Where do your Valentine’s Day flowers come from?

We know roses are red but can they also be green?

In Europe, most flowers – particularly those amorous bouquets of roses we receive on Valentine’s Day – come from large-scale flower farms in Kenya or are grown in gigantic greenhouses in the Netherlands.

But the cut flower industry is changing. Growers are adapting to the impending threat of climate change and rising energy costs. Businesses are greening their operations and transport logistics amid new European regulations.

Consumers are now asking questions about carbon footprints and provenance before selecting their flowers.

Climate change is already impacting the global flower industry

Dr David Bek has spent the last 20 years asking what a sustainable flower looks like. If he were to be brutal he says, it would be “a flower grown naturally in your garden that’s been fed by the rain – or something in your local hedgerow”.

But Bek has long been an influential voice in shaping the cut flower industry beyond our garden walls.

As a professor of creative economies and ecological sustainability at the University of Coventry, he has seen firsthand “a sea of change in attitudes and business practices” in the industry over the last five years.

Companies are intensifying their sustainability efforts, in part, due to “the realisation that environmental issues…are causing problems for the industry as the variability of weather produces the biggest threats of all,” he explains.

“If you don’t know if the next season is going to bring a hurricane or extreme rainfall, then you get huge problems for the industry.”

In Kenya, where our favourite Valentine’s Day roses are often grown, erratic weather conditions are already causing problems.

“Climate change is already having a huge impact on flower farm workers,” says Mahsa Yeganeh, senior sustainable sourcing manager at the Fairtrade Foundation. “Rising temperatures, erratic rainfall, and droughts are threatening flower yields and increasing production costs.”

“Without urgent action, the livelihoods of thousands of flower farm workers could be at risk.”

Even growers in Europe are struggling. Bek recalls a recent conversation with a small-scale flower grower from Scotland who had been looking to buy new land. They decided against it when they realised the risk from wind would be too much with increasing storms.

Large-scale growing operations in the Netherlands, the heart of the flower industry, are also taking a beating from rising energy costs.

The bulk of European-grown flowers stem from vast greenhouses in the Netherlands

Dutch flower growers supply about 70 per cent of flowers sold across Europe and a majority of these end up in the UK. The greenhouses where they’re grown come with plenty of environmental challenges, from heating and water usage to pollution and the use of chemicals.

Several Dutch municipalities – Zutphen, Amersfoort, and The Hague – have even banned flowers at public events. Health concerns over Dutch flowers containing high levels of pesticides including some that are banned in the European Union played no small part in this decision.

Last year, the Fund for Pesticide Victims in France officially recognised that a child died from leukaemia because her florist mother worked with Dutch flowers that contained pesticides.

Despite these concerns, it’s also The Netherlands where the public is leading conversations about sustainable floristry.

“Holland has a much greater awareness, partly because people there literally see the greenhouses with the lights on,” explains Bek.

“In the Netherlands, a key focus is on reducing energy consumption”, says John Janssen, project leader at SMK, a Dutch foundation whose mission is to make mainstream agricultural production more sustainable.

“This includes lowering the use of natural gas for heating and optimising electricity use for assimilation lighting. Additionally, minimising the use of chemical crop protection products is essential to reducing environmental harm.”

Transportation holds the biggest carbon footprint for flowers

Bek’s own research shows that most consumers buying a bouquet of flowers are more likely to worry about the plastic packaging or the seasonality of the flowers than anything else. But this distracts us away from the “very real environmental impacts of transportation and heating, which are the most problematic parts of the industry.”

“If you stick things in an aeroplane, they’re going to have a high carbon footprint, but the heating and lighting greenhouses for 24 hours a day can be just as problematic,” Bek explains.

However, he adds, an increase in sea freight uptake for African and Latin American flower production is supporting carbon reduction efforts.

Kenya’s economy heavily relies on the floriculture industry, with approximately 100,000 flower farm employees supplying 40 per cent of cut roses to Europe. Half of these go through the Dutch flower auctions.

However, a focus on fairer practices means 38,000 of these flower workers are now employed across 48 Fairtrade-certified flower and plant producer organisations. These farms are challenging the status quo when it comes to greener business practices.

