Climate Change - what Kew is doing?

Planting Sophora toromiro

Kew is involved in habitat restoration projects around the world

Throughout most of the world natural vegetation is reduced or under threat. As a scientific organisation all of our efforts are directed towards understanding and conserving plants.

We work with communities and governments across the globe, providing advice and action on preserving plants and habitats and minimising impact on natural resources. Kew's scientists and horticulturists work in more than 80 countries including arid and semi-arid regions.

Kew has a very real interest in helping to prevent climate change: extremes of weather are bad news for our conservation projects worldwide, and if predicted flooding occurs, the gardens at Kew could even be under water.

What we do in the Gardens:

  • Kew operates a socially responsible watering policy - water only goes to priority plants in times of drought. We have installed a new irrigation system on site to increase our use of rainwater. We are also planting more drought resistant collections to reduce the need for watering.
  • Kew is the first world heritage site to achieve ISO 14001 (the sustainability management standard) and we are dedicated to becoming more sustainable each year. We are also enhancing our biodiversity on site.
  • Kew has the largest compost heap in Britain: we recycle 99% of all our plant waste and all the mulch we use is generated on site.
  • Our school and adult education programmes contain a strong environmental message and aim to build awareness of the diverse impacts of climate change on plants, and through plants on people.
  • We offer our expertise around the world to help conserve plants and habitats in danger. We are leading on many projects to help restore plants to degraded habitats and to propagate endangered species for re-introduction.
  • We aim to become the best source of plant information in the world and to be a resource for everyone.

Up to 25% of the world's flowering plants face extinction within the next 50 years as a result of habitat loss, climate change and over-exploitation. Plants are one of major sinks for carbon dioxide worldwide, the conservation of their diversity is an urgent need. Please support Kew's work.

We know we have more to do - we hope you will join us by making changes in your garden too.

Did you know?

Kew staff are dedicated to making the organisation more sustainable every year. We have recently achieved ISO 14001 (the sustainability management standard)