SUSTAINABILITY

GREEN HORIZONS

OUR MISSION FOR A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

We have grown our reputation as one of London’s finest event florists by consistently upholding our core values of integrity and precision. We are applying these values to the way we view sustainability in all aspects of our business. Whilst floristry has traditionally been a highly unsustainable industry, we are fully committed to the protection of the planet, having a positive social impact, and embedding sustainability in the four interlinking core aspects of our business, design, purchase, legacy, and waste.

Our mantra is as straightforward as it is profound, “Sustainability doesn’t stifle creativity.” At Lavender Green Flowers, we understand that by integrating traditional methods with contemporary design, we not only create stunning floral arrangements but can also champion seasonality and embrace circular waste solutions.

b-Corp CertifiCATION

Lavender Green Flowers is now officially a Certified B Corporation! We’re thrilled to announce that we have joined the global community of businesses that redefine success by balancing profit with purpose. Our B Corp certification is a testament to our unwavering commitment to environmental and social impact.

What Does B Corp Certification Mean?

A B Corporation, or B Corp, is a business that meets the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. This certification is awarded by the nonprofit B Lab, which conducts rigorous assessments to ensure companies meet comprehensive and transparent social and environmental standards.

Our Commitment

As a newly certified B Corp, we pledge to:

Prioritize Accountability: Uphold the highest standards of social and environmental performance across all our operations.
Foster Transparency: Maintain openness with our stakeholders, including employees, clients, and the local community.
Drive Positive Impact: Continuously measure and improve our impact on the environment and society.

Our Managing Director, Colin Gray, shares: “As we continue to navigate the complex journey to better sustainability, the B Corp process has highlighted our areas of strength and allowed us to identify where we need improvement. I am honoured to be amongst businesses that believe in driving change, and we will continue our quest for social and environmental betterment.”

This certification isn’t just a badge; it’s a promise to keep purpose at the heart of everything we do.

Discover more about our B Corp™ journey here.

OUR FORMULA TO ACCELERATE SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS

Researching Industry Best Practices: As an innovative business, we are constantly looking to learn and adopt best practice. To do this we collaborate with experts and draw insights from various sectors. Key to our approach is to form strong partnerships with organizations such as IDH, Fairtrade, and Fleurametz who are helping us collectively promote fair pay, improved working conditions, gender equality, and regenerative environmental practices.
Understanding Your Expectations: We want to support our clients, venues, and consumers to adopt sustainability. It is important to us to understand your expectations, ambitions and to find a way of working together with easily comprehensible metrics to measure our progress.
Encouraging Continuous Learning: Our team will receive ongoing training in areas such as seasonality and the environmental impact of design choices. We are committed to ensuring that all our employees understand how their contributions contribute to the broader objectives.
Establishing Efficient Systems: Our business is focussed on continuous improvement reducing our business and our suppliers use of energy and natural resources and maximising plant life to reduce waste and give flowers and plants a second life.

RESPONSIBLE sOURCING aND GROWING

In our commitment to reducing our carbon footprint, we actively prioritize sourcing locally grown British flowers. We are keen to promote awareness of British varieties, seasonality, support natural pollinators and British farming.

Our business is built on long term partnerships with growers working together to delight customers. We have recently formalised our approach with the Lavender Green Flowers responsible sourcing standard. This standard clarifies our minimum social and environmental requirements, as well as requiring enhanced traceability, transparency and measurement so we can share the grower stories behind our products as well as meet clients reporting needs. It is imperative to us that we source from growers who share our core values, which include advocating for fair pay, supporting optimal working conditions, empowering gender equality, and adopting farming practices that are climate-smart and eco-friendly, ultimately benefiting our environment.

DESIGN PROCESS

Sustainability is at the forefront of our design process. We actively encourage our clients to embrace seasonal flowers whenever possible. This not only adds authenticity to their events but also significantly reduces the carbon footprint of each stem, eliminating the need for importing flowers from distant locations. The environmental impact is intricately tied to design choices, where factors determine the event’s carbon footprint. We’re exploring ways to offer carbon estimates for designs, empowering clients to offset their event’s carbon footprint.

Every quote we provide includes information about our sustainability commitments and donation initiatives. By informing our clients of our waste reduction efforts and community contributions, we aim to inspire their involvement in having a positive community impact. We offer clients the opportunity to donate their event flowers to a local cause after the event and share a donation update on the community impact.

We take pride in delivering innovative designs that employ experimental techniques and creative floral engineering to fulfil client briefs sustainably. Recognizing the environmental harm caused by floral foam, we’ve set a challenging goal to eliminate it by the end of 2024. Over the next year, we’ll continue to prototype new design concepts, finding water-based solutions to remove our reliance on floral foam. To assist our team in this transition, our senior florists conduct workshops to teach traditional floristry techniques such as using chicken wire or natural cages.

In close collaboration with our venues, we challenge the status quo and embrace unconventional thinking within the constraints of tight rules and regulations.

focusing on circularity

At Lavender Green Flowers, we’ve embraced a circular economy approach to minimize waste and create positive social change. Through our “Flower Freecycle” initiative, we recognized the value of post-event, high-quality flowers and have partnered with local charitable organizations to donate them, free of charge. Additionally, we extend our support by donating pre-loved plants, hardware, and event accessories we no longer need. In 2022, approximately 70% of event flowers were donated, raising over £11,032 in fundraising benefiting various community groups, young athletes, families in need, elderly, individuals fleeing domestic violence, and the homeless.

Furthermore, we operate a small plant farm where larger, sturdier plants and small trees are nurtured and reused across multiple events. where events have used plants these are donated to local charities and schools, creating vibrant gardens. Any flowers or foliage that can’t be donated are composted, transformed into fertilizers through our waste management service provider.

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