sustainabilityreport

Our 2020

“Flowers. They make us smile. They light up a room. They make us feel more connected. But, like most things, they also leave an impact

on the planet. And because we all have a responsibility to clean up the footprints we leave behind, we’re working really hard to find ways

that’ll let us all enjoy flowers without leaving a big impact behind.

I’m proud to say we’ve already made big progress. Over the last year, we’ve started offsetting our carbon emissions, made big steps in the recyclability of our packaging (our letterbox packaging is now 100% recyclable!) and maintained zero waste to landfill. And we’re continuing to make improvements to help tip the scales. Over the

following pages you can find out more about what we’re already doing and what we’re working on next.”

We’re reducing the impact of our flowers

Co-Founder

We’re proud tosay we have

100%

0recyclable letterbox

packaging

waste to landfill

CO2e offset perbouquet from

September 2020

2.5kg

Over the past 6 months we’ve worked really hard to map our emissions across our supply chain. We thought it was important not only to include emissions from our direct operations (known as Scope 1 & 2*) but from our full upstream supply chain (known as Scope 3*). This means we’ve included all the carbon produced from our office, growing our flowers, transporting them, fulfilling orders in our warehouse and delivering to our customers. And it means that 2.5kg of CO2e is emitted to get every bouquet to a lovely customer, which is roughly the same as three bags of Italian pasta**.

Right now, we’re calculating ways we can reduce the CO2e every bouquetproduces even more. Our aim is to cut this back to 2.3kg of CO2e in 2021.

Keep reading to find out about how we’re taking responsibility across our supply chain. To help minimise the impact we create, from September 2020 we’re offsetting our carbon emissions by supporting projects around the world that improve lives and cut carbon. These include two Gold Standard certified projects in Kenya -the Burn Clean Cookstoves project and Aqua Clara Safe Water project.

What we’re doing next

We’re offsetting ourcarbon emissions

=1 bouquet 3 bags of

Italian pasta

* Source: Scope definitions as per the Greenhouse Gas Protocol 2020

**Source: Carbon Catalogue, Global Publicly Disclosed Product Carbon Footprints (2020)

We know that growing flowers to cut can leave an impact on the world we live in. That’s why we take

responsible sourcing, growing and transport seriously. And we only work with suppliers who do too.

Our flowers

We work with ethical flower farms around the world.* Almost 60% of our flowers are grown in Europe and another 34% in Kenya. We take this diverse approach so that we can - as far as possible - avoid using heated greenhouses. When we can’t grow in Europe without these, it

makes sense to grow in Kenya because - even with airfreight - the total carbon footprint of growing flowers in a warm climate is six times less** than growing flowers out of season in hothouses that are closer to our warehouses. Since learning this, we’ve become the first people to grow all-year favourites - like snapdragons - in Kenya to lessen our footprint.

When we can grow flowers in the UK, we pick flowers naturally in season close to our warehouse to minimise unnecessary carbon

emissions from travel. In spring and summer our UK grown flowers are picked less than 20 miles away from our warehouse!

On the rare occasion we can’t source our flowers from natural environments in Europe or Kenya, we do use heated greenhouses.

After running a detailed audit this year, we know that only 18% of our flowers are grown this way. And it’s a big priority for us in 2021 to

reduce this percentage further.

We source our flowers carefully

*Colombia, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Netherlands,Panama, Turkey, South Africa, Spain, UK, USA.

**Source: Dr Adrian Williams, Cranfield University Comparative Study of Cut Rosesfor the British Flower Market Produced in Kenya and the Netherlands (2007)

Europe Kenya Other

59%

7%

34%

Where do our flowers come from?

2 bananas

We work with farmers who can grow our flowers in natural conditions, and use chemical pesticides as a last resort. They pride themselves on their good agricultural practices and use what’s known as ‘integrated pest management systems’, which greatly reduce any risks to our people and planet. These systems work by finding ways to prevent pests from making a happy home in our crops instead of letting them settle, minimising the need for chemical sprays. And it helps to reduce wastage too.

Our farmers use botanicals to control pests wherever possible and only use pesticides as a targeted and very last resort. They also carefully monitor their total pesticide usage and are audited on how much they do use.

Our flower farms in Kenya have special projects in place to help protect forests and wetlands, while beehives and bat boxes welcome local wildlife. Sometimes they spot cheeky leopards sleeping amongst our carnations!

Like all living things, flowers need water to grow. But our farmers are careful to minimise how much they use. That’s why they use an innovative growing system (known in the industry as a ‘hydroponic’ system). This means they plant our flowers in trays of water instead of soil. Sounds strange, right? But it uses 30% less water as nothing drains away into the ground and rainwater is harvested into the system. Clever stuff.

Thanks to this smart technique, every bouquet uses approximately 150 litres of water by the time it reaches you. This might sound a lot, but it’s the same as a cup of coffee* or two bananas**.

