How sustainable are your flowers?
20 February 2020
Shannon believes florists like herself should become more sustainable
Pontypridd florist Shannon Thomas has come up with a plan to take the guilt out of her business. She’s
abandoning overseas imports and picking flowers closer to home.
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Shannon first got involved in floristry she discovered the devastating impact that haul buying flowers imported from abroad has on the environment.
She explains flowers sold by florists and supermarkets in the UK are imported from countries such as the Netherlands and Kenya.
In the Netherlands, flowers are mostly grown in heated greenhouses which release large amounts of CO2 and in Kenya flowers are grown in the sun which requires a lot less energy to grow .
Once flowers arrive in the UK,they are stored in large chilled rooms for days at a time which requires a lot of energy.
It takes a significant amount of energy in the process of transporting and storing flowers as well as factors such as air pollution, pesticides, floral foam, wastage and single-use plastic.
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Shannon who runs the florist ‘Jennie’s Floral Design’ says she tries to maintain a sustainable lifestyle and it didn’t feel right for her to be flying flowers across the world just for them to last a week or two.
She says: “People don’t really know that traditional flowers aren’t sustainable and they are quite oblivious to the impact they have on the environment. They see fresh flowers available all year round and they’re not really aware of the mass production involved in getting them to the stores.
"Sustainability is such a big issue for so many people and is even more so with people concerned about where their food comes from and people are more interested in veganism and the impact on the environment, So once people are educated on the impact the floral industry has I can’t see why anyone would choose the traditional shop bought flowers over sustainable flowers.”
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Shannon uses hand picked flowers grown in the UK
Her idea of sustainable flowers led her to be named as one of the young innovators of the year alongside one other person from Wales, Alex Newness. https://ktn-uk.org/programme/young-innovators/
The Young Innovators Awards recognise young people from across the UK with great business ideas who have the potential to become successful entrepreneurs and future leaders in innovation.
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Shannon was inspired to start her sustainable flower business after the passing of her grandmother Jen.
She wanted to find the perfect flower arrangement for her grandmother’s funeral but she found most flowers were generic and overpriced which led her to create her own and found a new passion in flowers, which led her to set up her business to be a floral design studio with sustainability at its heart.
In the UK alone, the market for cut flowers and ornamental plants was worth £1.3bn in 2018, according to government statistics.
About 90% of these flowers were imported, with the vast majority still coming via the Netherlands.
Shannon tries to use UK grown flowers as much as possible and will be growing her own in an allotment where wastage will be reduced as she will only be cutting what is needed and will be used.
She said: “We try to use seasonal and British flowers wherever possible, so that sometimes means that we don’t provide certain flowers.
"For example this Valentine’s day the main thing will be people ordering roses which will probably be imported from Kenya in most circumstances, so we’ve decided we won’t be providing roses because they aren’t in season, so we will be promoting the lovely flowers we have in the UK such as daffodils and tulips.
"This year we are going to be growing our own flowers to reduce the transport between the farm and us. There are lots of UK growers that we work with. We try to use as many as we can in Wales but this year we are currently growing our own, so all flowers will be straight from the ground to us.”
Single use materials and floral foam are heavily used in traditional floral design methods and have a negative impact on the environment as it cant be composted.
Shannon encourages her customers to be sustainable. She offers a loyalty scheme to her customers where when they return their wreaths and vases they are offered a free upgrade from a medium to a large bouquet and 10% off their next weareth if the base is returned.
She said:“People just assume once it’s done it’s done but it’s simple, we can just recycle a glass vase.”
Shannon's customers can return wreaths and use them again
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Shannon ensures that any unused stems and flowers are dried or pressed and then she turns them into pet portraits for customers.
Shannon’s pet portraits have become popular
Shannon said: “I’d love to see all florists following the same footprints as our florist, I hope to be able to expand and eventually start supplying to local florists in the area and help improve the sustainability of the industry.”