2) Reusing LOTS of things!
- Our flowers come secured with rubberbands. Instead of cutting them off, we carefully remove them and use them over and over again for many purposes!
- Many times, we have customers and recipients return vases to us or bring us boxes full of containers once they've gotten too many. We clean and sterilize each one, and reuse it when possible! If we can't use it for an arrangement, we often use it for storage on our benches for pens, cutters, knives, scissors, etc.
- We even recycle the stems from our flowers! When we have extra long stems on roses, daisies, mums, or other assorted blooms, we pick up those cut stems and put them in a cabinet to harden. We then can use those in various different ways to give height to a card pick, straighten shoots of plants, and dress plants.
- We use both sides of the paper, all the time, even when it comes to printing! Especially for faxes, we use paper that's been used before; we just flip it over! Even after that, we find ourselves needing scratch paper, and many times, we create makeshift notepads out of the blank areas left. That way, we can make our notes AND save a tree! For memos, announcements, and pricing guides, we use a marker board or a chalkboard, to eliminate paper waste.
3) Not using aerosols!
- No more aerosol leaf shine here, folks! We've switched to a liquid spray bottle alternative instead. This variety is not harmful to the user or the environment, and we prefer it because it's odorless, too.
4) Visiting Aqua Systems
- Our friends at Aqua Systems, in Fairview Heights, have assisted us in becoming a little more earth-friendly by helping us get away from individually bottled water beverages. We now purchase the large, multiple gallon, refillable bottles with a tap, and we fill glasses and cups instead of using and throwing away bottle after bottle.
5) Using enclosed flourescent lighting
- Our lighting for our work room, coolers, delivery room, and storefront
is lit only by flourescent, encased bulbs.
These put out a great deal of light, allowing us to work easily,
but they are also energy-friendly.