Objetivos:
Peatlands are crucial in climate change resilience as critical habitats for biodiversity, ecosystem services, and carbon storage. Today, 50% of the EU peatland area is degraded due to peat extraction, with a high environmental impact associated and poses a high risk for the Green Transition goals. The horticultural industry depends entirely on peat for growing media, as current alternatives face technical, socio-cultural, and economic barriers.
PEATLESS aims to contribute to overcoming these barriers to promote the uptake of sustainable and locally available substrates blends with reduced peat content in selected horticultural systems:
– Mushrooms
– Seedlings
– Ornamental plants
These blends will be designed through co-creation and will be tailored to sectorial needs. The performance of these alternative media will be demonstrated and shown to growers at commercial facilities across four key regions for horticulture. To demonstrate performance and support decision-making, a digital sensoring system for results monitoring will be developed.
To overcome socio-cultural barriers, social innovation, educational, and innovative dissemination activities will boost knowledge exchange to raise growers’ confidence in alternatives to peat. To overcome economic barriers, an integral feasibility assessment will be developed (e.g., LCSA) followed by new business and organizational models’ creation. Furthermore, an upscaling plan to replicate the PEATLESS approach at national and European levels will ensure project continuation.
This 3-year project involves 12 partners from four countries, including RTOs, universities, industry, end-users’ representatives, and decision-makers, following a multi-actor approach. By 2050, significant long-term impact is expected, predominantly:
– Environmental: 2.5 million m³ of peat saved with a reduction of 900,000 t CO2eq.
– Socio-economic: 5,000 horticultural businesses with PEATLESS substrates across 40 regions.
– Policy: More than 30 recommendations.