“It’s critical that we support sustainability efforts within the cut flowers sector,” says Yeganeh. “Fairtrade-certified farms adhere to environmental standards, promoting responsible water use, reducing harmful chemical reliance, and encouraging biodiversity.”

Fairtrade roses from Kenya or flowers from the Netherlands?

A recent study showed that Fairtrade roses transported by air had a lower energy demand than roses from the Netherlands – even after including transportation to Europe. That’s because flowers grown in Kenya’s warmer climate don’t require heated greenhouses.

Fairtrade roses used 6.4 times less energy when transported by air and 22 times less by ship than Dutch roses, according to updated figures from Fairtrade Max Havelaar Switzerland & MGB. They also produced 2.9 times less greenhouse gas emissions by air – and 21 times less by air.

The Fairtrade study also highlighted that growing roses in Kenya uses 65 per cent less water, and can better support biodiversity compared to standard Dutch rose growing practices.

However this comparison study “may overlook other environmental factors,” Janssen cautions. He points out that the use of chemical crop protection products and the fact that Kenya faces significant water scarcity could have a greater impact on local resources compared to the Netherlands.

‘Disruptive’ companies are changing the way your flowers are grown

Bek recently visited one Dutch mass grower that he thinks will be “quite disruptive” to the industry.

Porta Nova, located close to the world’s largest flower auction in Aalsmeer, has managed to reduce carbon emissions to 56 grams per stem, he says. They have done this by using 100 per cent wind energy, LED lighting, and closed-loop fertilisation systems that ensure 100 per cent reuse of excess water.

“This is a reduction of about 90 per cent compared with non-renewable energy powered greenhouses.”

“The Netherlands is one of the world’s largest producers of floricultural products, with a global trade network that sets the industry standard. Competing on price alone is not a sustainable strategy for the Netherlands,” says Janssen.

“Instead, the key to long-term success lies in responsible, sustainable production. And taking social responsibility.”

There’s no perfect answer to a sustainable bouquet

Whether you choose flowers grown locally or from abroad, there are better choices that support sustainability and climate initiatives.

Support flower workers being impacted by climate change

If you’re seeking to support the livelihoods of flower workers in emerging countries on the frontline of climate change then Fairtrade flowers are an excellent choice. Fairtrade flowers are traceable back to the original farm and pay a 10 per cent ‘Premium’ which is invested back into the community, including climate-resilient initiatives.

While the climate crisis is already affecting both the life cycle of flowers and their livelihoods, Agnes Chebii, a flower farmer in Kenya says that Fairtrade Standards provide solutions: “We use rainwater collected in the greenhouses when it is too sunny, so we can irrigate our plants.”

Choose certified European-grown flowers

Nearly 90 per cent of Europeans would prefer to buy locally grown flowers and plants. Yet just one-third of people currently do, according to a 2022 survey conducted by Kantar in the Netherlands, France, Germany and the United Kingdom for The Flower Council of Holland.

When buying European-grown flowers, look out for the ‘On the way to PlanetProof’ certification, which guarantees a more sustainable bouquet. SMK introduced this label as an independent and science-based standard that sets strict environmental requirements to be used by European flower growers.

Seek out local flower growers near you

You can also support independent flower growers and find unique small businesses by looking for local associations, such as the Slow Flower movement in France, or Flowers from the Farm in the UK.

One Flowers from the Farm members is Sammie’s Flowers. Based in Yorkshire, England, this small flower-growing business blossomed out of “a combined love of flowers and the natural environment,” explains founder Sammie Hall.

She says that even though flowers grown and sold in the UK have a tiny fraction of the environmental footprint when compared to imported flowers, there are a lot of barriers for the local scene to flourish. She adds that education about what seasonal actually means is key, with customers confused by “misleading advertising by supermarkets” and “all-year-round availability of flowers”.

“Homegrown flowers, especially native wildflowers, if grown outside without pesticides have the added benefit of supporting our insect population and other wildlife.”

“The appetite from consumers for environmentally friendly flowers is certainly there but we still have a lot of work to do to spread the message of what that truly looks like,” says Hall.