Arena Flowers Sustainability Report

sustainability report

the uk’s Most Ethical florist

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ARENA FLOWERS

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our proudest achievements

06-09

the uk’s most ethical florist

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introducing the greenhouse

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a heartfelt thanks to our growers

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human impact

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supporting the world around us

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a helping hand at home

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our commitment; to flowers that make a difference

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SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

contents

a letter from our ceo

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a letter from our ceo

We continue to steer the industry on the issues of climate, sustainability, ethics and waste. These are choices that every responsible business should acknowledge and though none of us should assume are easy or without financial cost, the alternative is, in my opinion, a cost too great. We led our peers in removing all single use plastics from our products way back in 2017, we continue to deliver our bouquets in recycled, recyclable, compostable boxes and plant-based papers, and we have received yet another perfect 100/100 score from the Ethical Companies Index, meaning we’re still top of the tree in floristry. Speaking of trees, to date we’ve now planted over 1.6 million! This achievement is powered by our commitment to planting two mangrove trees every time you place an order.

You buy one bouquet, we plant two trees.

As a consequence of our enormous commitment to tree planting with Eden Reforestation we have achieved our target of becoming carbon neutral this year. That’s an incredible achievement, but we don’t stop here. We’re continuing to plant trees, continuing to remove waste and continuing to lead the industry workiking towards being carbon negative - in the near future when you choose Arena Flowers to fulfill your floral needs you’ll be helping us to remove more carbon from the atmosphere than our entire supply chain emits in sourcing and supplying your order.

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We continue to support charities in the UK and overseas, and work closely with the communities around our growers farms. We plan to begin building our own ‘Infinite Flower Garden’ here at Flowers HQ in the first weeks of 2022: a brilliant initiative, created by the Arena Flowers staff, the local community and Worcestershire County Council in a drive to boost biodiversity around our home.

Last year, we promised that we would continue to operate as a force for good. Not only have we further developed our existing initiatives, we have also founded several new ones, most notably The Green House, our experimental hub focussing on Waste, Space and Innovation, which has led to blossoming partnerships with like-minded environmental pioneers. Firstly, working with AgriGrub, a leading British alternative animal feed producer to develop a fully circular solution for green waste and flower food. Next, with Cranfield University, funding an M.Sc. to make our company - and entire industry - even more environmentally sound.

We lead on these issues because we care about them deeply. Our product ties us closely to the impact of climate, to the impact of pollution and poverty in communities, and we accept our responsibility and choose to embrace it as a force for change.

Our commitment to people and the planet is well known, but our commitment to understanding how to solve complex problems not yet identified is still developing, and we hope it will help us to transform the wider industry in the months and years ahead.

We believe in a greener future for floristry, but we also strive to show that businesses of any scale can be pioneers for sustainability in their respective industries. We hope that you share our pride in the achievements and progress we’ve seen this year; this report signifies our belief in the impact we’ve had, and our ambitions for what we’ll deliver together in the future.

John Hackett CEO, Arena Flowers

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

Fresher, Fairer Flowers As the industry’s leading ethical and sustainable brand, we have set tough standards, established challenging ambitions and maintained our relentless commitment to improving the lives of our people and planet. Our achievements during 2021 are not only a statement of our own values, but a reflection of our customers. Together, we are building a community that is united by a commitment to responsible consumerism and sustainability.

This is our commitment to the future. We recognise that every choice we make as consumers has the ability to tip the scales one way or another - we are committed to offering you the most planet friendly flowers possible. This will mean carbon negative, much like our Black Friday ‘promotions*’ but at an infinitely repeatable scale.

Finally, with Worcester City Council to promote Natural Networks for increased biodiversity.

This report is, largely, a summation of what most of our customers, suppliers and clients already know and trust.

Rather than participate in the frenzied deals promoting unnecessary consumerism, during Black Friday we offered our customers the opportunity to offset their carbon footprint for life. *

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By February this year we’d planted 1.6 million trees, and we’re committed to planting 2.2 million by the end of 2022.

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

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our proudest achievements

Our campaign to plant trees at this pace, supported by our passionate community of customers, has enabled us to become a carbon neutral business ahead of our target. The next step for us is to push further still, as a carbon negative flower delivery business.

Fresher, Fairer Flowers This year’s sustainability report is full of achievements that we’re extremely proud of. Read on for full details, but let us shine a light on some of the year’s highlights.

We achieved our goal of being a carbon neutral business ahead of schedule.

