We all talk about “delivering best practices” and “working to best practices” but is that enough? Surely we should be striving to achieve higher levels? Constantly improving and trying to be the trendsetters in new approaches and techniques.

This mentality is highly valued at The Plant People, in the last few years, we have been pushing ever harder to improve ourselves for the benefit of both our clients and staff. In some areas, we are following some of the sectors leaders. We welcome inspiration from other companies, for example, we could see a benefit in providing breakfast to our workforce, so now we guarantee they start each day with a meal. We are leading our field by becoming the first landscaping company in New Zealand to achieve the health and safety ISO 18001 (Hyperlink to ISO 18001 article). While this is a first for a commercial landscaping company, it is still adhering to predefined best practices, but we ask the question, what happens when you surpass best practice? 

We are constantly looking for new ways to improve our services so we can deliver higher quality finishes that exceed our client expectations and which also enhance the natural environment. This search takes our staff down different avenues not often explored by landscaping companies. For example, we sent several members from our environmental team to the Society for Ecological Restoration’s Australasia and the New Zealand Ecological Society 2016 joint conference. This conference addressed a whole range of topics about restoring environmental resilience, our team are now looking at how to incorporate the recommendations into the services offered by the Plant People We hope another outcome from attending this conference will be collaboration with a leading scientist who is trialling innovative soil enhancement techniques which could lead to significantly stronger plant establishment. 

We hope that by reviewing and improving our methods, innovating techniques to better serve our customers and the environment we will develop new industry best practice within the landscaping sector. The Plant People had a fantastic year of firsts in 2016, just look below for a few examples:

  • Increased diversity of species within Signature Plants to include aquatic species
  • Kauri Dieback prevention training for staff
  • Updated eco souring methodology 
  • Staff Breakfast provision
  • Revamping our Health and Safety Reporting system 
  • Establishment of annual health assessment

Which asks the question, what new practices will The Plant People develop in 2017?