Greenwashing the joy out of cut flowers

Sadly, there is a lot of greenwashing out there when it comes to cut flowers – but there are good things happening too.

Ethical shopping guides can be very misleading, with one listing flower companies as organic and/or fairtrade if they offer just a single certified organic or fairtrade product on their websites at the time of listing (and those products aren’t necessarily even cut flowers). It is only possible to achieve the highest scores by paying for accreditation, meaning that big businesses with money to spend have the top scores while small (but far more ethical) businesses and social enterprises like Organic Blooms will always sit lower down the list. We genuinely believe ours are the most ethical flowers out there but we are always striving to learn and improve so if you find more ethical cut flowers anywhere else we would love you to let us know!

To avoid greenwashing, please choose your cut flowers with care. 86% of cut flowers sold in the UK are imported (and mostly grown with high levels of synthetic inputs and in some cases with questionable treatment of workers).

Beware words such as recyclable, compostable and plastic-free: many florists now sell their flowers in plastic-free packaging at the front-end, which is a great step forward. However plastic packaging may well have been used during the journey from the farms across the globe to the flower auctions and wholesalers. Always ask what plastic-free actually means in the context of the entire supply chain and what happens to any plastic packaging that was used on the flowers’ journey to the retailer. Likewise, ‘recyclable’ plastic packaging can also be misleading as, in reality, only a tiny percentage of plastic is actually ever recycled (only around 9% of all the plastic ever produced) and plastic can only be downcycled into lower grade plastic products. Compostable plastics can often only be properly composted in commercial hot composting contexts and may not break down in a typical domestic compost heap. Additionally, greenwashing phrases such as ‘hand-picked’ and ‘hand-selected’ mean very little when it comes to cut flowers – most flowers (with some exceptions) are harvested by hand.

Carbon-neutral claims should also be taken with a pinch of salt. Whilst an admirable aim, where carbon neutrality is largely achieved by using carbon offsetting schemes, it’s important to look below the surface. This can be tricky as companies do not have to give details of how they use offsetting. However tree-planting schemes for offsetting, for example, have been criticised as only of environmental value where the right species of trees are planted in the right environments with appropriate ongoing care. Plantations of a single species of tree all at the same stage of development are very different ecologically from natural forests and can certainly never be a substitute for old growth woodland. If they survive they create a monoculture lacking in the biodiversity needed for beneficial natural ecosystems to develop.

All that said, there are plenty of beautiful, seasonal, ethically grown flowers out there. Choose flowers from certified organic British growers or from small grower-florists local to you. If they aren’t certified organic make sure they use minimal synthetic inputs. UK growers can’t be Fair Trade certified (Fair Trade is a scheme intended to support small producers and their workers in developing countries) but you can look for growers who are Living Wage employers and/or Social Enterprises. Good small growers are transparent about their ethics including how they grow, where they source additional flowers & foliage and how they employ people and will be happy for you to ask questions – the Flowers From The Farm website is a great place to find them.

In the meantime, we now supply our flowers to regional floristry wholesaler Flower Vision and we have been thrilled with how popular our blooms are with mainstream florists. The fact is they are a very different, altogether more joyful product than imported flowers grown largely for stem length, strength and sturdiness to cope with long journeys.

There is also important research being done on improving the sustainability of British flowers, led by Dr Jill Timms of the University of Surrey and Professor David Bek of Coventry University, with flower farmers Zanna Hoskins (Spindle Flowers) and Debbie Scott (East Lothian Flower Farm). We hosted their 2023 conference here at Organic Blooms and you can find out more about their work here.

A footnote on foraging: if flower businesses mention that they forage some of their flowers or foliage, check that this is done ethically and legally. Foraging material from public land or the wild to use for commercial purposes is illegal and unethical (not least because it can inspire over-foraging that could risk rare species or compromise valuable food and habitat sources for wildlife). Foraging for use by commercial enterprises can only be done on private land with the landowner’s permission, in which case it is better described a ‘harvesting’ than ‘foraging’.

For more about greenwashing and the ethics of cut flowers, read our article from last year on where cut flowers come from.