We grow our flowers responsibly

1 cup of coffee1 bouquet

or=

With careful pest control Biodiversity projectsMindful water systems

*Source: Business & Human Rights Resource Centre, Friends of the Earth Report Documents Land & Water Footprints of Everyday Products

**Source: Water Footprint Network, Product Gallery

For deliveries across all of our markets, where we can, we work with couriers and postal services who offset their carbon emissions by doing

things like financing renewable energy production projects.

We’re also working with green couriers, who deliver our flowers on push bikes or in electric vans. From January-June 2020 these green

couriers travelled 45,643km (that’s like flying from Aberdeen to Sydney. Then back to Aberdeen. Then to Bali!), saving 11,956kg of

CO2 compared to if they’d been delivered by a diesel van.

We transport ourflowers mindfully

This saved greenhouse gases equivalent to

mobile phones charged

or

gallons of petrol

3,120,969

2,404

We’re aiming to launch a range of bouquets for the UK made completely of seasonal flowers grown on British farms near our warehouse. To make sure we don’t heat any greenhouses to do this, we’ll only use flowers that

are in season in Britain and happy to grow in our natural climate. So watch this space.

Reducing ourair miles

What we’re doing next

Increasingour green

courier targets

What we’re doing next

In 2021, we’re aiming for at least 30% of ourLondon deliveries to be sent by push bike.

Our packaging and wasteWe’re committed to making our packaging 100%

recyclable and maintaining zero waste to landfill to make our process as sustainable as possible.

We have very advanced systems to help us measure demand accurately. As a young, tech-savvy company, we’ve always used data and predictive analytics to continuously improve our forecast accuracy. This means we only grow what our customers will want to buy. But like any forecast, we can’t always get it 100% right (although we do always manage 95% or more). On the odd occasion we do have extra flowers left over, we have the following systems in place tomake sure they don’t go to waste.

We sell lovely leftovers to a local florist

We incinerate waste to make energy

We compost green waste for other companies to use

We always recycle

If we still have any leftovers, then we work with a florist local to our warehouse who takes them to the flower market and gives them new homes. And because we send our flowers to customers in-bud, they’re still in great condition on the rare occasion that we do need to re-sell them to our local florist.

So any damaged flowers, excess foliage, leaves or leftover stem ends don’t go to waste. And the flower farms we use also compost their green waste. So there’s no flower waste anywhere in our supply chain.

So even the things we can’trecycle don’t go to waste.

Cardboard, plastic and wood we can no longer use is sent off for a new lease of life.

We’re really careful with forecasting

We hold special eco sales

We hate waste. So we make sure our warehouses send zero waste to landfill. In fact, we’ve sent nothing to the landfill for the last 5 years! Wondering how?

When we can see we might have too many flowers, we offer them to loyal customers at an amazing price. So they can snap up these beautiful flowers at the last-minute and we prevent them from going to waste. Win win!

We’re responsible with what we produce

Our letterbox packaging is now 100%recyclable and free of single-use plasticsThis is Kerry. She heads up our supply chain. She’s been working really hard to find ways to make our letterbox packaging (which makes up 90% of our overall deliveries) 100% recyclable while still keeping our flowers safe on their travels. Over the last 18 months, she’s helped us make huge, huge progress.

Thanks to all her hard work, we now use...

Making all these changes means that by the end of this year we’ll save 60,784kg of plastic and polyester from going to landfill. That’s about the same weight as 929 fridges.

Kraft paper wraps (goodbye cellophane)

Paper flower food sachets (goodbye plastic)

Recyclable plastic plant bags

Recycled paper

Ribbons made from recycled bottles

Recyclable flower nets

Vegetable inks

It makes me feelgreat to say that ourletterbox packing is

now 100% recyclable.

60,784kg ofplastic and

polyester

=

929 fridgesEven the offer cards we pop in magazines and other companies’ boxes are made from recycled paper and vegetable inks!

60,784kg

How you can help

Sounds simple but it helps massively! So here’s everything you need to know.

Paper and cardboard bins

Cardboard boxes, arranging guides,post cards, offer cards, paper wraps,flower-food wrappers, gift cards

Plastic bin

Made from widely recyclable HDPE, these are accepted at local plastic bag recycling points and by some councilsin your kerbside recycling

Flower nets, plastic plant bags

Compost bin

Flowers, leaves, stems, plants

Fabric recycling bank(or keep and reuse!)

Ribbons

Normal bin

Water bags for hand-tied bouquets,bubble wrap around vases

Pop everything in the right bins

When flowers are thrown away in the normal bin, they end up in landfill. As they break down there, they produce methane, which is a harmful greenhouse gas. But the good news is there’s lots you can do to stopyour flowers ending up here.

