With Mother’s Day less than a month away, the Rainforest Alliance’s green guide to gifts will help you spoil your mum without spoiling the environment. By giving a gift with the Rainforest Alliance Certified™ seal and the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) seal you will be helping to protect the environment and wildlife, and promote sustainable livelihoods of farmers, farm workers and their families around the world. Read the rest of this entry ?
Archive for the ‘Flowers’ Category
Say it with sustainable flowers, and help Kenyan small holders.
22/05/2010
Today sees the arrival of the world’s first Rainforest Alliance Certified™ small holder flower bouquets in selected Asda stores. Asda is helping farmers ensure their products are environmentally and socially responsible by introducing these bouquets which they have sourced exclusively from Kenyan small holders. By achieving Rainforest Alliance certification the farmers who will be supplying Asda have committed to growing their flowers in a way that improves the productivity of their soil while protecting rivers and water courses and ensuring their farms also provide healthy habitats for wildlife.
Tensie Whelan, Rainforest Alliance’s president said, “We are thrilled to see certified flowers from Kenyan small holders being brought to Asda customers, providing the producers with a chance to add value to their product, and rewarding them for growing their flowers in a sustainable way.
Asda’s sourcing of these flowers is the result of an ongoing project called “new business models for sustainable trading relationships”. Within this project, the UK-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) and the US-based Sustainable Food Laboratory, together with a team of flower chain experts forged links between the highly innovative Kenyan business, Wilmar Flowers and Asda. Buying these bouquets from Wilmar Flowers is part of Asda’s commitment to source £30million of products from Africa within five years.
Income for every Rainforest Alliance Certified™ bouquet will help farming and farm worker’s families send their children to school, access better healthcare and meet their basic needs. This relationship will help families to make long-term investments in their communities, such as improved housing.
