Abstract
(Englisch)
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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 forthe 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 sustainableand locally available substrates blends with reduced peat content in selected horticultural systems: mushrooms, seedlings and ornamental.These blends will be designed through co-creation and will be tailored to sectorial needs. The performance of these alternative mediawill be demonstrated and showed to growers at commercial facilities across 4 key regions for horticulture. To demonstrate performanceand 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 inalternatives to peat. To overcome economic barriers, an integral feasibility assessment will be developed (e.g., LCSA) followed bynew business and organisational models’ creation. Furthermore, an upscaling plan to replicate the PEATLESS approach at national andEuropean levels will ensure project continuation. This 3-year project involves 12 partners from 4 countries, including RTOs, universities,industry, end-users’ representatives and decision-makers, following a multi-actor approach. By 2050, significant long-term impact isexpected, predominantly: 1) Environmental: 2.5m m3 of peat saved with a reduction of 900k t CO2eq); 2) Socio-economic: 5,000horticultural business with PEATLESS substrates across 40 regions; 3) Policy: +30 recommendations
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