KINGFISHER Green Star Garden User Guide

KINGFISHER Green Star Garden

Choose A Green Star Product

What it means to choose a Green Star product
Products marked with the green star are designed to help customers identify items within our ranges with a focus on reducing environmental impacts. Customers can use the information provided to filter and understand more about the products they’re interested in or have purchased.

Why choosing efficient garden products matter
Households tend to use much less water outdoors compared to the amount used in bathrooms and kitchens. Le Centre d’Information sur L’Eau estimates that just 6% of domestic water is used for outdoor tasks, such as washing cars and gardening. During dry periods, the demand for water increases and the amount of water and time we spend watering our gardens become more significant. During the 2022 drought, Water UK found that the peak demand for water increased by 40%.

When we use mains water in our gardens, we’re using high-quality drinking water. Bringing mains water to our homes uses energy and there’s leakage in its distribution. Switching to rainwater – by using a water butt, for example – can help decrease water bills (if water is metered). There are also tools like water butt pumps and suction hoses for pressure washers, that enable rainwater to be used for cleaning outdoors, as well as for watering. The RHS has advice on using stored rainwater safely.

There are ways to help soil retain more water during dry spells. Applying a mulch over the surface of bare, moist soil can help minimise evaporation. Mulching mowers can help turf retain more water – they apply a fine mulch of shredded grass clippings to the lawn as you mow. Adding more organic content (for example, manure or peat-free soil conditioner) to soil can help, too.

How we use water outdoors can also help manage water use:

• Directly watering the roots of plants.
• Watering plants in the evening, especially during hot weather.
• Ensuring outside taps are protected from freezing to prevent them from burstingFact.

Criteria

Criteria 1:

• How we assess Green Star products
  Before assessment, every Green Star product must meet:

  • All relevant legal requirements
  • All Kingfisher policy requirements

You can access the Kingfisher policies here. These include Human Rights, Supply Chain Workplace Standards and Sustainable Packaging.
Products are also checked against a Watch List. The watch list contains several criteria or features, relevant to the product type, that if present disqualify the product from being marked with a green star. The relevant Watch List can be found at the end of this factsheet. The Watch List is reviewed and revised annually.

Life cycle assessments have not been completed for every Green Star product, but by employing policies and the Watch List Criteria in Kingfisher’s Sustainable Home Product Guidelines, many factors in the life cycle of a product are considered.

The Green Star ‘saving water at home – in the garden’ assessment focuses on the in-use phase of the product’s life cycle. This is where the product can bring the biggest benefit to the user across its utilisation, however Green Star excludes products that may have other environmental aspects that are harmful either as a result of manufacture or end-of-life disposal.

Criteria 2:

• Green star programme entry
  The criteria for ‘saving water at home – in the garden’ is:

  • Products that enable rainwater use:
  • Water butts and rain barrels
  • Water butt accessories, including:
  • Rainwater diverters for downpipes.
  • Water butt stands.
  • Spare taps for water butts.
  • Water butt pumps.
  • Suction hoses for pressure washers.
  • Rainwater irrigation kits and related products.
  • Mulch:
  • Mulch for use over soils, including bark chippings.

Providing Criteria 1 and 2 have been met, a product can marked with the green star.

Reviewing and confirming

Reviewing and confirming green star status

• ****All products nominated and that meet criteria 1 and 2 are assessed internally by our sustainability team and submitted to NGO Bioregional for external validation.
• ****Once the external review is conducted, the product can then be confirmed and marked with the green star.
• ****A full review is conducted annually to ensure all products continue to meet the selection criteria.

To find out more about NGO Bioregional, click here

Watch List Criteria relevant to controlling energy in home
This list includes features or aspects of products that make them unsuitable to be marked with the green star:

• ****Swimming pools, spa pools and hot tubs.
• ****Lawn sprinklers.
• ****Products that contain any wood that does not meet Kingfisher’s Forest Positive Policy.
• ****Products containing palm oil, cotton, rubber or leather with no evidence that the materials have been responsibly sourced.
• ****Recycled plastic products where the source of the plastic is unknown and/or cannot be confirmed as being safe.
• ****Products containing peat.
• ****Products where the packaging contains PVC or expanded polystyrene.

Documents / Resources

| KINGFISHER Green Star Garden [pdf] User Guide
Green Star Garden, Green, Star Garden, Garden
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