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Sustainability at the centre

Striving for a Positive Impact

 

Arcadia aquatic is founded on a clear mission - 100% local & natural flora that elevates & celebrates all life phases of plants & flowers.

This clarity of values drives every choice we make & all that we offer.

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Being mindful of our choices is a learning experience for all of us!

Sometimes the footprint of flowers isn't fully understood. We hope flower lovers will keep asking questions and support low impact!

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We are anti greenwashing and pro transparency and education. We won't be vague with you, or pretend we are more sustainable that we actually are! Here is all our efforts...

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Source local​

  • ​95% our flora comes from 150km or less of Adelaide​

    • Flowers imported from interstate or overseas are cold chilled for weeks requiring significant energy, fumigated with chemicals to meet biosecurity & transported 1000's km using fossil fuels

    • This massively reduces the embodied energy in our supply chain compared to imported flowers. ​

  • The remaining 5% is occasionally sourced from other parts of South Australia like around Robe, and once a blue moon we will rescue preused items from other florists to dry and give another life too.

  • We can tell you where everything we use comes from, we know the local growers, we use non commercial growers and negotiate special access to a range of properties to source from, including our own property in the foothills.

  • Low impact harvesting - we harvest seasonally and leave plenty for the birds & bees and habitat from dead branches too. Many of our selection is collected after it has already dislodged from the main tree or sea plant - windy storm weather has it benefits.

  • Currently we rarely visit wholesalers as there is very little labelling of origin and a huge amount of single use plastic sleeves.

  • We strongly support the calls for origin labelling of flowers in florists and wholesalers.

 

No bleach, dyes, fumigation chemicals

  • Bleach & chemical dye free - did you know a lot of mainstream dried flower products can be artificially bleached and sometimes also dyed with chemical colouring? These products aren't compostable and have to go to general landfill. â€‹â€‹â€‹â€‹

  • We never use tinted, dyed, bleached items and we believe any florists using these should be super transparent, including providing chemical info and disposal guides.

  • We are passionate about offering natural alternatives where the colour comes from the power of the sun to naturally bleach & colours that reflect natural drying process

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Powered by Renewable Energy

  • Our vehicle is electric & powered from our rooftop solar & renewable retail energy

  • Our studio is powered by rooftop solar & renewable retail energy

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Avoiding single-use plastics

  • Its not easy & we are still working on completely removing plastic but so far:

    • Never use floral foam - a microplastic common in mainstream floristry.

    • We don't use single use plastics when we supply wholesale

    • We won't source any flowers from growers that are wrapped in plastic

    • Our arrangements are presented in reuseable glass vases and paper wrapping.

    • We use compostable biobags to wrap wet stems

    • We use true natural rubber bands that are compostable rather than petro-chemical made bands

  • The amount of hidden single use plastic in the floral industry is concerning & we hope to play our part in changing the current industry norms.

  • We are hopeful the industry will see alternatives to petro chemical 'cello'.​

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Reusing, upcycling & Composting

  • We proudly reuse dried flora to maximise the life of our resources and give our clients great value service.

  • We are always sourcing vintage and preloved vessels to upcycle

  • Water in our studio is reused on our property to water our plants

  • Our green waste either becomes mulch on our property or council greenwaste compost.

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Buying recycled, recyclable & plant-based

  • We are constantly striving to source paper & cardboard products that are 100% recycled. Its not always easy depending on the product but we keep at it.

  • We investigate materials for our upcoming homeware range that minimal carbon footprint.

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Being upfront

  • We aim to share as much information as possible with our clients so you can make informed choices

  • Ask us anything, we enjoy talking about our ongoing process

 

Helping local Florists offer you local over imported!

  • You might be aware that a significant percentage of flowers are imported? Often from developing countries which raises carbon footprint, ethical work practice and chemical use questions. It has also impacted the viability and number of local flower growers struggling to compete with imported products.

  • We have amazing foliage & flowers in Australia, lets all ask specifically for local when we purchase flowers whether fresh or dried!

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Want to Learn more? Check out

https://sustainablefloristry.org/

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https://www.abc.net.au/gardening/factsheets/my-garden-path---rita-feldmann/11967072

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https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2018-10-10/sustainable-flower-bouquets-on-the-rise/10351556

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https://www.pipmagazine.com.au/grow/the-slow-flower-movement-is-blooming/

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