Greener greens, with less waste

Te Waiharakeke - Marlborough herb and salad green growers Thymebank have switched from coal to wood waste and nut shells for their glasshouse heating.

Thymebank is decarbonising its covered cropping operations as part of a wider commitment to reducing the organisation’s carbon footprint.

A family business, the growers are committed to sustainability and providing New Zealanders with healthy greens with zero waste.

They are environmentalists, they are spray free and have alternative ways of managing pests.

Thymebank owner Leanne Roberts they have identified that energy use is also significant.

“Converting the boiler to run on wood chips and nut shells means now our energy outputs are cleaner, and we are also removing something from the waste stream which would ordinarily go to a landfill."

Thymebank also discovered operating costs fell after switching to from coal to biomass. They no longer had to pay for coal and eliminated their obligation to pay for carbon emissions, with ongoing production costs lower.

“This means we can produce our greens more reasonably which is good news for the consumer,” said Roberts.

New Zealand's weather and climate is variable from season to season, which impacts the ability to grow fresh fruit, vegetables, flowers, and fungi.

Growing fresh produce in greenhouses means that New Zealanders can get fresh, locally grown food at any time of year, and producers can continue to trade.

Thymebank are domestic producers, supplying supermarkets, restaurants, and cafes from Invercargill to Palmerston North.

Thymebank received co-funding as part of EECA’s technology demonstration fund to help with a low-cost conversion of their existing coal boiler.

The investment enabled Thymebank to use an arborist biowaste product to heat their glasshouses providing a waste to energy solution and removing 102 tCO2e annually.