In March 2021 Standby Productions became a partner of the Wildlife Trust Lancashire, North Merseyside and Greater Manchester, where we agreed to donate 1% of our annual turnover to the trust. Not our profit… our actual turnover!

When we spoke to the Trust back in March, our aim was to support a local environmental charity to help with the fight against climate change. We were then educated about the North West’s Peatlands and the important role they play for the planet. At that time, we’ll be honest, we knew nothing about Peatlands and certainly didn’t understand their importance as habitats for nature or their immense carbon storage capabilities (storing more carbon that rainforests!).

Based on the fact that we knew nothing about them, we assumed very few others would know either, so we proposed to support their conservation and restoration with charitable donations. We also decided – as the creative video production company that we are – to donate our services to make a film to highlight what peatlands are all about and how the Peat beneath our feet can help with the fight against climate change!

The aim was to raise awareness with our film, whilst also supporting the work being done on various sites on our doorstep, around Manchester, which in turn supported the Trusts campaign to ban the selling of peat in bags of compost – something many retailers do, which causes mass destruction to the habitats. See the film and read all about our environmental work on our dedication Environment page here.

GOOD NEWS!! Straight from the Wildlife Trusts website:

This week the UK Government announced its intention to ban the sale of peat to amateur gardeners by 2024. It is understood that this ban will apply to bagged peat compost, but it is not yet clear whether peat-containing products, such as plants, will also be subject to a 2024 ban.

The Wildlife Trusts, alongside key nature charities, have campaigned for an end to the needless destruction of one of the UK’s most precious wildlife habitats since the 1990s. Peatlands have a global cooling effect when they are in their naturally wet state, and lock away carbon from dead plants for hundreds or even thousands of years. However, when peatlands are drained and dug up for use in gardens and greenhouses, stored carbon is released in the form of CO2 (carbon dioxide).

The Wildlife Trusts estimate that peat extraction for horticulture has caused up to 31 million tonnes of CO2 to be released since 1990.

In the North West, the Lancashire Wildlife Trust has led some pioneering work on its peatlands and have been boosted by news of the ban. The Trust has been at the forefront of the campaign.

Chief Executive Dr Tom Burditt was delighted. He said:

“Peatlands are a real superhero habitat – at a time of both climate and biodiversity emergencies, they help carbon to be removed from the atmosphere and support an incredible range of wildlife species.”

“We need to be protecting and restoring them, not digging them up and destroying them, which is why we welcome this news so whole-heartedly.

“A huge thanks to all those who have supported our campaigns over the years and who have helped get us to this moment.”

The Wildlife Trusts are calling upon the UK Government to:

• Ban the extraction and commercial trade of peat immediately
• Ban all horticultural uses of peat as soon as parliamentary timeframes allow, or by 2024 at the latest
• Restore all bogs damaged by the removal of peat by 2035

The importance of peatlands to our natural world has been understood for decades, and awareness of the issues this special habitat faces has only increased. Today’s announcement from Defra symbolises long-awaited, decisive action which will help to reverse species decline and to address the fact that a huge 4% of the UK’s total annual greenhouse gas emissions now come from degraded peatlands.

Today’s announcement also sends a clear signal to growers and retailers that it is time to change. After target dates for the voluntary phase-out of peat were repeatedly missed, plans for a ban were first outlined by the UK Government in 2021. Retailers now have until 2024 to phase out the sale of peat ahead of the Government mandate.

The Wildlife Trusts have campaigned on this issue for years – and welcome today’s news. However, ambition must be increased in order to bring about an end to all uses of peat – with no exemptions. In doing so  the UK Government has the opportunity to embolden other nations to do the same and to demonstrate global leadership on nature and climate.

The Wildlife Trusts enabled people to respond to the Defra consultation in March 2022. Over 13,400 people responded in support of calls on the UK Government to implement a sales ban on peat and peat containing products in both the retail and professional markets; to bring about an end to the extraction of peat from peatlands (this has already taken place in Wales); to bring about an end to the importation of peat, which transfers emissions and damage to nature to other countries. This added further weight to a petition The Wildlife Trusts set up in response to the failure of a voluntary ban, which gathered over 50,000 signatures. More details are here.