Sustainability is important to us, and to our customers. So we use raw materials as economically as possible, make use of organic waste streams and have a minimal-waste policy. Purple Pride growers use renewable energy from geothermal heat, wood-fuelled heating and residual heat.
wood-fuelled heating system
At our Oosterland site, we have reduced our fossil fuel usage by 70% since the end of 2018 by heating our greenhouses with a wood-fuelled heating system. This system uses branches, leaves and unprocessed waste wood from local landscape gardeners and forestry businesses, so no large forests in green areas are affected. The heating system is operated by a partnership (DES B.V.) consisting of three growers: Van Duijn De Jong Aubergines, VOF Prominent Grevelingen and DT van Noord Tomaten.
residual heat from the Yara factory
In Terneuzen, the chemical and horticultural industries are a stone’s throw away from each other. Heat pipes have been laid in two polders, allowing the horticulture sector to access high-quality residual heat and pure residual CO2 from fertiliser manufacturer Yara. CO2 is an important resource for plants, which absorb it from the air. In the Zeelandic Flanders horticultural area, the amount of heat reused is the equivalent of the annual consumption of 35,000 households. The scale of this project is unique in the Netherlands.
water from sugar factory
For the Nieuw-Prinsenland greenhouse horticulture area, a reservoir with a capacity of 3,000 cubic metres (3 million litres) per hectare is located in Dinteloord, which can collect a total of 17.5 million litres of rainwater. This is plenty in a season with normal temperatures but not enough in a hot year. In Nieuw-Prinsenland, this shortfall is made up by using water from the Suiker Unie sugar beet factory. Sugar beet consists of approximately 70% water, which is released when the beets are processed into sugar. This water used to be discharged, but now it is treated and stored in the ground ready for piping to the cultivation site.