1,600,000 Trees Planted Since 2020, we’ve increased our carbon commitment: We now plant two trees for every delivery we make (one on behalf of the sender, and one on behalf of the recipient). In 2020, we promised to plant a million trees by Mother’s Day of 2021, and we achieved that milestone two months ahead of schedule. We chose to continue our ‘two trees’ commitment and that means - in total - to date we’ve planted 1.6 million trees.

Not all tree planting schemes are equal, and it is our wish to make the most impact we possibly can; we specifically selected mangroves, one of the most efficient carbon-capturing species. In the region where we plant them, reforestation is also crucial for marine ecology, and tree planting provides both protection from coastal erosion and long-term employment in a region hit particularly hard by poverty (the World Bank estimated 75% of people in the region live below the $1.90 international poverty line, and Covid-19 has further impacted that, and so we feel it is particularly crucial to provide the support where we are able to).

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Zero Single-Use Plastics Since 2017, all of our packaging has been free from single-use plastics. Everything that arrives at your door is sustainable, recycled or compostable, even down to our updated, easier to repurpose, plain blue ribbons. Those ribbons may look like a simple thing to develop, but like anything that is impactful, it took a surprisingly long time to develop a truly compostable and degradable ribbon without consuming virgin materials.

100/100 for the Fourth Year Running Once again, we are leading our industry with a perfect 100/100 score from the Ethical Company Index, an accolade that we’ve achieved for four years running, having led the industry for no less than eight years. Further increasing our commitment to local sourcing and the development of even more effective supply chains, is a continued focus for the Arena Flowers team. We’re carefully introducing some quite phenomenal technology to solve complex inefficiencies that have been previously overlooked by the industry.

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SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

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Building The Green House Creating a hub that explores Waste, Space and Innovation; an exciting initiative that can secure a greener, cleaner future for all through a series of industry-shaping projects and collaborations.

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We’ve been leading the way for the past eight years and in the last four years we have earned a perfect 100/100 score.

Naturally working this way attracts employees who are equally committed to the same principles, customers who expect us to maintain the highest standards and growers and suppliers who want to work with us to pioneer change.

It is another example of the circularity that exists within our organisation; good practice breeds high standards in turn setting high expectations, requiring good practice - we are committed to this for the long term, there isn’t a single goal, it’s about continuing to be the best possible option for customers who care about sustainability and ethicality within the flower industry. So, while we’re hugely proud to have been awarded another perfect score, we’ll continue to lead by setting bold ambitions.

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Ethical Company Index

Public Record Criticisms

Other Ethical Accreditation

Arnaments

Animal Welfare

People

Arena Flowers

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Prestige Flowers

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Bloom

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Organic Blooms

85

Serenata Flowers

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Bloom & Wild

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Bunches

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The Great British Florist

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Appleyard Flowers

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Blossoming Gifts

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Flower Station

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Teleflorist

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eFlorist

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iflorist

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Interflora

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SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

We’re not pressured by regulators to do this; we keep our standards so high because we believe it is the only way for us to operate - the only way a business should behave.

Nuclear Power

We have been accredited by the Ethical Company Index for fifteen years, leading the way for the past eight and in each of the last four years we have earned a perfect 100/100 score - we remain the UK’s most ethical flower business.

Organic

Environmental Report

Environment An.

Fairtrade

An unwavering commitment to ethicality is as true to our business model as it is to the flowers we send. We strive to be a leading light for fair, just and environmentally-sound practice and prove that success does not have to come at the cost of doing the right thing. In leading by example, we hope that our ethical approach becomes the only way forward no matter the sector or business.

Political Donations

the uk’s most ethical florist

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chapter One

chapter One

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introducing the green house

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

chapter One

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chapter One

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introducing the green house In 2021, we launched an initiative designed to take ownership of our green waste and support the biodiversity around our HQ in innovative new ways.

Our Green House initiative is the embodiment of our vision; a bold, innovative concept that will deliver positive environmental change and progress in the real world. It is our commitment to tomorrow, built on the pillars of Waste, Space & Innovation.

This programme is dedicated to reducing green waste and making the most of the space and resources that are available to us as a business, thereby playing an active part in developing ideas and processes that will leave our entire industry cleaner and more efficient. But this goes beyond Arena Flowers HQ; we are creating a blueprint for ethical practice that will be open to all to learn from in coming years.

Waste: Putting waste produced at our UK HQ and throughout our supply chain to its best, greenest use, to make our business less wasteful.

