Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
In the gray gloom of winter, I like to brighten up my house with a colorful bouquet of flowers. And I got to wondering, where do these pristine flowers come from and should I be worried about the carbon emissions it took to get them here?
To find out, we had Yune Jee Bang and Ashley Junger from our Possibly team look into this question. Welcome, Yune Jee and Ashley!
Yune Jee Bang: Hi, Megan!
Ashley Junger: Hello!
Megan Hall: So, let’s get right to it – where do those cut flowers come from?
Yune Jee Bang: Well, most of them– over 80%– are imported. The Netherlands, Ecuador, Colombia, and Kenya are the main sources.
Ashley Junger: Most of the year, these flowers tag along on passenger planes. But if demand is high, sometimes they’ll get their own flights.
Yune Jee Bang: For example, leading up to Valentine’s Day, refrigerated cargo jets make about 630 round trip flights from Colombia to Florida, just to stock stores with roses.
Megan Hall: Wow. Do we know how many greenhouse gas emissions are created by those flights?
Yune Jee Bang: The International Council on Clean Transportation estimates that shipping a year’s worth of flowers burns about 114 million liters of fuel– or 360,000 metric tons of CO2.
Megan Hall: Is that a lot?
Ashley Junger: Let’s put it this way- that’s about the amount of carbon dioxide that’s created by 225,000 Americans in a year.
Yune Jee Bang: And those numbers don’t even include all the packaging you need to keep those flowers looking good to the end of their journey.
Ashley Junger: After landing in the U.S., the flowers ride in refrigerated trucks until they reach their destination.
Yune Jee Bang: And CO2 emissions can run 15% higher in a refrigerated van than a standard one.
Megan Hall: Wow! That would really add up. So should I just avoid flowers all winter long?
Yune Jee Bang: You could, but you’d probably be one of the only ones. Last year, Americans spent $2 billion dollars just on flowers for Valentine’s day. You might have a hard time convincing anyone to give them up entirely.
Ashley Junger: To avoid the emissions that come with imported flowers, some people are turning to their local farms.
Yune Jee Bang: To learn more, we talked to Mike Hutchison and Polly Hutchison: We own and run Robin Hollow Farm. We’re a cut flower farm here in Saunderstown Rhode Island.
Megan Hall: So, are local flowers really more sustainable than imported ones?
Ashley Junger: Well, it really depends on how the flowers are grown.
Yune Jee Bang: If you’re looking for locally grown warm-season flowers, like roses, in the middle of winter, they’ll need to be grown in a greenhouse. That means they’re generating emissions from the heating and lighting.
Ashley Junger: But some farms, like Robin Hollow, use less energy by growing flowers that are better suited to chilly temperatures:
Polly Hutchinson: And so the beautiful winter flowers that we all love or things like tulips, ranunculus sweetpeas anemones, you know, that you don’t really see in the grocery store.
Yune Jee Bang: And other farms use solutions that don’t require energy- like hoop houses or wood chips to insulate their flowers.
Ashley Junger: The bottom line is that if you’re just buying a bouquet or two, you don’t really need to worry about the emissions difference between local and imported flowers.
Yune Jee Bang: But if you regularly buy flowers or want to reduce the impact of the surge of imported flowers before holidays like Valentine’s day or Mother’s Day, consider supporting your local flower farm.
Megan Hall: Awesome, thanks for the tip!
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to the public’s radio dot org slash possibly. Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
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Possibly is a co-production of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative, and the Public’s Radio.
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