Ethical and sustainable floristry

Hey y’all! I hope you had a wonderful Yule for us southern hemisphere folks. We are back to regular blog posts, and today I’m diving into ethical and sustainable floristry. Let’s start by defining what ethical and sustainable even means, talk a little about how to move towards these goals, and chat about how I run Midnight Bloom with these goals in mind.

Ethical

1. pertaining to or dealing with morals or the principles of morality; pertaining to right and wrong in conduct

2. being in accordance with the rules or standards for right conduct or practice, especially in the standards of a profession

- dictionary.com

To be ethical means to follow a set of morals and keeping to set standards in an industry. Something ethical 50 years ago might not be ethical today, such as a warehouse not having fire escape routes which we now must have by law. So obviously keeping to the law is ethical, but that doesn’t mean you are ethical just by following the law. There are also unethical laws, but that’s a discussion for another day. Some peoples ethics are very different to others, like the pro-choice vs forced-birth debate, so to define our own set of ethics comes down to our own morals.

I believe what is ethical comes down to protecting and assisting the people in our lives and especially marginalised communities, not taking away someone else’s agency, and contributing to a better future where people build communities and support one another.

Sustainable

1. capable of being supported or upheld

2. pertaining to a system that maintains its own viability by using techniques that allow for continual reuse

3. able to be maintained or kept going, as an action or process

4. able to be confirmed or upheld

5. able to be supported as with basic necessities or sufficient funds

- dictionary.com

There are a few definitions of sustainable, but the most important ones pertaining to business and floristry are definitions 2, 3, and 5. Sustainability in floristry means making sure our resources don’t become harder to access, which means making sure our earth remains viable. A whole industry contributing to the Earths climate crisis is not sustainable, it will be harder to grow plants due to increased severe weather, heat, and the loss of water.

Another sustainable change we must make is making sure our industry pays a living wage with benefits that allow florists to not only survive, but to thrive as well. It’s all well and good if florists have just enough money to survive, but living isn’t just about survival and to make someone so dependent on their job that that’s all they can do, is not a sustainable way to run a business.

How do we at Midnight Bloom put this into practice?

So with all of that said, I want to list out a few things that Midnight Bloom does or strives to do to incorporate sustainable and ethical business practices

No floral foam

You can read my blog post on floral foam to get some more info, but floral foam is antithetical to sustainability. It is a toxic microplastic that seeps into our waterways and earth, affecting marine life, insects, and vegetation. Midnight Bloom has been floral foam free since 2023, after the first Halloween cauldron I created. This is something I pride myself on as it comes with having to get creative for arrangements that would normally call for floral foam.

Reusing materials

Instead of floral foam, we utilise other materials to create those kinds of arrangements, but one of the ways I continue sustainable practices is to reuse, for example, the chicken wire used to create traditionally floral foam arrangements. Also, when presents are received from my in laws, they will use the most beautiful bits of fabric and ribbon, sometimes with wrapping paper that can also be reused. So I have a growing collection of recycled ribbons which just makes each arrangement even more special.

Green waste

As a florist, green waste comes by very easily. We have a green bin to put all green waste into, and eventually we will have a place for mulching and composting, to reuse in my cut flower garden and other gardens we plan on having.

No AI use

Now this one could land me in some hot water, but literally I would rather people be angry at me than the earth dying. To be clear, I am talking about generative AI, not AI used in medical settings to help identify cancer, for example. GenAI uses up so much resources that people living near data centres experience blackouts and little to no water. The amount of energy used to generate whatever is being asked, plus the huge amounts of water used to cool data centres, means the use of genAI is not a sustainable practice. Furthermore, genAI is trained on stolen art (including words) and its purpose is to make artists redundant for the benefit of profits.

Good pay with benefits

This is something I am so passionate in doing, which is one of the reasons I haven’t hired anyone – if I can’t afford your labour, then I don’t get the benefits of your labour. Good pay for me means a pay that is above minimum wage, and equal to what I pay myself. Benefits include health insurance, bonuses, and paid time off when needed. Midnight Bloom isn’t here to only make money, it’s here to give back to the communities which it’s in. I don’t believe in paying myself more just because I own the company, and I also don’t believe that if someone needs time off for whatever reason that they don’t get paid, because that encourages people to work when they really shouldn’t. Bonuses would be paid equally, after donating to charities that we’re passionate about.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post about running an ethical and sustainable business, I’m continuing to learn and expand these practices so I would love to hear what your ethical and sustainable practices are (it doesn’t have to be about business).

Althea xx