Our Sustainability Policy

Date written: Jan.2024

Sustainability is at the heart of Cumberland Flower Farm’s products and purpose. We grow cut flowers for homes cut flowers for homes, businesses and events in Cumbria using regenerative agricultural techniques with no chemical inputs to enable people to choose beautiful flowers for their life events that won’t contribute to the world’s climate crisis.

Our Mission:

We use this definition of Sustainability:

“Sustainability is defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”

- United Nations Brundtland Commission 1987

We commit to:

• Acting with respect for our world

• Reducing our carbon footprint and developing practices and products that are environmentally beneficial, not harmful

• Educating our community so that they are informed consumers

• Challenging preconceptions and traditions in order to make positive change

• Actively learning and improving our knowledge and share this with our community

• Consistently talking about the importance of provenance and sustainability using communication that is transparent, clear and unambiguous.

• Pay fair wages, to ourselves and our staff, and support businesses that do the same, and take a stand against Modern Day Slavery in the floriculture sector.

Our business decisions consider environmental, social and financial sustainability so that we can resiliently face the challenges of being a micro-business in a difficult, ever-changing world.

Our Carbon Footprint:

We’ve calculated our 2023 carbon footprint at 1.2tons CO2.
This is a 50% decrease on our 2022 emissions when our carbon footprint was 2.4tons CO2.

We know from calculating our carbon footprint that the greenhouse gas emissions of our growing is very low. By necessity of being in rural west Cumbrian, surrounded by mountains and sea, we have to travel some long distances to deliver wedding flowers on some occasions. Our Source 3 emissions are our highest but will reduce if we reduce what we buy-in.

According to an off-setting calculator we need to plant 12 trees to off-set our carbon footprint.

We have planted 130 trees this year, making us – on paper –  carbon negative.

However, we want to reduce our actual emissions and so we have a plan to do this.
To summarise this plan we will:

• Further reduce the amount we buy-in by increasing the amount we grow

• Move to an electric vehicle by 2028
  
  

If everything goes to plan – climate crisis willing* - our business should be NET ZERO by 2028. The perfect way to celebrate our 10th Birthday!

*The biggest challenge to our business is the climate crisis and the unreliable, unpredictable weather and extreme weather events. As the crisis worsens the challenge for us increase.

By business area here is a quick debrief:

Growing:

We grow in an environmentally kind way and are committed to:

• using regenerative and permaculture horticultural methodologies to protect and build soil health and use the natural resources of where we are based

• never using chemical fertilisers, herbicides or pesticides

• managing pest pressure with respect to biodiversity. We will build habitat that encourages insects, pollinators and birds. Predators will come!

• only ever using peat free compost

• composting all waste

We can improve some of the ways we work to improve production and reduce our need to buy-in during the spring and autumn/winter. Some of these actions include:

• investing in another polytunnel so that we can make our chrysanthemums a perennial crop

• improving our composting infrastructure

• Extending our water harvesting and irrigation.

Floristry:

Our floristry has always only ever used reusable mechanics without floral foam (or commercial alternatives) and one use plastics, designing to maximise the use of locally grown material and seasonal abundance. When we arrange flowers these design rules define our work:

• No floral foam

• No one-use plastic

• Reusable Mechanics

• Reusable Vessels

• No Imported flowers

We will continue to only supplement with British grown flowers, all year round, and we will work to reduce the amount we buy in with the longterm aim of growing and selling a cumbrian bouquet jan-december.

We will complete the CPD by the Sustainable Floristry Network in 2024 and trial alternatives for moss, tape and glue as this will open up more products for our wedding customers.  

Business Waste:

Our waste is extremely limited, and we are very close to being ‘zero waste’. We compost, reuse and recycle what we can’t avoid buying. We are avoiding buying from suppliers who use one-use plastic wrap. We procure supplies using Waste Hierarchy principles.

We do not buy or use one-use plasic, sourcing recycled/recyclable wrap and marketing materials that are home compostable and recyclable. We consider onward waste in the design of our products and services.

We are going to develop our composting infrastructure to make better compost that we can use as a mulch instead of bought-in alternatives.

Energy:

Off-grid farming encourages us to strategically use water and power and adopt alternative techniques to maximise the inherent resources on our land. Our fuel use for tools and our Kubota is tiny. However water harvesting and solar power use can be utilised more and we intend to add more gutters to our polytunnels and add irrigation to more beds to improve our productivity.

Strategies to reduce the amount of driving we do (and diesel fuel we use) are being developed. In 2023 we trialled a Collection Hub in Cockermouth, which we will extend in 2024. We will collaborate with more local wedding venues to reduce our use of a diesel vehicle too. An electric alternative will be in use by 2028.

Education:

We are passionate advocates of British flowers with regional and increasingly national reputation for a successful sustainable British flower business. By 2024 we will be an accredited Sustainable Wedding Alliance Member.

We are committed to using clear, unambiguous language and talking honestly about business and sustainability. Our retail products will continue to have content specific labels detailing their provenance and we will continue to emphasise provenance in our marketing. We will encourage others to do the same.

Confident in our ability to deliver sustainable, seasonal styling all year-round, we will start to work with Wedding Planners and Venues to promote our Sustainable Styling and the sustainable benefits of our seasonal flowers. In 2024 we will take out our first regional wedding specific advert to promote our sustainable, seasonal options.

In 2024 we will launch a series of courses that will help wedding couples and other florists and flower growers be more sustainable. We are committed to demonstrating the viability of a sustainable, seasonal flower business and the choices we can make that will help us reduce the impact of the climate crisis.