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

Our Three Pillars:

Space: Making spaces at our UK HQ available for initiatives, people, projects, the local community and more.

Innovation: Dreaming and developing, answering problems and challenging the accepted norms. The more ideas we have and the more people and projects we can support, the brighter the future we will create.

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chapter One

project#1 waste: taking ownership of our green waste

grown and trimmed, using the off-cuts to create the paper in which we send our bouquets. In doing so, we created the world’s first closed-loop flower waste system.

Why So Many Off-Cuts?

To ensure that each and every flower arrives with our customers in the healthiest, and freshest condition, they need to be nourished along the way.

For the flower stems to ‘drink’, we need to cut a small section from the bottom of each stem each time it is rehydrated, just like you do before popping our flowers in your vase. This process leaves us with small off-cuts and leaves from every bouquet.

We also recognise that promoting perfect flower condition, by nourishing and hydrating each stem, creates green waste from offcuts in our UK operation. We could have followed our tried and tested process to create more paper, but we wanted to think even more ambitiously and explore alternatives for a UK-based closed-loop solution; something entirely out of the norm, which will offer more options to keep our environmental impact as low as possible in every location.

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

Making Waste Useful For some time we have been taking ownership of the green waste which is created as our flowers are

Our search for green waste circularity introduced us to a tiny insect with surprisingly nutritious larvae, called the Black Soldier Fly, and to AgriGrub, the UK’s largest black soldier fly grub farmer. We’re working with AgriGrub to create the perfect mix of commercial flower off-cuts which can be used as feed for these special grubs and increase the space efficiency of the AgriGrub farms. Once perfected, our flowers will help to produce low-impact animal feed which has huge benefits for the planet.

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SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

Minimising Off-Cuts All of our flowers need to fit into the boxes that we send to our customers. For this to happen, they must be trimmed down to size, as they are often bigger than our boxes will allow. To produce as little waste as possible from our flowers, our growers are required to grow Arena Flowers’ stems at the optimum length to ensure a healthy flower without creating unnecessary waste.

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Better Land Use Farming grubs for animal feed requires much less land than existing staple feeds, such as soya.

Protecting Our Oceans Another common animal feed is fishmeal. As the name suggests, this requires the catching of fish and other creatures from our already over-fished and overexploited oceans. Switching to insect-based animal feed, such as our grubs, helps us to protect our oceans and everything that lives within them by removing the reliance on marine ecosystems.

Limiting Landfill Grubs feed mainly on food waste, and approximately one third of all food produced ends up as waste.

Unfortunately, much of this ends up in landfill where it can remain for decades releasing planet-warming methane. AgriGrub can take huge amounts of food waste and feed it to their grubs, making food waste useful and stopping it from ever going to landfill.

Lowering Greenhouse Gases A lot of food waste ends up in landfill or in industrial composting facilities; both destinations produce greenhouse gases which contribute to climate change. Using grubs to process the same waste produces almost none. It may not be the most aesthetically appealing project, but we think it’s beautiful!

Flowers Our biggest passion; fresh, beautiful, healthy flowers, grown and delivered to our customers as ethically as possible.

Food for Flowers Frass is a natural bio-fertiliser which helps plants grow while limiting the use of chemical fertilisers, and is also a natural bio-pesticide, harmlessly giving off signals that repel damaging insects.

We can feed this to our own flowers to help them grow.

The Closed-Loop: Flowers Feeding Flowers

Waste from Grubs As the grubs eat their food, they need to get rid of their own waste too… This waste - frass - is excreted and remains in the raising trays. Much like the green waste itself, this can be repurposed.

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Flower Waste To keep our stems healthy, we have to trim them. Not by much, but each snip adds up to a fair amount of green waste for us to manage.

Food for Grubs Grubs have versatile diets, but are usually fed food waste when farmed, helping to reduce landfill and limit greenhouse gas emissions from landfill and composting.

We are establishing how well they adapt to eating our flower off-cuts mixed in with food waste.

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SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

Fighting Deforestation A grown feed such as soya requires huge areas of land in order to produce the amounts of energy required to raise animals. The majority of the world’s soya is grown in the US, Argentina and Brazil; the latter two especially, have seen huge deforestation of our most precious tropical forests in favour of monoculture soya fields. By producing low-impact feed, we can help to reduce the impact of deforestation.

