For a long time, we lived in the so-called Anthropocene, an era where nature served human life.
Now that we鈥檙e seeing the consequences of this way of living, there鈥檚 been a steady shift towards the Symbiocene: a time where humans, nature, and technology seek a new balance. The call for greater awareness, particularly regarding sustainability, is growing stronger.
In many sectors, people are eager to showcase their sustainable actions. They highlight their recycling efforts, reusable packaging, and concern for the environmental and social impact of their operations. Sustainability seems to have become the norm.
As a senior executive at a renowned trading company in flowers, plants, and accessories, I鈥檝e been responsible for CSR for years. And for just as long, we鈥檝e been doing things differently. Sometimes consciously, because it aligns with the spirit of the times or with laws and regulations, but often unconsciously.
Since I鈥檓 also responsible for marketing, I keep facing the question: should we actively communicate all this?
We鈥檝e actually chosen not to. There鈥檚 always room for improvement, and we work on that every single day. Boasting about every small step doesn鈥檛 suit our DNA, nor mine personally.
What we have done is establish a platform where links in our horticultural supply chain can share information about sustainability. Of course, we promote this platform, but in a subtle way. Now that customers are starting to ask whether we use reusable packaging (we鈥檝e done so for decades), or whether we take back and separate waste (always been our standard), we feel more compelled to share our story. To do this in a way that fits us, I prefer to refer to our platform circles.fm, where our partners can post relevant sustainability insights. What we haven鈥檛 shared yet is the work we do around crop protection
Within our CSR team, Dionne has specialized in crop protection. She checks residues regularly and interprets lab results. Soon, she鈥檒l start publishing her findings on circles.fm as well.
Another development I鈥檇 like to highlight is the upcoming content on greener cultivation. We鈥檝e created a focus area called 'Product of the Future', showcasing what growers are doing to cultivate in closer harmony with nature. This ranges from using natural predators to deploying sticky traps.
isn鈥檛 just cultivated more sustainably, it also sometimes requires flexibility and a shift in mindset from florists, retailers, and consumers. So yes, out of enthusiasm, I鈥檝e started 鈥榖roadcasting鈥� after all. A next blog will certainly be about my personal view on sustainability, and how we can deal with it, as a chain and as humans.