country with the most peatlands after Russia.
In Canada, peatlands cover about 113.6 million hectares. Of that, only 0.03% of the resource (35,000 hectares) has been or is currently being harvested, Sauvageau says.
Berger has been a major partner in bog restoration with the Peatland Ecology Research Group (PERG) at Laval University in Quebec City for several decades. The company has donated its resources and knowledge to improve restoration techniques, Sauvageau says. Berger has detailed restoration plans for its harvest sites, including the re-establishment of wetland ecosystems that accumulate peat and store atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2).
Sauvageau says the volume of natural peat moss Berger and other companies extract from North American bogs is less than the peat moss currently accumulating in them, which he considers another important sustainable objective. This is also where Sauvageau must look into his crystal ball and calculate future volume prospection. Chuck Buffington, Berger’s Vice President of Sales, says Sauvageau’s assessment is vital so Berger can assure its customers of future supplies.
“We have a responsibility to our customers to ensure we have availability of the resource well into the future since it’s a major part of growers’ operations and their success,” says Buffington, who also stresses the importance of educating Berger’s customers about its sustainable restoration efforts. “We not only owe that to the environment, we also owe it to our customers to let them know the products we’re selling them come from responsibly managed resources.”
Not only that, but the products are also of the utmost quality, Buffington adds. He says every industry company has a strategy to maximize its value and differentiate itself, and Berger’s is to sell peat as a value-added substrate product.
“We’re not typically selling peat as a commodity,” he adds. “We create a value added product used by growers for the majority of almost everything we harvest from our fields.
A Work in Progress
In his role, Sauvageau wears many hats. He’ll be dressed in jeans and work boots on one day “with both my feet planted in natural peatland.” On another day, Sauvageau will be seated at a conference table, dressed in business attire to meet with government officials to discuss permitting.
Sauvageau also finds himself in meetings to discuss environmental science and resource management of peatlands with representatives from several universities in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K. to improve peat management and practices, including new techniques for harvesting peat that are more efficient and have less impact on the environment. “We need to be well-connected to gather the information needed to make good decisions,” he adds.
Berger is certified sustainable by Veriflora®, an eco-labeling program for sustainably grown cut flowers and potted plants. Veriflora, known as the gold standard of third-party certification programs in the floriculture and horticulture industries, recognizes companies for their efforts to protect the environment as well as their commitment to their employees, communities, business partners, and other stakeholders.
“It’s very difficult to achieve,” Sauvageau says of the designation. “It’s a badge of honor to know we are [certified by Veriflora] in our peatland management.”
Veriflora requires an ongoing commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility. That said, it takes time and effort to fulfill year in and out, Sauvageau says. “But we don’t mind it being challenging because it makes us do what we need to do to be environmentally responsible,” he adds.
Buffington says Berger’s customers desire products that are Veriflora-certified.
“Our growers want to know the products they’re using as inputs come from a reputable source and that the products are responsibly sourced, managed, and shipped,” he adds. “In our case, it’s about the peatlands being responsibly managed. It’s also about the company having fair labor practices and all the other things that encompass the Veriflora certification.”
For Berger, sustainability will always be a work in progress. Berger will always be striving to take it to another level, Buffington says.
“The company is committed to sustainability and is stepping up its game there,” he stresses. “It is a larger part of our strategic plan. We are going in a direction the ownership is passionate about