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chapter One

Embracing Circularity: The Infinite Flower An important part of our commitment to having a low environmental impact is ensuring our resources are utilised as best they can be, and that nothing ends up in landfill. We don’t think waste is to be thrown away. We see it as a resource with the potential to become something useful for ourselves or others.

Our growers select and harvest the finest flowers.

The stems are cleaned and prepped ready to be added to a beautiful bouquet.

The Closed-Loop: Flower Waste System Process

Our flowers are delivered to your door in our 100% sustainable packaging.

The waste is recycled and friendly, water-based inks are used to create the organic, recycled and recyclable paper that we lovingly wrap our flowers in.

All green waste from the farm is collected.

The organic waste arrives at the paper mill.

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We’ve already pioneered the first ever closedloop circular system for florists by working with our Dutch growers. Here, our flower off-cuts are processed, milled and turned into the paper that’s wrapped around the flowers that we deliver to our customers. The next time you receive your Arena Flowers delivery, look closely and you’ll see small pieces of flowers in it - amazing, right? Not only does this stop off-cuts going to waste, we create the products that our own processes need and therefore drastically reduce the amount of virgin material we consume, in turn reducing our environmental impact.

While rightfully proud, we’re not content with this commitment to closing the loop and removing the waste from just one part of our supply chain.

We aspire to make our entire operation circular, removing all possible risk of waste to landfill and repurposing everything possible into new products, energy, or something we’re yet to imagine, which is why we work with the brightest minds in the ecology space.

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With this ambition we’re undertaking some exciting projects under the Green House initiative, the first of which may convert our UK off-cuts into environmentally friendly animal feed, potentially becoming fertiliser used to produce more flowers.

If we can successfully use our flower off-cuts as feed for the grubs at AgriGrub, then our green waste can become a food source for animals. As we considered our own waste, we also thought about the waste from AgriGrub; what is produced by a grub farm?

One word that you may not yet be familiar with: frass - the residue found in the grubs rearing trays.

Incredibly, frass shows huge potential for growing plants and flowers. Not only could it be a fantastic bio-fertiliser, but it also has some natural pest-control qualities.

If the tests are successful, our waste could become the foundation of a useful, environmentally positive food product and the waste from that process can help us to grow flowers in an even more environmentally friendly way. Infinite, circular flowers. We know - it’s unbelievably cool.

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SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

Help us help the planet.

Our box, box tape, ribbon and flower food sachet can be popped in your recycling bin, and our paper wrap and cellophane will compost entirely in two weeks.

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project #2 space: the infinite flower garden One of the larger-scale foundational projects is the establishment of the Arena Flowers Infinite Garden.

An inspirational, educational space which physically demonstrates our commitment to Circularity.

This will be an area shared by the Arena Flowers team and our wider community, bringing biodiversity, wellbeing, incredible bursts of colour and opportunities for inspiration and education to our local area.

This will ensure that the garden is designed and structured in a way that’s best for wildlife, that we’re supporting the growth of the right plants in the most resource-efficient ways, and are engaging with the local community as effectively and helpfully as we can.

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

We’re extremely proud that our garden will be part of the Worcestershire County Council ‘Natural Networks’ project - an initiative working to build a network of biodiverse areas across the county.

The more networks of connected biodiversity we can create, the better it is for the species that thrive there. The Infinite Flower Garden will form a vital part of this network of nature.

To facilitate the project and give local people fulfilling time in nature, we’re teaming up with an incredible workforce of volunteers and greenfingered enthusiasts, making the project a reality and getting to know our neighbours better.

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project #3 innovation: partnering with the experts We’re proud to announce that we will be working with Cranfield University - one of the top ten UK universities for commercial research, consultancy and professional development - as part of The Green House initiative. We will be working closely with the School of Water, Energy and Environment to analyse our operations and map out further ethical innovations. To kick off the partnership, we are funding an MSc which can impact the sustainability of the cut-flower industry.

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

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SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

As The Green House grows and we discover new ways of working sustainably and even more ethically, we want to be transparent in sharing our learnings to help entrepreneurs and leaders across all industries to progress with the smallest footprint, conscious of their impact and inspired to do more to help people around them and environment we share.

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chapter Two

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a heartfelt thanks to our growers

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SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

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chapter Two

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chapter Two

chapter Two

a heartfelt thanks to our growers Arena Flowers is nothing without its dedicated growers. To deliver the very finest seasonal flowers to our customers, we have a network of growers who share our high ethical and environmental standards, working to deliver the finest stems with the lowest impact on the planet and the greatest positive impact to their communities.

