'Flowers of the future...'
Guest blog post by Joanna at Ethereal Blooms
Sustainable flowers - reducing your carbon footprint onboard, one bloom at a time
Sustainable yachts. Sounds like an oxymoron right? But believe it or not, there is a sustainability shift happening right now in the yachting industry. Shipyards and designers are looking for eco-friendly and fuel-efficient ways to deliver high end luxury with much less impact, and yacht crew themselves are increasingly looking for ocean and carbon friendly luxury alternatives. Whether it’s switching to bamboo toothbrushes; offering guests refillable water bottles with filtered drinking taps; or using ocean friendly cleaning products.
But what about flowers?
They seem so innocent; they’re natural, they’re biodegradable – sure it’s a lot of work to keep them looking great, but they’re not going to pollute the ocean for decades like plastic would, so what’s the problem?
The problem is that the fresh flower industry is one of the highest waste & emissions producing industries in the world per product. Each day, over 20 billion dollars worth of cut flowers are shipped and airfreighted all over the world in temperature controlled facilities and refrigerated trucks. And with such a short lifespan, the yearly environmental cost of buying a fresh floral bouquet every week is estimated at over 56 kg of CO2 emissions from field to florist to vase. Not to mention the millions of flowers that go to waste.
Flowers are non-negotiable on board, so what can be done?
Fabric flowers cannot compete in the luxury environment, and freeze dried roses in hat boxes can look dry and cliché, but a new alternative from Ethereal Blooms could be an option.
The latest advances in bio-technology have helped produce a scientifically innovative and 100% natural way to have the finest real fresh handpicked flowers on board, whilst also keeping your carbon conscience happy.
Real flowers, bio-preserved to last the whole season with zero maintenance
By increasing the lifespan of your arrangements on board up to six months, these bio-preserved blooms can not only look good, but feel good too.
And it gets better. Ethereal Blooms require no maintenance. No water, no sunlight, no refrigeration. They are an economical, efficient, eco-friendly solution to help ease some of the environmental guilt we feel, and save precious time and space while we deliver the best experience possible for our guests, who probably won’t even notice the difference.
As yacht crew we’ll probably never be able to call our jobs 100% sustainable, but there are certainly areas in which we can make a real difference. And the more of us that are making small changes, the bigger the overall impact.
You never know, perhaps one day there will be such a thing as a Sustainable Yacht.
Joanna Hirst (@blooms.at.sea), Yacht Stewardess since 2014 and Yachting Consultant for Ethereal Blooms @ethereal.blooms