Our strategy
Statement of Purpose and Values
We believe that protecting our planet from the effects of climate change is a duty of today’s modern florist. We want our customers to have beautiful flowers to help them mark the significant days of their lives, but we also want those flowers, and the work that goes into delivering them, to have as light an environmental footprint as possible.
Sustainability is at the heart of Bude Botanical and the decisions we make have the future of the planet at their core.
The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.
Robert Swan, Author
Bude Botanical is an ethically considerate business and our values underpin everything we do. These values include:
- Being open and honest in our communication
- Valuing collaboration over competition
- Challenging the status quo in our industry, respectfully
- Leading the way, positively
- Developing our knowledge and our skills and sharing what we discover
- Being accountable for our actions
Scope
Delivering a sustainable product
What exactly is a sustainable product when it comes to cut flowers? We think it is about a product that:
- has a small a carbon footprint as possible
- hasn’t been delivered wrapped in plastics and unnecessary packaging
- is grown without chemicals
- is grown with responsible water usage
- is grown, picked and transported by people earning a living wage
- is grown, picked and transported by people who are treated fairly and lawfully.
- is arranged using sustainable techniques – no floral foam, only reusable mechanics and no single use plastics.
Delivering a sustainable business operation
What does a sustainable floristry business operation look like? We think it is about a business that works consciously:
- Monitoring and reducing carbon emissions and striving for ‘net zero’ by 2028.
- Monitoring and managing waste, composting all our green waste and continuing to lobby our supply chain to reduce things like plastic packaging.
- Monitoring and managing water usage, collecting rainwater from our home and studio rooftops and reusing it in our day to day activities.
- Operating a ‘green studio’ which we heat as little as possible, light with LED light bulbs, and power through an energy supplier using 100% renewables. We will use environment friendly cleaning and hygiene products
- Ensuring our banking and pensions are held with ethical financial providers.
Sustainability Policy
Operating a sustainable floristry business which relies heavily on global unsustainable cut flower supply chains is really hard…like REALLY hard! It is much, much easier for florists to stick with the decades-old status quo. But at Bude Botanical we believe that with a more conscious and collaborative approach to our work, it is possible to change not only our business, but also to become part of a movement that wishes to see wholesale change within our industry.
Sustainability is at the heart of Bude Botanical and the decisions we make have the future of the planet at their core. In order to operate a floristry business which has as light an environmental footprint as possible we have set ourselves the following goals.
Our Goals
- Use British grown flowers as much as possible
The best route to delivering a sustainable product, we believe, is to work with our network of local, small scale British flower growers. Outdoor grown British flowers have approximately 90% less carbon emissions than their imported counterparts. We will use their flowers from May – September, when field grown British flowers are in season.
In 2022 20% of our weddings were delivered using British flowers
In 2023 70% of our weddings were delivered using British flowers.
In 2024 our aim is for 80% of our weddings to be delivered using British flowers.
- Continue to educate ourselves to ensure we are able to make the most sustainable choices when buying imported flowers
Out of the British growing season we work with two wholesalers, to import fresh flowers from around the globe. Our intention in 2024 is to work with these wholesalers to ensure that the flowers we do buy meet recognised sustainability standards.
- Continue to develop our studio cutting garden
In our own small studio cutting garden, we will continue to grow flowers and foliages, adding more shrubs and perennials in 2024. We will also continue to work with our local network of property owners, who allow us to regularly cut foliages from their gardens. This is a hyper local solution to the environmental problems associated with floriculture’s global supply change.
- Compost our green waste
We will continue to compost all green waste in our studio hot bin composter. The green waste, once composted, will be used as compost in our studio cutting garden, giving health to our new plants and flowers in 2024.
- Collect more rainwater for use in our studio
We like to reuse all our flower bucket water to water our plants and flowers growing in our studio cutting garden. We would like to collect more rain water and aim to install three more water buts in 2024, reducing our reliance on tap water
- Reduce the use of single use plastics
We have reduced the amount of single use plastics greatly by choosing to work with small scale local growers. Their flowers arrive at our studio in reusable buckets, with no wrapping. We will continue to lobby our larger wholesalers to ditch the plastic wrap where possible.
- Use sustainable floristry design techniques
We are a foam free floristry business, which means we only use sustainable floristry techniques in our work. We reuse our mechanics over and over again, designing our work so that this is possible.
We will continue to develop our foam free practice by undertaking education and development opportunities in sustainable floristry.
In 2024 we will increase our stock of stem bottles, bud vases and larger flower vessels and candle holders which our wedding customers (and other florists) can hire – we hope this will reduce the amount of ‘wedding hardware’ bought to use just once by couples for their single day events. We will promote this service to all our new clients in 2024 and beyond.
- Offset our business travel emissions
Each year, we will calculate and offset the carbon produced through our business travel. This will be done through a responsible offsetting company, with a reliable and trusted operation, and with a proven track record of working with and helping ethically minded small businesses.
- Ensuring our banking and pensions are held with ethical financial providers
In 2023 we have ensured that all our business banking, our personal banking, and investments, including pensions, are held with ethical financial providers
- Keeping our sustainability policy up to date
Our sustainability policy is a living document, not one destined to gather dust on our studio shelves. We will review and develop it every 12 months, working under the guidance of the Sustainable Wedding Alliance. We will always make our wedding couples aware of our sustainability policy, which will be displayed clearly on our website.
Rachel Ellis, founder and flowerer in chief, Bude Botanical
November 2023