Arena Flowers were excited about being shortlisted for the Mayor’s Responsible Procurement Awards in December 2010.  We had a great evening at City Hall and thought we’d take a moment to tell you about it.

What are the Responsible Procurement Awards?

The Responsible Procurement awards themselves are there to recognise contributions made by suppliers to and staff of the Greater London Authority (GLA) group towards procurement delivering significant social and environmental benefits.  A bit of a mouthful but essentially, responsible procurement within the GLA group is a policy to ensure that procurement delivers environmental benefits, social benefits and economic efficiency.  This stimulates the GLA group internally and also external suppliers to work on meeting environmental, social and economic objectives.  The award ceremony itself is to recognise those internally, or external suppliers who’ve successfully gone the extra mile to make their business or area more environmental, socially responsible and efficient.

For example, the winner of the Ethical Sourcing internal award was Phil Roddy, who has worked with London Underground’s uniform procurement.  Phil won his award as a result of his work with uniform manufacturers, meaning that London Underground staff’s fleece jackets are made from recycled plastic bottles.

Arena Flowers' Will and Pascale with London Deputy Mayor, Richard Barnes

Why were we shortlisted?

Arena Flowers was entered into the environmental sustainability category of the awards. We deliver flowers to individuals across the UK and we also supply Transport For London with a flower and gift delivery service.  Our environmental credentials are strong; being the first UK florist to sell “Fair Flowers Fair Plants” flowers, we are the only florist in the Good Shopping Guide’s ethical supplier directory and we won an Online Green Award from the IMRG in 2008.

We have an unusual buying process for our flowers. We buy our flowers directly (one of the Arena Flowers buyers is at the flower auctions in Holland at 5am each morning), meaning that we cut out extra cost and extra time getting flowers from growers to the customer – this means the flowers spend less time in expensive energy-consuming fridges (and also last longer for the recipients).  Buying directly and selecting stems ourselves ensures not only the quality of the flowers but it also means we can buy exactly what we need, so wastage is reduced.

But it’s not just the flowers, we also use carbon neutral hosting of our website and print our cards on paper from sustainable sources (and where possible, with vegetable-base inks!).  Flowers couriered in boxes are in boxes made from recycled paper. We also recycle all our paper, printer cartridges, cardboard and green waste.  And we sell organic wines to add to orders too.

Awards night

The award ceremony itself was held at City Hall in London – an amazing building with fantastic views and it was very nice to meet London Deputy Mayor, Richard Barnes.  Richard is also a member of the London Assembly for Ealing and Hillingdon, so we hope to see him at Flowers HQ some time soon.

Although we didn’t win the award, it was a great evening to find out what other suppliers and GLA staff are up to.  The award trophies themselves were made from waste timber from New Scotland Yard.  For us this reinforced the message that it’s not just the big things that matter to ensure an environmentally responsible business, but also the small things we can do day to day.  Something which we are constantly mindful of at Arena Flowers.

We’ve been pretty quiet on the blog recently. Don’t worry, we’re still here and up to lots of things as usual but there was one thing we’ve been getting involved in and I wanted to give it a bit of a thumbs up here on the blog.

Friendship Works is a registered charity in the UK which has been providing mentoring and support for children for over 30 years. The charity relies on volunteer mentors who support a child on a long-term basis by meeting up with them weekly, for a trip to the park, or the zoo – or whatever they decide to do. All of the children supported are from vulnerable backgrounds and facing difficulties such as low incomes, domestic violence, bereavement or long-term illness.

It seems the simplest of concepts, but it gives the child a reliable respite from their problems at home. For the volunteers, it gives them a chance to make a small difference to a young person who needs some better times.

Friendship Works takes an unusual approach, as it requires the volunteers to commit to 2 years of mentoring. The charity believes this type of long-term stability is exactly what these children need. It also provides a chance for the volunteers to really get to know their ward and let the relationship develop.

Arena Flowers are involved because we like to support charities when we can, and this year we’ll be providing gifts to be auctioned at their charity evening this month (28th November). If winning some Arena Flowers’ flowers and gifts isn’t reason enough to be interested, the event: “An Evening with the Stars” features support from Sir Ian McKellen, Kevin Spacey, Bill Paterson, Richard Stilgoe, Tim Pigott-Smith, Dame Eileen Atkins and friends who are all supporting Friendship Works for this one-off event. Each star will perform their personal choice of theatre, poetry or music on the theme of childhood. There is a cocktail reception before the show and a private dinner with the stars afterwards. For more information and to purchase tickets: http://www.friendshipworks.org.uk/support_us/events.html

A few months ago, Stan had posted a blog on how Arena Flowers is encouraging people to raise money for Cancer Research by sending out flyers for the Race For Life charity event along with all Cancer Research flower orders. Little did we know then, that we had an in-house participant in Carole, our Accountant and keeper of the books.

Carole is taking part in the 10k Race for Life run at Hampton Court on 27th September 2009 in memory of her friend, Janie Cassie who was her colleague at Raven Roofing & Building Supplies in Twickenham. Janie battled breast cancer for five and half years and passed away in December 2008. Carole is keen to raise as much money as possible to help fund research at Cancer Research and she is joined by her ex-colleagues and their families from her former company. Every pound raised through Race for Life counts and with Carole and entourage from her previous company participating in the event, we are certain that they will contribute enough to the charity to help them buy vital equipment used for research into cancer.

Now in its 16th year, Race for life is the UK’s largest women only fund-raising event, where women come together to raise money in support of Cancer Research UK. Hundreds of thousands of women of all ages walk, jog, run and have fun at the charity events across the UK, to help raise money to beat cancer. The event, held annually across the UK since 1994 has raised nearly £240 million and for 2009, an estimated 735, 000 women are expected to raise £60 million.

At Arena Flowers, we work with two of the biggest charities in the UK, British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK and have also extended our support to other charitable organisations such as Global Giving. We are extremely proud to support Cancer Research UK through our flowers site and with Carole being a part of the event this year, we have a greater sense of accomplishment in being truly committed to supporting social causes. If you are interested in sponsoring Carole’s great cause, please feel free to donate by visiting here.

To learn more about our work with charities, please see our posts on good causes and fund raising.