Avoid sending your flowers to landfill

Dry them and keep in avase all-year round

Press them to pop in aphoto frame or album

Pop them in your compostor garden-waste bin

Invite pests’ natural enemies round

Making our hand-tiedflowers and plantpackaging 100%recyclable tooWe use bubble wrap for our vases and ceramic planters to help keep them safe on their travels and sometimes our hand-tied bouquets are sent with water bags to keep them fresh when it’s hot. But we’re looking into eco-alternatives - like cardboard holders and recyclable water bags - to do the job instead.Our aim is to make all our packaging 100% recyclable by the end of 2021.

What we’re doing next

Our peopleWhat’s just as important as our planet? All the lovely people on it. Keep reading to find out how we’ve been

supporting our team, suppliers and communities.

From March-August 2020 we donated £124,717 to the National Emergencies Trust Coronavirus Appeal (by donating 15% of profits every time someone bought Our Florist’s Pick). The trust has been distributing this money to local initiatives to help vulnerable people. Think things like care packages to families in Leeds who’d been relying on school meals to feed the kids. If you’d like to know more about the other places the money has gone to help, visit bloomandwild.com/national-emergencies-trust.

We also gave frontline workers 40% off our flowers to help them stay connected to the people they love and miss, or to treat themselves to a little pick-me-up while times were tough. 183,349 super hard-working people used this code and we gave over £2.5 million worth of discounts to them.

From April-June we donated €12,348 to Nebenan Stiftung (by donating 1€ every time someone bought our Clara bouquet). This community-led foundation works to strengthen and create vibrant neighbourhoods across the country.

From April-June we donated €875 to Fondation de France (by donating 1€ of the sales from three of our French tulip bouquets). This amazing cause provides aid for vulnerable people in times of unpredictable crises.

We’ve helped vulnerablepeople through the pandemicIn the UK In Germany

In France

As an online florist, we were very fortunate to maintain a strong demand from our customers throughout the pandemic. This wasn’t the case for everyone, so we increased our orders with suppliers and created new

bouquets to support our French and Kenyan farms who were left witha sudden excess of flower varieties like lily of the valley and tulips.

This prevented over 4 million stems from going to waste.

We’ve prevented over 4 millionstems from going to waste!

We’re supporting our suppliers through challenging times

Support for communitycare projects, like

Free transport to and from work

Ethical-awareness programmes

Generous holiday allowance

Extra support forwomen in work

So salaries aren’t spenton work expenses

Every supervisor on the farm hasfree Partner Africa ETI training

Everyone gets 30 days of annual leave and access to worker-welfare committees

1 year of maternity leave, withthe first 3 months paid full

Water aid for the Maasai community

Salary support for teachers

School meals

New mums being able to leave early for 6 months

Gender committees to supportwith and raise issues

We work with ethical suppliers We take caring about our staff seriously, which includes everyone at our flower farms and warehouses. That’s why we only work with partners who have strong ethical practices in place wherever they are in the world. Our biggest flower farms in a developing country are those in Kenya, and across all these sites our partners offer...

Training & development schemes

Health-awareness training

Because everyone needs access tothings that help them learn and grow

To make sure everyone is safe, healthy and happy at workSubsidised food and

canteen facilities for all workers

To help fuel everyone’s day

Although our team has been working from home during the pandemic, our office space is open for very small numbers of people who need it. And this year we’ve made lots of little swapsto make our ‘home’ kinder to the planet. From eco-friendly cleaning products, kitchen roll, toilet paper and sanitary products to recycled pens, post-its, recycling our coffee grounds and more.

We’recreating agreenerhead office

Like many people, the Black Lives Matter movement made us realise we could do better. So we’ve made commitments to our customers and staff to improve diversity in our marketing and team. Earlier in 2020, we started featuring more Black and NBPoC models in our marketing, we’ve updated our marketing and PR media list to include a more diverse mix of publishers and we’ve updated our influencer base for fair racial and LGBTQ+ representation, too. We also chose to support the Steven Lawrence Charitable Trust. This South London Trust was founded to tackle inequality in all forms. It’s dedicated to transforming the life chances of young people and improving the world in which they live to nurture their talent. And as we’re a South London based business, this feels very close to our hearts.

Internally, our People team have worked hard to strengthen our internal policy to better protect our team from any form of discrimination, working with specialists to help educate our team about unconscious biases (and how to question them) and reviewing our hiring process to look for proactive ways to attract and welcome a diverse mix of employees.

We’ve committed to ongoing training for all our new starters.This means that as our team grows we will continuously educate ourselves on all topics related to diversity and inclusion. And we’ll be holding our first diversity survey so that we can report internally on diversity in our team and measure our progress year on year.

We’re improving our diversity and inclusion

Continuing toeducate ourselves

What we’re doing next

That’s all for now But we promise to keep being open and honest about our

progress in the things we’re still working on!

We’d love to hear your thoughts.Feel free to email us at sustainability@bloomandwild.com

Got a question? Or think we can do better in a certain area?