We have a responsibility to protect our environment, our people and the communities within which we operate and source from.

ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Governance. At MM we have a team of technical experts from all three fields who take a holistic approach to ensuring the highest sustainability practices are maintained in our own operations and throughout our global supply chains.

Our ESG Strategy

Our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy focuses our efforts on the issues that we, as a business, have the most ability to impact both within our own operations and our supply chain. It is informed by a materiality assessment that captures views of key stakeholders

Environment

Decarbonise our product offerings and our operations

The products we sell are intrinsically dependent on climate and therefore climate change poses a significant risk to the future of our business; we believe decarbonising our operations and product offerings is the most effective part we can play in mitigating the climate crisis. Whilst the challenges are not unique to MM Flowers, there is a lot we can do to first understand, and then reduce, our footprint. 

In 2022 we worked with external sustainability consultants to conduct a carbon Life Cycle Assessment of our biggest volume crop, a Kenya intermediate rose, followed by a full corporate carbon footprint. This work provided insight into our hotspots and provides the roadmap of where we need to focus. We have science-based targets and seek to be Net Zero across scopes 1, 2 and 3 by 2040, but know that we can’t do it alone and that it requires collaboration to achieve our goals.

Did you know?

MM Flowers has significantly invested into decarbonising our operations via a 1.3MW solar array on the roof of our Huntingdon site. This currently delivers circa 20% of our energy use and we have plans to further invest in the coming years.

Circularity and packaging

Circularity and material usage efficiency make sense, both financially and environmentally. Maximising the value of a material, extracting the most value from it before passing it on to a second or third usage, is vital to ensure we have the lightest footprint possible. Packaging plays a central role in our ESG strategy; we have an in-house steering group to drive packaging innovation and absolute reductions.

Our zero waste to landfill policy ensures that our operations in the UK and the Netherlands send 100% of their waste for composting, recycling or energy recovery. Our key growers have a variety of waste solutions including on-site plastic recycling and anaerobic digestors powered by flower waste.

Did you know?

Approximately 75% of our UK customers use closed loop Proconas or buckets for delivery to store, and via Royal FloraHolland we are part of a much wider closed loop system for buckets and boxes.

Water Security and Stewardship

Regardless of location, water is a resource all our growers depend on. We are utilising the WWF Risk Portal to understand where the water hot spots are and are building baseline data of regions most susceptible to negative impacts from water scarcity, quality, and flooding.

This will allow us to develop an engagement programme to delve deeper into our supply chain and understand the broader mitigations these experts in their areas have already in place, and facilitate learning to support their continued development.

Did you know?

All our shareholder farms have stringent water management plans and have invested in rainwater harvesting, which captures runoff from the greenhouses and stores it in dams, reducing the need for direct aquifer and surface water abstraction. Across their Kenyan farms alone, our shareholders’ water storage now totals over 700,000 cubic metres.

Farming Practices with Nature

Flowers are purchased for their beauty and therefore must be free from symptoms of pest attack and disease. Our crop protection strategy is underpinned by transparency, sharing information relating to all aspects of plant health and working with growers who employ integrated pest management and appropriate precautions when applying crop protection products.

We employ a risk-based approach, removing or reducing chemicals identified as posing the highest risk from an environmental and human health perspective. Samples are taken regularly and anonymously from flowers delivered to our facilities and sent to a laboratory for robust, independent residue testing. For many years, our shareholder farms have invested significantly in alternative, non-chemical-based, integrated crop protection methods and we are working with our wider grower base to assess and mitigate biodiversity risks throughout our supply chain.

Social

Fair wages and worker welfare

With 35,000 people working on shareholder flower farms across our vertically integrated supply chain, we recognise our responsibility to provide decent work and ensure good working conditions. 

Through our collaboration with the FSI and other membership bodies we are committed to better understanding how we can work together to identify and continuously improve the lives of people who work across our supply chains.

Did you know?

On our shareholder farms in Kenya, all employees receive free lunch, free transportation to and from work, and access to free healthcare. In Colombia and Ecuador, recognising the differing level of economic development, lunch, transportation and healthcare are also provided, but at a subsidised rate.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

Women play an integral part in our farming operations, and gender is our priority within the DEI agenda in our supply chain.

We are mapping the makeup of the workforce at different management levels across our shareholder farms to identify areas for improvement. All our shareholder farms have gender sensitive processes, policies and committees in place, striving towards parity and women’s empowerment. Pregnant women and lactating mothers also receive additional support, beyond maternity leave.

Modern Slavery Prevention

Modern slavery is a risk in most businesses and especially in global supply chains.

Our risk assessment process enables us to regularly assess and respond to risks within our own operations and supply chains. Read more about our approach to in our full Modern Slavery Statement found at the bottom of this page.

Community Engagement

We strive to have a positive impact in the communities that we operate and source from, partnering with customers, suppliers and NGOs. In the UK we partner with local charities through providing product and financial donations, as well as skills based volunteering.

Across our vertically integrated supply chain in East Africa and South America community projects focus on education, health and nutrition, economic empowerment and gender. These projects provide benefits to employees as well as to the wider communities. All our shareholder farms have their own projects, tailored to their individual communities. Please keep an eye on our ‘news’ page to read more about of grower’s initiatives 

Collaboration

The Floriculture Sustainability Initiative (FSI)

A market-driven initiative that brings together members of the international floriculture sector. MM joined as a member in FY23 alongside our shareholders, Vegpro and Elite, together representing a significant part of the supply chain.

Find out more

Food Network For Ethical Trade (FNET)

A membership organisation using the collective leverage of suppliers and retailers to bring about positive change in working conditions in global food, beverage, and horticulture supply chains. MM is a long-standing member of FNET and part of the empowering work working group. 

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IDH Call to Action on Living Wages

MM is a signatory of the proactive work IDH is leading on to close the living wage gap in horticulture supply chains.

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Modern Slavery Intelligence Network (MSIN)

In FY23 MM joined the MSIN a pioneering non-profit collaboration in the UK food and agriculture sector created in response to the findings of Operation Fort, the UK’s largest ever modern slavery investigation.

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SEDEX

MM is a member of the Suppliers Ethical Data Exchange (SEDEX) to continuously improve ESG outcomes in our global supply chain. 

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Fairtrade

MM works in partnership with Fairtrade on many of our key stakeholder farms to provide Fairtrade products to the consumer and benefits to the communities that provide them.

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