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Embracing Global Ethical Standards When looking for partners, we search exhaustively for growers who embrace the very best standards and achieve the highest international certifications.

We audit our growers compliance against our standards but also seek to go beyond compliance when considering human rights, worker welfare and worker’s voice - our commitment to responsible sourcing is not one we embark upon lightly.

We applaud our growers for embracing and developing new ways to work in greater harmony with the planet and ensuring complete transparency and accountability throughout. Every stem that we handle can be traced back to the farm it was grown on, many of which utilise wetland water filtration schemes and the use of grey water harvesting systems to limit fresh water reliance in the growing of your flowers.

These commitments are rarely the easy option, but our partners are similarly invested in making the Arena Flowers supply chain as effective and environmentally efficient as possible.

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These processes reflect our values and purpose; they are embedded in our culture and central to our behaviour and actions. We may not always market our product from Africa as Fairtrade but it will always have been bought from a Fairtrade approved farm and we will always have paid the full Fairtrade premium to ensure that workers are rewarded properly for their efforts. We’re the only online florist in Europe to make that commitment and we’ve been doing it for years.

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

After such a challenging year, we want to extend a special thank you to every single one of our growers who’ve prepared, tended, grown, cut, packed and chosen to send their beautiful flowers to us. Their work plays such a big part in our story and raises the bar for the rest of the UK’s online florists.

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chapter Two

Many of our staff are local enough to walk or cycle to work, those that live further afield are encouraged to work from home making full use of our brilliant technology.

To service our customers, we need to bring them in from our growing partners, and when we do, we give a lot of thought to making sure they travel as efficiently as possible. The selection of our growers is guided by their farm location (and their alignment to our ethical promises and vision) and our ability to consolidate shipments early in the supply chain, as fewer trucks and flights mean less fuel consumed and lower fuel emissions.

We have also introduced further consolidation of parcel density, resulting in fewer vehicles being required to cover the same number of miles.

With EV cars and vans supported by our on site charging, we can reduce harmful emissions together with the Arena Flowers team, but a great number of our deliveries are made using conventional distribution with national couriers. This industry is beginning to move toward more sustainable fleets of vehicles, but it will take time and the pace of change was never going to be sufficient to match our ambition, so we took a different approach.

By consolidating our freight, reducing waste in our packaging solutions, buying locally wherever possible and utilising green delivery methods we’ve cut more than 1.3 million miles of transport from our supply chain - for an independent flower business that’s quite something.

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2% Colombia

Reducing Our Emissions We wish we could grow all of our flowers in Droitwich, but we need a little more than the surrounding fields could ever produce.

In the UK, we have a small fleet of electric vehicles for local deliveries and logistics, and we work closely with our distribution partners to minimise emissions when we’re sending our bouquets to customers further afield.

35%

Holland

21%

Kenya

32%

We’ve cut more than 1.3 million miles of transport from our supply chain.

United Kingdom SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

chapter Two

This chart shows where all our lovely, ethical flower suppliers are.

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chapter Two

chapter Two

Less Water, Less Impact Flowers and plants crave water, but it’s a valuable resource and one which should never be used frivolously.

Not only are our farms water conscious - we consider our water use at every stage of our flowers journey. As soon as we moved into our new HQ , we moved to a renewable energy plan and committed to recover all grey water on site.

To date, our water consumption per bouquet has reduced by more than 17% since we began recording in 2018. This focus on water preservation goes beyond board-level decisions around our premises; all of our staff are encouraged to conserve water and join our overall commitment to saving as much of it as possible. It’s all part of our pledge to become the most water-efficient flower business in the world.

Efficient By Nature Flowers won’t grow outside of their natural seasonal cycles without artificial stimulus. Sometimes this can be as simple as protecting outdoor crops from the worst of the inclement British weather (heavy rain, hard frosts and hail are all risk to our summer flowers) by growing them under cover, sometimes heat or light are required to mimic the perfect environment.

-17% water consumption

since 2018

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The simple facts are that the more intensive the inputs, the greater the environmental impact.

Huge amounts of energy are required to grow some of the products found in bouquets outside of their natural season, so we just don’t do it. Instead, our expert florists work with the seasons, creating our stunning bouquets with the most seasonally abundant flowers and only introducing low impact additions when there really aren’t alternatives to be found locally - this is a constant challenge within the business as we have to provide choice and variety but cannot compromise on our commitment to sustainable sourcing.

