Fairtrade Flowers
Imogen Stone is the only independant florist that is a Fairtrade licensee. We became licensees because we vehemently believe in what the Fairtrade Foundation is striving to achieve and we wish to fully support them. We are constantly looking for more varieties of Fairtrade flowers and we will add any we find to the website.
Fairtrade is about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. By requiring companies to pay sustainable prices (which must never fall lower than the market price), Fairtrade addresses the injustices of conventional trade, which traditionally discriminates against the poorest, weakest producers. It enables them to improve their position and have more control over their lives.
Some people are concerned about the carbon footprint of Fairtrade flowers because they are flown in from countries like Kenya and Columbia but studies show that Fairtrade flowers have a lower carbon footprint than dutch flowers. The heating and lighting energy required to grow flowers in greenhouses is often overlooked and is actually far higher than the energy used in transportation from sunnier countries.
The Fairtrade system includes environmental standards as part of producer certification. The standard requires producers to work to protect the natural environment and make environmental protection a part of farm management. Producers are also encouraged to minimize the use of energy, especially energy from non-renewable sources.
In addition, by purchasing Fairtrade products, shoppers in the UK are ensuring that producer organisations receive a Fairtrade premium for investment in economic, social and environmental products of their own choice. These premiums can enable farmers to implement a range of environmental protection programmes which will contribute to the range of solutions needed to address climate change and ultimately benefit all of us.
By choosing Fairtrade products, you can therefore help producers preserve their own environment as well as have a positive social benefit in their community.
Some organizations, also called Alternative Trading Organisations (ATOs), are purely dedicated to trading fairly and have been doing so for many years before Fairtrade certification was established. There are, however, some other companies making their own ‘fair trade’ claims without having the independent scrutiny of the Fairtrade Certification Mark, or being part of a recognised network such as IFAT. You need to ask what these claims are based upon. If you want to be sure that farmers and workers are receiving the better deal offered by Fairtrade, always look for the FAIRTRADE Mark.
Imogen Stone only uses the Fairtrade Mark where the product sold is 100% Fairtrade. Even though not stated explicitly on the product page, we always use Fairtrade flowers wherever available mixed in bouquets with non-Fairtrade flowers.
In addition to Fairtrade flowers we use local suppliers wherever possible. All our orchids come from Ivens Orchids in St Albans, just 5 minutes from our workshops. Narcissi come from the Isle of Scilly and non-Fairtrade foliage is source in England.
Click here for our range of Fairtrade Flowers.
Think Fairtrade Flowers - think www.imogenstone.com
For further information on Fairtrade click here.