Fair trade flowers are a thoughtful way to brighten up a loved one’s day and their space while also ensuring that the people growing those flowers were respected along the way, too.
Why Choose Fair Trade Flowers?
If you’re purchasing flowers in the United States chances are you’re purchasing imported flowers, as they make up an estimated 90% of the market. These imported flowers are probably from either Colombia or Ecuador where workers regularly face labor exploitation and are often underpaid.
According to International Labor Rights Forum’s “Fairness in Flowers” campaign, 55% of flower workers in Ecuador have experienced some form of sexual harassment and 20% of flower workers in 2000 were children.
While conditions in Colombia are reportedly not as severe as in Ecuador, workers are regularly fired when discovered to be pregnant and the majority of flower workers are paid poverty-level wages, earning less in an entire day than what a typical single bouquet costs to purchase.
Additionally, workers on flower plantations in South America and elsewhere are often denied the rights to organize and bargain collectively for better wages and conditions by companies that (illegally) blacklist and fire workers who organize. The practice of third-party subcontracting — which reduces transparency and company accountability — also contributes to labor injustices, despite the introduction of stronger labor laws.
It’s clear the the current paradigm is failing flower workers — it’s time for a fairer flower industry.
Types of Fair Trade Flower Certifications
This certification ensures that the flowers were sourced from farms that meet stringent labor standards, plus the business or importer using the Fair Trade Certified
seal must pays a sum in addition to the purchase price that goes to the producer community in the form of Community Development Funds.
The Fairtrade mark is a certification from Fairtrade International. There are a few different types of Fairtrade marks so it can get confusing! Essentially the mark with the black background recognizes an entire product as Fairtrade certified and the mark with the white background recognizes a particular ingredient within the product as Fairtrade certified.
Products with the Fairtrade mark have been independently audited and checked for compliance with Fairtrade International’s economic, social and environmental standards.
5 Places with Fair Trade Flowers
Now that there’s a clear backdrop of why choosing fair trade flowers matters, let’s dive into where you can find these ethically sourced flowers!
1. Whole Foods Whole Trade Flowers
Where to Buy: Whole Foods locations across the US and Canada or through Amazon Prime in select zip codes.
Whole Trade® is the label from Whole Foods guaranteeing ethical sourcing from third-party Fair Trade certifiers. This “Whole Trade Guarantee” is a commitment to ethical trade (fair wages and good working conditions), ecological responsibility, and investments in community development.
2. Arena Flowers
Where to Buy: Online for delivery within the UK
“The UK’s most ethical florist”, Arena Flowers has a collection of ethically-grown roses and other flowers sourced from a range of Fairtrade certified farms in Kenya.
These farms have been using the Fairtrade premiums for ecological sustainability, water efficiency, and educational projects.
3. Sense Ecuador
Where to Buy: Online for delivery within the US or Ecuador
Based in Florida, Sense Ecuador is a socially and environmentally conscious business with premium fair trade roses. Their elegant roses are sourced from Hoja Verde Farm and are Fair Trade Certified.
The flower marketplace also offers speciality floral bouquets and boutonnieres for weddings or other events.
4. Bloomingmore
Where to buy: Online for delivery within the US
Bloomingmore has been partnering with farmers for over a decade, delivering sustainable flowers grown in the Americas and Europe across the United States..
The flower retailer has a beautiful selection of fair trade roses, and claims that their fresh flowers last twice as long as flowers purchased from the market.
5. Co-op
Where to Buy: Available in Co-op stores throughout the UK
UK-based food retailer Co-op is owned by millions of members, making it one of the world’s largest co-operatives. With a foundational commitment to equity and solidarity, all of the roses Co-op sources from Africa are Fairtrade certified. Co-op makes up a significant share of the market, purchasing 35 million Fairtrade roses per year!
More Ways to Get Involved With a Fairer Flower Industry
Engage with flower companies
Talk with your neighborhood florist or to the flower companies you typically purchase from (like 1-800-FLOWERS) and voice your concerns with the flower industry and tell them that you care about these issues. Ask them what they’re doing to ensure their flowers were sourced ethically.
Shop for local flowers
Look for flowers at farmer’s markets from local farms (who you know follow sustainable and ethical practices) or maybe you can even cut flowers from your own garden for a bouquet.
Floret Flowers can be a great resource for finding local-to-you farms with in-season and even organic flowers. I used this directory to find a locally-grown bouquet for my wedding day!
You May Also Want to Check Out:
Ethical Gifts for Everyone On Your List
Consciously-Sourced Gifts for Mom
Sustainable Valentine’s Day Gifts for Every Love Language
The post Where to Find Fair Trade Flowers For Any Special Occasion appeared first on Conscious Life & Style.
Curating a conscious home is a thoughtful process involving much consideration — who made my products, how they were made, and what are they made from — and this guide aims to support you on your journey towards finding ethical and sustainable home decor you truly love.
What is Sustainable Home Decor?