We are able to supply some year-round favourites having established the most energy-efficient growing methods where necessary. Roses are a prime highdemand example; the majority of ours are grown in Kenya where the equatorial climate allows us to grow them with the least resource required.

They have a little further to get here, but we have been able to optimise that too - read on to find out how we transformed our logistics network.

Eliminating Pesticides Why use chemicals when there’s a natural solution?

We use botanical solutions and Integrated Pest Management to look after our flowers as they grow, meaning that we can rely on other plants and natural predators to keep unwanted pests away instead of harsh, artificial, environment-harming chemicals. This is environmentally intelligent farming that combines beneficial fungus, nematodes and predators in combination to create the perfect growing conditions for our flowers. Less stressed by harsh chemicals they reward us with longer shelf-life too.

We hope to begin testing frass from the Black Soldier Fly grubs to further strengthen our environmentally intelligent farming methods and close another loop of circularity within our supply chain in 2022.

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SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

For maximum water efficiency most of our our farms don’t use traditional soil planting, instead they use hydroponic systems which feed much more measured quantities of nourishing water to the plants, then recapture any run-off before recycling it with water collected from rainfall or from wetland water filtration schemes and even greywater sources.

The water is cleaned up (often using very clever natural filtration systems) before being reintroduced to the growing plants through the hydroponic systems. By growing our flowers in this incredibly efficient manner we can reduce overall water consumption by 30-40% with no effect on the beauty or health of our stems.

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chapter Three

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human impact

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SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

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chapter Three

chapter Three

human impact

Our commitment to the school, pupils and farming infrastructure in Lewa is not short-term and it is not a ‘project’. This is a long-term supportive collaboration to promote better life expectancies and experiences for a generation of children and their families.

Fairer For Our People We value and respect everyone in our supply chain and take full responsibility for their wellbeing, safety and security.

It’s not only charitable work we support; we also care deeply about the future of our profession and want to encourage emerging talent in floristry.

By partnering with local schools, colleges and universities we are able to support children and young adults who might not otherwise believe they have the ability (more often the opportunity) to develop a career in a business like ours.

Fairer For All People Not only do we care for our people, we want to care for all people. We do this on a broad scale with our environmental commitments, but we also work with numerous charities and initiatives to make a more direct and immediate impact.

In 2021, we joined forces with Bread & Water for Africa UK to ‘Plant a Better Future for African Children’. Bread and Water for Africa UK is a small but highly impactful charity which exists solely to provide access to international support for community-led projects in Sub-Saharan Africa.

By supporting this small charity, we hope to be setting an example for others to follow through a commitment to support communities in our supplier country of Kenya.

Our contribution this year will give 100 children uniforms, food, books and school tuition for a year.

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

Whether they’re cutting flowers on the farm or arranging them here at Arena Flowers HQ , we believe everyone who plays a part in the making of our bouquets deserves fair pay for fair work - it’s why we’re the leading independent supporter of Fairtrade in the UK. All of our flowers are sourced from ethical suppliers and Fairtrade-certified farms that we’ve personally approved in line with our own exacting selection criteria. To top it off, all staff are paid significantly more than a real living wage. We see our team as a family, and what benefits one should benefit us all. No-one should be exploited or undervalued in the production of something which exists to bring joy. We promise to be fair and principled in upholding this belief and to continue to operate beyond compliance ensuring that the commitment to providing the best possible environment for workers is embedded throughout the organisation and our supply chain.

To date, the charity has provided fresh water to 69,785 people and put 8,800 children through school in seven of the world’s most impoverished countries. We are delighted that our contribution this year will give 100 children uniforms, food, books and school tuition for a year. Not only that, but the charity is also impacting the wider community by enabling vital repairs to be made and for new agricultural and dairy farming equipment to be purchased, contributing to significant change and a brighter future.

We’re the leading independent supporter of Fairtrade in the UK - not just in floristry.

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chapter Four

chapter Four

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supporting the world around us

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supporting the world around us

We’ve reduced the size of our packaging without impacting the size or safety of the flowers inside, resulting in 12% smaller boxes and less journeys.

No Single Use Plastics Our bouquets need to be well protected when they travel, but we don’t want this to cause any unnecessary harm or be over-reliant on resources to do so.

Better Packed Boxes When our stems and bouquets travel, we know there’s nothing worse than wasted space. We like to deliver flowers, not well-packed air. This inspired us to reduce the size of our packaging as much as possible without impacting the size or safety of the flowers inside, resulting in 12% smaller boxes. This enables us to fit more into every delivery and reduce the impact of every box.

