Telephone
Garden centre: 01243 512525
Restaurant: 01243 511156
Fax: 01243 512367
Opening Hours
Monday to Saturday - 8.30 - 5.30
Sunday - Closed
Come See Us
Main Rd
Birdham
Chichester
West Sussex
PO20 7BY
Map by Google Maps
Free Parking
Wheelchair Access
Home | Environmental acheivements
Our Green Ethos
We are passionate about wildlife at Russells and we take great pride in caring for our little corner of Sussex.
We run our business in an environmentally friendly way and we try to encourage our customers to follow suit, you will find notice boards within the wildlife department full of information about wildlife and organic gardening.
We have won several awards for our environmental achievements but our real reward is knowing that the information our friendly staff convey to our customers helps the biodiversity of the whole area.
You will be pleased to know that we make every effort to reduce, reuse, and recycle, we have removed our overhead watering system and now water by hand thereby saving gallons! When recycling every effort is made to help others as well as the environment, the newspaper receptacle in our car park turns your newspapers into cash for St Wilfrids Hospice, all of the tin cans from the restaurant are collected to earn money for the Hospice, plastics go to the cub scouts, a local artist collects our used jam jars and turns the lids into works of art!
We reuse all our cardboard boxes for customers to take home their plant purchases instead of using plastic bags (we encourage our customers not to take plastic bags if not completely necessary, the bags we do use are made from recycled material that rots down in landfill)
We also donate discontinued products to Brent Lodge Wildlife Hospital for them to use for the animals or to sell to help with their spiralling costs.
Sussex Wildlife Trust regularly visit to offer information to customers and raise money for their good work.
We have created a wildlife conservation area where we offer shelter (bird and bat boxes etc) and food to many different species. (this area is registered as a BBC breathing place (www.breathingplaces.org)
Alan Titchmarsh has spent time with us at the garden centre and he applauds our environmental work.
We close on Sundays to give our staff a well earned work/life balance
We have diversified into selling quality indoor furniture and furnishings to extend our retail season, this has enabled us to offer our staff stable year round employment preventing us having to lay of valuable personnel at the end of the summer.
We have had a complete non smoking policy inside and out since 2002.
We have environment, disability, health and safety, fire and health and hygiene policies. We buy from local suppliers wherever possible, supporting the local butcher, baker, greengrocer and fishmonger to name a few.
Most of our plants are from local growers. (not imported from Holland etc)
Above all, what sets Russells apart from the others is our staff dedication to friendly customer service, but the final praise must go to our team of bantam chickens who work hard to clear the site of grubs and entertain our guests with their comical antics.
You can help by;
1) Reading our information boards on how to do your bit for the environment
2) Donating money (or cat food) for Brent Lodge wildlife hospital
3) Attend our monthly coffee mornings for St Wilfrids Hospice which regularly raise well over £100
4) Say no to plastic carrier bags
5) Change to wildlife friendly gardening products
6) Shop local and support our small family business
Chichester District Council Green Business Award Results
(Extracted from Council website)
The environmental achievements of two West Sussex companies, Russells Garden Centre and CAP (Sussex) Ltd, were recognised on 10th May at Chichester District Council?s fourth Green Business Award ceremony at the Marriott Hotel, Goodwood. The two winning companies both received £2,000 prizes.
Russells Garden Centre won top prize in the Green Business of the Year category for the variety of actions they have taken to reduce the environmental impact of their business. These actions include switching back to manual watering of plants to save water and prohibiting the use of any chemicals in the centre, using biological control instead.
On accepting the award Lesley Phillips of Russells Garden Centre commented ?We are very proud to be given such a prestigious award in recognition of our commitment to environmental issues as a business. Notoriously the economics of environmental projects conflict with business practice. It has therefore been imperative to us to introduce measures that we genuinely feel strongly about whilst maintaining or increasing profits.?
In the Green Project of the Year category C.A.P (Sussex) scooped the top prize for their work in increasing the volume of material from their household clearance business that is recycled so diverting roughly 7.5 tonnes of waste per week away from landfill.
The Green Business Award is funded by the District Council?s Economic Development team and organised by the Environmental Strategy Unit. The Award rewards businesses who are making an effort to reduce their impact on the environment and was set up to show how improving environmental performance can improve profits and make good business sense for a company.
Peter Blewden, Environmental Strategy Manager said ?We believe that the Awards and the efforts of the winning businesses will persuade other Chichester District businesses of the increasingly important competitive advantages of sound environmental management and expect to see this reflected in even more entries for next year?s Awards.?
SEEDA Sustainable Business Award 2004
Read our case study issued by SEEDA by clicking here -SEEDA profile for Russells Garden Centre
Recent Comments
"your website mentions everything from gifts, garden furniture and restaurant. Do you sell plants?"
Left by j johnston on 2010-09-03
"This is a really modern garden centre, with a fantastic selection of garden furniture and interestingly house furniture. We have bought many items and have not been dissappointed"
Left by Paul Jarvis on 2010-08-25
"This is a rather late, but nevertheless heartfelt, thank you. I came down to the area for a holiday the week before Easter and, as I drove towards the seaside, remembered I had visited the nursery before and spent time looking at your coastal bits and bobs. I decided to stop off for lunch. You were really busy and at first I thought it wouldn’t be possible, but the lady had a friendly and positive attitude and soon found me a magic spot on the sofa by the open fire. I had the most fabulous Welsh rarebit whilst surrounded by many others enjoying delicious your fare. A little piece of heaven - thank you! "
Left by Anne - Marie Plume on 2010-07-29
"Visited while passing through last weekend. Beautiful furniture and furnishings - only wish I lived closer, coming from Buckinghamshire! Certainly will be visiting again soon. Unfortunately didn't have time to sample the restaurant which looks fab."
Left by Laura on 2010-06-11
"I visted your store last Saturday 5th June and was extremely impressed with the excellent customer service, product ranges and your pricing which seemed pretty unbeatable to me. I will definitely be visiting you again."
Left by Angela Egan on 2010-06-07
"Visited local friends last week over halfterm with two kiddies aged 5 and 3. Had the best bacon sandwich I've ever tasted and enjoyed my children eating the most beautiful fresh brunch, including the welsh rarebit with big juicy tomatoes which was amazing."
Left by Lavens on 2010-06-07