Going green is all about attitude and just a smidge about color.

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Going Green in the Floral Business Adds Colour to Social Responsiblity

“We think in secret and it comes to pass
Environment is but our looking glass.”
--James Allen
"As a Man Thinketh"

Going green inside a flower shop is a bit of an oxymoron. But going green as a business, not only is socially responsible but as necessary today as social media is to customers' views inside your business landscape.

With the 40th anniversary of Earth Day April 22nd, even the smallest businesses might be advantaged with some kind of going-green participation. We've matured in the nearly 30 years since kindness to your supplier--Mother Earth-- became a good thing. If just the plastic bags and catalogues distributed in the US last year took 12 million barrels of oil, what can a floral retailer do to contribute to the greening of things?

GREEN SITE
The green connection one makes through Twitter.

BE HUMBLY GREEN
"Being green means doing all the green things like reducing, reusing and recycling, but it also means having a mindset that lessens your propensity to display your greenness!"

SOCIETY NEEDS 12-STEP PROGRAM
In his Our Ecological Footprint, Professor Bill Reese told Vancouver Magazine in 2009 that "in North America we gobble about 22 acres each to keep ourselves in smart phones, double lattes...but there's only about five acres/person in viable ecosystems. We need to admit that we have limited control over our emotions and instincts..."

COMPREHENSIVE GREEN SITE
Not only does this site have great ideas for all aspects of becoming environmentally conscious it also offers a great list of some 45 green sites.

WHERE DO I PUT THIS STUFF
If you don't know where to recycle what, other than your garbage, plastic and paper, then this guide might give you increased incentive to do more.

TOXIC LIGHT BULBS
Those twisty light bulbs that we're supposed to use to save energy, not only are difficult to fit to lamp shades, but according to this editorial they may be the "perfect symbol for all things green," but they're about as good for the environment as a toxic spill." The author of this authority site poses the question if there is any similarity between the light bulb scenario and sustainability in the flower industry.

SOCIAL ACTION IS A GREEN ACTION
In a recent survey it was interesting to learn that the numbers of those coming to the 'green' movement in the last five years are about the same as the numbers who have been environmentally active for the past 30 years. And, get this, if you're a blogger your're more apt to think green. About 66 per cent of respondents were bloggers.

GREENING OF ADVERTISING
Going green means that businesses will be jockeying for position inside local advertising media that are seeking out businesses to double-tap their advertising coffers. It started here in early 2008 when Yellow Pages offered free listings if you could vow that your business was demonstrating some visible green intent. One of the criteria being considered was how you promoted the green factor, so that helped get this page up although we've been mulching and recycling before it was fashionable and conscious of fair trade flowers and the pesticide hazards to workers in the South American rose farms.

ORGANIC ELEMENTS
Last year our brides were going green and pushed things up a notch as they wanted organic elements like twigs and pods inside bouquets and they sourced seedlings as green gifts for their guests.

AIR QUALITY
A poll conducted by the Harris-Decima Investors' Group, concluded that some 82 per cent of Canadians plan to adopt green practices. Long recognized by air quality specialists for effective air cleaning, green plants are being featured by interior designers.

For the 10 most intersting plants in the world and Corporate Knights said in its spring 2009 issue that "in an eco-conscious world, retail stores will help us extend good housekeeping practices to the whole planet." Florists, typically, aren't up to the goals of Wal-Mart pushing its suppliers to reduce packaging,or Ikea for its implementing the going-green "Ikea Way" with rules for the supply chain, but we've refused to buy packing boxes of any size as we recut and make our own from shipping boxes or other product boxes. The effort saves trees and with a bright sheet of tissue, who cares what the packing box is--unless you care that it's recycled! Yeah!And, yes, if you've baskets or vases too many, bring them in and we'll send your gift out without a vase needing to be purchased.....And we're conscious of the refrigerant problem as refrigeration and air conditioning units release greenhouse gas that lives in the atmosphere for about 14 years. A Victoria florist is gaining some going-green points because they don't have a refrigerator, but it's always been a requirement of professionalism inside membership in the Teleflora network, so we'll watch to see if TF changes the rules.

RECYCLE,REPURPOSE
A trend-tracking article in the August 2008 issue of Gifts and Tablewares says that the "colour palettes for 2009 find their influence in critical societal issues impacting consumers...recycling, re-using and repurposing what customers already own.These palettes are 'earth-tone-centric' and play on the theme of preserving the environment and can't help but influence the larger marketplace." The themes are: honesty inspired by old wood and papers and other things that are sent to the landfill;breathe easy a blue-green palatte and green will be part of every industry;solar energy inspired by the sun...

GREEN: HERE AND THERE
Having integrity in business today also includes some consideration of being eco-friendly, so we met with our rose importer for reassurance that our South American roses were from fair trade farms.Reassurance is in the logo on each box that validates the farm is certified to use this label. In that,they must meet certain green standards such as recycling, replacement of certain toxic pesticides with safer ones, soil conservation and protection and benefits to workers.

Canadian designer, Derrick Foss, was quoted in the Canadian Florist that "Florists are looking for local suppliers and beginning to ask more questions. It's hard to tell a bride who wants organic flowers at her wedding that she's limited to an African violet. By buying at the flower auction we access all the local growers from the Chilliwack Valley to Vancouver Island. Going green is great when peddlars come with the wonderful residue of local garden pruning jobs that would otherwise be in a landfill.

FLOWER COMPOST
Wrapping flowers has always been individual and is part of an overall branding. When we bought the business in 1991, the owner's bouquets stood out as they were fastidiously square-wrapped and bowed. I tried several corner-wraps, tissue papered and not,raffia bows and ...and returned to the square wrap. It rains a lot here and for a courier delivering a bouquet in the pouring rain, with a bouquet wrapped in paper as Designer Kathy Mustard says is the favourable thing to cello, the paper would be a sodden mess. It would be unattractive. Our bouquets arrive unscathed and the cellophane magnifies the intensity of colours. It may be appropriate to ask the recipient to recycle, as I'm sure many gift baskets will attest at Christmas. Just now, in 2009, we've heard of a new biodegradable cellophane on the market, so we're on the hunt for it.

So beyond the greenspeak of sustainability, what can we do, really?

Recycle,

where possible. Right now we recycle the plastic wrapping that comes with the flower bunches and use it for padding in shipping boxes.Boxes are recyled as are water picks that originate on imports. Customers frequently return water picks and containers they've received. All the auction flower buckets are returned for deposit refunds which deter buckets disappearing onto construction sites or whatever.

Buy from local

growers and from Fair Trade importers

Pay attention

to excess in wrappings and packings; paper wrap is great in a warm climate, otherwise encourage recipients to recycle wrap.

Encourage composting

as we now sort our garbage for a new refuse bin supplier and I pack the stems and leaves home to our composter or the City's garden bin.

For other green ideas and a chance to win in a Disney competition.

GREEN GROW THE FLOWERS, OH!
The Royal Bontanical Gardens in Kew England are famous for more than lush blooms. Worried that flower species may not be able to adjust to climate change, the Millenium Seed Bank Project at the RBG, with some 100 partners throughout the world, is a repository for the world's wild plant seeds, banking nearly 20,000 species from 125 countries so far.

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