We’re always working to go further and in continued discussion with our delivery partner to offer customers even more environmentally-friendly shipping options. While these large-scale shifts take time, we have switched our own company vehicles to zero-emission electric vans, enabling us to run our own local logistics without the direct use of fossil fuels. You won’t see us using delivery companies nearby - for all our customers living local to Arena Flowers HQ , we deliver using our electric vehicles, reducing unnecessary mileage and further reducing our impact on the environment.

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SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

Since 2017, our packaging has been completely free of single-use plastics. Everything we deliver is recycled, recyclable or compostable; from the recycled cardboard box to the more surprising things like our feed packets and ribbons.

Everything we send can be reused, recycled, or popped in a compost bin when our customers are finished with it.

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We’ve not used single use plastics since 2017, and we were the first online florist to do so.

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

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chapter Four

Our business is entirely dependent upon healthy, thriving populations of insects and pollinators. If the health of these species declines, so does our business; the devastating environmental impact is, thankfully now, widely understood. For these reasons, we are doing everything we can to help protect and nurture biodiversity wherever possible.

Moreover they also make a great contribution to stopping coastal erosion - an important, but lesserknown problem facing ecosystems, local people and the climate alike. Mangrove forests are some of the most important and species-rich ecosystems on the planet. They are also the nurseries for the world’s seafood supply, providing the perfect habitat for many young fish and shrimp species, as well as some of the world’s most endangered marine life.

Our commitment to biodiversity is focused around two key science-based targets; supporting globally important habitat creation, and increasing the connectivity of natural areas.

To date, through our customers making the small but considered choice to send ethical flowers, there are over 1.6 million more mangrove trees in the world.

To support important habitats, we plant two mangrove trees for every order placed with Arena Flowers. Working with the Eden Reforestation Project, we plant mangrove trees at a dedicated project in Madagascar. We know that we spend a lot of time describing the brilliance of mangrove forests, but it’s because they are such a phenomenal ally in our fight against climate change and in our effort to support some of the planet’s poorest communities.

Closer to home, we are engaging local communities and partners to strengthen existing habitats, create new ones and find ways to connect these precious ecosystems. The connectivity of natural areas is crucial in helping local biodiversity to thrive.

Without easy access to other spaces, animals and insect populations can’t flourish.

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

supporting biodiversity

Mangrove reach their full maturity quicker than many other trees, but also sequester far more carbon than almost any alternative option.

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chapter Five

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a helping hand at home

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

chapter Five

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chapter Five

a helping hand at home Doing good should be easy. By ordering from us, our customers are receiving the most ethical bouquets available as standard, and we take great care to guarantee that their choices can help our environment.

Cardboard Composting Do you have a garden of your own that you enjoy tending to? Our cardboard boxes are made from sturdy yet compostable materials which makes them perfect for preventing weeds in your garden. Simply place them over the affected area and weigh them down, either with stones, or water, and it’ll help to stop those weeds getting enough sunlight to grow.

If you want to camouflage it, just stick soil on top and it’ll blend while it composts. Cardboard is also a beneficial source of carbon for your own compost bin and provides the microorganisms in your compost heap with the nutrients and energy they

need to turn your rubbish into usable compost.

When compacted, you can also use our boxes for sheet mulching to create a new bed to plant beautiful flowers of your own. Simply lay the box flat over a patch of grass you want to turn into fertile ground, and cover it regularly with water - you’ll eventually have a place to plant a range of plants and flowers from just a box.

Look After Your Tubers Do you lift your dahlia or peony tubers and not know where to store them? Our subscription flower boxes are the ideal size to store your tubers in winter, plus you can reuse the paper packaging to wrap them to give extra protection from the cold winter.

Boost Your Biodiversity Our Green House Initiative seeks to find new ways to use our waste to help the planet, and you too can do this at home. Our boxes make an excellent home for all kinds of creatures: you could build a simple bird feeder or bug hotel to encourage more wildlife into your environment. The upcycling opportunities don’t end in the garden though, and there are plenty of imaginative uses that can be taken indoors.

Get Crafty If you have kids, you’ll know how useful it is to have some cardboard boxes on hand for arts & crafts. Just one box is perfect for a range of activities, whether it’s simply using a piece as an easel from which to mix colours, or using the entire box as an airplane, or why not use it to form the basis of a habitat such as the ocean or a forest - you’d be amazed what you can do when you get creative. Animals will also enjoy our boxes - their long, thin shape make them a brilliant tunnel for cats or hamsters to run through.