Sustainable home decor includes any home decor that is made in a way that takes into consideration both the makers and the planet. Sustainable home decor will be ethically made using eco-friendly and natural materials. Eco-friendly decor will also be produced using sustainable supply chain practices. This includes using renewable energy and recycled or compostable packaging.
While there are numerous sustainable home decor brands, some of which are featured below, first consider what’s already been made in order to prevent contributing to new waste. Secondhand, used, or DIY home decor options are typically more sustainable than buying new.
What is Ethical and Fair Trade Home Decor?
Ethical and Fair Trade home decor is produced in a way that adheres to Fair Trade standards and is, ideally, Fair Trade Certified. Fair Trade means paying artisans and makers a fair, living wage and providing ethical working conditions. Ethical home decor also includes supporting goods made by artisans using traditional heritage techniques and art forms. Many cultures around the world are at risk of losing their age-old artisanal crafts forever in the age of mass manufacturing.
It’s important to note that sometimes a major brand may use an “eco” fiber while still supporting irresponsible labor practices, and excessive production amounts that inevitably lead to a lot of waste. This is not true sustainability in my mind!
Most artisan-made home decor is ethically produced and directly supports the makers. However, it’s important to check if a brand or marketplace is transparent about their business practices to ensure they are ethical or Fair Trade.
Where Can You Find Sustainable Home Decor?
In terms of environmental sustainability, looking secondhand and vintage is always a great first place to look for sustainable home decor.
But if you’ve scoured those options and haven’t found what you’re looking for and/or if you’re looking to financially support artisans and traditional crafts around the globe, this shopping guide is designed for you. You’ll discover many brands with artfully designed and artisan handmade goods for furnishing any space among this list of decor brands.
All of the brands in this guide use natural and/or recycled fibers and avoid the use of virgin synthetics like polyester; however, some brands do use materials that are not the most environmentally-friendly option on the market, such as conventional cotton.
And of course, I wanted to choose brands that followed slow, thoughtful production practices, prioritizing artisan handmade over factory labor and quality over quantity.
So without further ado, here are my favorite small-batch, artisan-made, and ethical home decor brands.
Note that this guide includes affiliate links — as always, we only curate brands vetted for sustainability that we love (and that we think you’ll love too).
1. Urban Natural
Categories: Accent Pillows, Tabletop, Lighting, Wall Art & Mirrors, Blankets & Throws
Eco-friendly home retailer Urban Natural is on a mission to curate high-quality furniture (and other home goods) built with quality and free of toxic chemicals. Urban Natural carries several sustainable home decor brands, including artisan brands Ethnicraft and Jaipur Living as well as ethically USA-made brands Farmhouse Pottery and East Fork.
2. GOODEE
Categories: Pillows, Lighting, Wall Decor, Planters, Baskets, Blankets, Candles
GOODEE is an ethical marketplace featuring numerous sustainable artisan brands and designers. You’ll find a variety of beautifully crafted home decor goods to suit a wide range of styles. Goodee is a Climate Neutral and B Corp Certified company. They publish an annual impact report so you can easily ensure their business practices align with your values.
Our favorite brands on Goodee are Texidors, Baba Tree, Makaua, and Tensira.
3. Healthier Homes
Categories: Rugs, Lighting, Tabletop, Baskets, Wall Decor & Wallpaper
Founded after years running an award-winning healthy home building firm and publishing a book by the same name (Healthier Homes) this retailer is a go-to online destination for finding non-toxic home goods. The eco-friendly home decor on Healthier Homes is primarily made with natural materials like clay, cotton, seagrass, mango wood, and bamboo,
4. Will & Atlas
Categories: Baskets, Tabletop
Will & Atlas is a women-owned small business making most of their homewares from plant materials like jute, palm leaf, and hogla grass. Their natural fiber baskets are flexile but sturdy built to hold blankets, pillows, laundry, magazines, toys, or just to stand alone as a decor piece. You’ll also find jute coasters and placemats in their tabletop collection.
The brand is committed to ethical practices, partnering with nonprofit fair trade artisan groups in Bangladesh and craftspeople in the U.S. to build long-lasting production relationships.
5. Ten Thousand Villages
Categories: Baskets, Pillows, Throws, Candles, Wall Art, Planters & Vases
Founded 80 years ago, Ten Thousand Villages is the original fair trade store. Throughout the decades, the nonprofit business has continued their commitment to fair wages, safe working conditions, as well as sustainability.
As a founding member of the World Fair Trade Organization, with artisans around the world from under-resourced communities. Most of the products they carry are made from recycled, upcycled, and natural materials.
6. MagicLinen
Categories: Curtains, Kitchen Linens
Linen is an exceptional material for home decor — there’s a reason we say “kitchen linens!” It’s natural, beautiful, and is often high quality.
I purchased a set of linen curtains from Magic Linen one year ago and they remain one of my favorite home decor pieces. The fabric they use meets the OEKO-TEX® STANDARD 100, meaning its been tested for harmful substances.
