When you buy a garden tool that is meant to last a lifetime, you are already making a sustainable choice. In 2025, the Royal Horticultural Society recognized that the way those tools are made matters too: Sneeboer was selected as one of three finalists for the RHS Chelsea Sustainable Business of the Year award.
Chelsea, the top of the gardening world
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, held every May in the grounds of the Royal Hospital in London, is the best-known garden show in the world. Designers, growers, journalists and members of the Royal Family come to see the latest in garden design and horticulture. Its Sustainable Business of the Year award goes to companies that treat sustainability as a core value rather than a sales pitch, and that take responsibility for people and the environment as well as for their products. The 2025 show ran from May 21 to 25.
What earned Sneeboer its place among the finalists
The family business has been forging garden tools in Bovenkarspel, in the north of the Netherlands, since 1913. Over the past few years it has changed a great deal about how that work is done.
- Induction heating: the coal-fired forges were replaced by induction heating, which saves 16,000 kilos (about 35,000 pounds) of CO2 a year and makes the workshop cleaner and safer.
- Solar power: since 2022 the company has run largely on its own solar panels, producing around 100,000 kWh a year, more than it uses. The surplus goes back to the grid.
- Laser welding: Sneeboer was the first garden tool maker in the Netherlands to join tool parts by laser welding, a precise and energy-efficient technique.
- Tools for life: every tool is hand-forged and tested, and comes with a 50-year warranty, instead of being made to be replaced after a season or two.
- Social responsibility: the company works with organizations that help people who are distanced from the job market, and it sponsors local environmental projects, schools and sports clubs.
Old craft and new technology, side by side
What makes Sneeboer stand out is that it never chose between tradition and progress. The tools are still made by hand in the same village, with forging skills passed down for more than a century, while the smithy keeps investing in cleaner energy and new production methods. For the people who work there, sustainability is not a separate project. It shows up in everyday decisions, from the steel and wood they buy to how they heat the forge and pack their tools.
What it means for your tools
A spade or trowel made with solar power and induction heat, and built to be handed down, has a far smaller footprint over its life than a series of cheap tools that end up in the trash. Being named a Chelsea finalist confirms what owners of Sneeboer tools already notice in the garden: small, independent makers can set the standard. You can find the full range in our shop.
Tools for life and generations to come.