Store It We’ve been reliably informed by our customers that our subscription flowers boxes make great places to store Christmas baubles or seasonal items such as halloween decorations or Easter egg hunt props.

We understand that a cardboard box is hardly the most glamorous of places for safekeeping, but if you’ve got any dirty or old items that are always lying around, you can use your box for keeping everything together - whether it’s chewed up dog toys or perhaps muddy wellingtons and walking boots, upcycling your box means less cleaning and a tidier home.

Reusable Ribbons Starting with the ribbon we use to tie your box together - why not upcycle it to decorate your presents with a beautiful bow, or use it to tie your napkins together when having guests for dinner?

The ribbon can also be a brilliantly simple way to identify luggage or to hang your bird feeder.

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SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

There are also more proactive ways to help.

We’re working to offer more to customers, and also inspire easy, meaningful initiatives at home. All of our packaging is 100% recyclable so it will have another life however you choose to recycle it, but we’re believers in getting the most out of our boxes and repurposing them at home is a great way to extend their use that little bit longer. Here are a few ideas you can try to give your packaging a new lease on life.

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chapter Six

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our commitment; to flowers that make a difference ARENA FLOWERS

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

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chapter Six

our commitment; to flowers that make a difference Flowers are incredible things.

Delicate and fragile when growing, but impactful and powerful when gifted. They help us to mark many of the important moments of our lives and to celebrate or support the most important moments in the lives of others. We never underestimate the responsibility we have when our flowers are chosen to mark these big, important moments and we’re grateful for the opportunity to play our part in helping you, but we also know that the flowers you send can represent much more.

Or they can help to combat poverty, climate change, waste and inequality here in the UK and internationally. A considered purchase is a form of easy activism, supporting a wider sustainability programme and enabling continued investment in the principles we are committed to. We will continue on our mission to pioneer change and safe-guard our planet, becoming a force of ethical greatness because it really is just the right thing to do. Many of the technical initiatives will be developed within our Green House accelerator.

Our first is already well underway with AgriGrub, our partnership with Cranfield University is developing and we’re excited to see how MSc students can introduce and accelerate greater sustainability and ethicality within our business and the industry more widely.

We have achieved a lot of really impressive milestones in becoming the UK’s most ethical flower company but we have even bolder ambitions for the years ahead and will continue to set the standards for our industry. We won’t stop at carbon neutrality.

We will continue to increase our carbon-saving initiatives, continue to plant trees, save water, reduce impacts, promote equality, improve lives and pay more than the real living wage.

2022 will undoubtedly be another year of exciting research, innovation and further improvement at Arena Flowers. You can keep up with progress through our socials and newsletters, and we’ll invite you to check in again next year to see how we’ve continued to bring positive change to our industry.

Fly grubs to further strengthen our environmentally intelligent farming methods and close another loop of circularity within our supply chain in 2022.

A final word from our CEO, John Hackett:

“We’re all hearing a lot more about sustainability and ethicality than we might have done just a few years ago. These phrases have entered the mainstream, businesses are taking great pride in telling us just how green they are and how they’re committed to change. Now, some of those businesses undoubtedly have every right to be proud of their efforts and achievements. Undoubtedly, many others do not. This is true in other industries too, but there are many organisations within floristry who talk a good game but their actions fall consistently short.

This is confusing for customers… How do they know which brands or businesses can be truly trusted on these important issues? We owe it to customers and the public to give them an informed choice but, to date, there isn’t an internationally recognised kitemark. We’re invested in changing that and very willing to work with our peers across the industry to create a British Covenant for Sustainable Flowers.

Until then, we encourage customers to think carefully about the actions of the businesses they choose to share their most important moments with, and to reflect upon the impact of making the wrong call.

At Arena Flowers we made our decision long ago - to be led by purpose and to commit to long-term, deeply embedded plans to bring about meaningful change.

This means thinking years into the future with our day-to-day actions, setting ever more ambitious targets and relentlessly pursuing them for the good of the business, our people and planet.”

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SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021

They can represent exploitative practices, difficult conditions, unfair rates of pay and damaging pollution. Gender inequality, waste of precious resources and poor treatment.

chapter Six

SUSTAINABILITY REPORT 2021 arenaflowers.com/sustainability-report