7. Passion Lilie
Categories: Pillow Covers, Table Linens
Passion Lilie is a fair trade fashion and lifestyle brand with ethically made home decor, too. The Fair Trade Verified brand has handwoven cotton blankets, organic cotton kitchen linens, unique ornaments, and hand-dyed throw pillow covers.
Each piece is made by Passion Lilie’s partners in India who pay living wages and ensure a safe working environment. Beyond this, the brand supports efforts to enable artisans to continually develop their skills and creates opportunities for community development.
8. 54kibo
Categories: Throw Pillows, Wall Hangings & Artwork, Mirrors, Baskets, Rugs, Lighting
A destination for modern African artisanal decor, 54kibo curates a stunning selection of ethically made home decor. The pieces on 54kibo are made with time-honored techniques using locally sourced materials with rich histories. The designs are exceptional, but the stories behind them make the pieces beautiful additions to your home beyond the surface.
9. The Citizenry
Categories: Baskets, Planters & Vases, Tabletop, Wall Decor, Mirrors
The Citizenry partners with artisans around the world, ensuring safe conditions, fair wages, and offering grants to their artisan partners so that they can expand their businesses.
Their online collection features small-batch artisan-made home goods made from locally-sourced and natural materials like palm leaves and indigo dyes.
More Sustainable Home Guides:
Sustainable Furniture Brands to Furnish a Conscious Home
Best Eco-Friendly and Zero Waste Kitchen Products
Easy Swaps for a Low Waste, Sustainable Bathroom
The post 9 Beautiful Places to Source Ethical and Eco-Friendly Home Decor appeared first on Conscious Life & Style.
9 Beautiful Places to Source Ethical and Eco-Friendly Home Decor
Take a look at why hemp is heralded as a hero material and discover 14 hemp clothing brands that have tapped into its sustainable potential.
The exploration of fabrics has always been a starting point for sustainable innovation in fashion. After all, fabrics provide tangible proof that change is possible while having a direct impact on the environment in one way or another. Plus fabrics are responsible for an outsized proportion of a fashion brand’s carbon footprint and overall environmental impact, including biodiversity loss and pollution.
So, What is Hemp Fabric?
Hemp is a bast fiber produced from the cannabis sativa plant, where every part of the plant can be utilized for over 25,000 industrial uses including clothing, biofuel, bricks, paper, and textiles.
Contrary to its popular association, hemp is actually the sober sister to marijuana. Unlike its recreational sibling that’s grown for its psychoactive THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) properties, hemp contains less than 0.3% THC, a value that was the driving force behind the legalization of hemp production in the 2018 Farm Bill. So while you can’t really get high from hemp, you can definitely enjoy its material benefits — which are plenty!
What is Hemp Clothing?
The simple answer is that hemp clothes are garments made from hemp fabric! But the important caveat here is that most hemp clothes on the market today are not made from 100% hemp fabric. They are usually blended with other fibers, like cotton.
At this point, hemp fabric manufacturing is not at the scale or technological level that the manufacturing of cotton (the most popular natural material) is, making 100% hemp clothing more expensive to produce. Also, pure hemp fabric is also known to be quite stiff until a couple dozen washes later, so blending it with a fiber like cotton can make it softer and easier to wear on the offset.
100% hemp fiber content clothing does exist, it’s just rare at this point. Though we do think this will change with more sustainable material investment happening in the textiles industry.
Is Hemp Clothing Comfortable?
It depends! The softness of hemp clothing will vary based on how the fabric was produced and if it is blended with other fibers like cotton or lyocell. Pure hemp clothing can be rougher than cotton, but hemp is known to get softer with every wash.
Also, since hemp is a natural bast fiber that comes from the softer parts of the plant’s stalk or stem, it is softer than the coarser leaf fibers.
Can Hemp Clothing Protect From The Sun?
A lesser known benefit of hemp clothing is that it can reportedly even help shield you from harmful UV rays. According to skin cancer research, a fabric’s UPF (Ultraviolet Protection Factor) value is a number that coincides with the fraction of UV rays it allows to pass through and hit your skin — the higher the UPF number, the better the protection.
Research claims that hemp has a UPF of >50 (according to European standards) due to natural pigments and lignin within the fibers, which act as UV absorbers.
Is Hemp Clothing Sustainable?
There are a lot of benefits to hemp clothing. But don’t just take our word for it, we’ve listed some of hemp’s most impressive sustainable qualities below:
1. Hemp is not resource-intensive
Hemp can be grown under a variety of agricultural and ecological conditions and has a capacity to grow rapidly.
Hemp clothing vs. cotton: With a high yield of 250% more fiber than cotton, hemp requires less land to grow, has no need for harmful pesticides or chemicals, and needs as little as 1/3rd of the water compared to conventional cotton. (Though individual use cases may vary based on the region that each of the crops are grown.)
2. Hemp is a restorative plant
Growing hemp can also help contribute to the maintenance of soil quality, courtesy of its anchored roots which prevent soil erosion and nutrient loss.
In fact, research shows that hemp can be used to restore contaminated soils through ‘phytoremediation’ — a process that has proven successful in the early