Kamila Alikhani is the founder and creative director of Bloomier. Flowers make a beautiful, sustainably conscious gift for friends, family or even for oneself. Right?

According to Kamila Alikhani, the answer is — not always.

From plastic wrap to green flower foam, the West Vancouver-based florist says the industry can be a lot less green than people might expect it to be.

“Different colours of plastic, different layers of plastic, and on top of that, the transparent cellophane,” Alikhani says. “It is just so unnecessary.”

While Alikhani says there are likely many in the flower industry who would prefer to embrace a more sustainable model — doing away with wasteful design extras, plastic wraps and excess buckets full of flowers — she says the presence of said items are ingrained in the industry processes, having been the norm for a very long time. A flower arrangement from Bloomier. Coming from a non-floriculture background allowed her to see just how wasteful the industry really was.

“I guess because I didn’t come from a traditional floral industry, I could see it more clearly. And it really bothered me,” she says of the unnecessary extras. “We don’t need it. It’s just a habit.”

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But, when the former business analyst proposed a change in the bouquet wrapping and flower recycling programs at a local shop where she was working following a break from her career to raise a family, Alikhani recalls how she was met with a measure of resistance.

“I loved it,” Alikhani says of her time spent working in the shop. “But nothing was recycled — the green bin was mixed with tons of plastic. It was heartbreaking.”

So, she decided to create her own flower endeavour, one that was centred around floristry with a sustainable mindset. And Bloomiér, was the result.

“Somewhere where I could have a mindful, sustainable approach to floristry,” Alikhani summarizes of the business. After going through the numbers and developing a business plan, she decided to launch her new company as a flower subscription service.

“I saw it from the perspective of the client first,” she says of the subscription model. “Because I love flowers. And I always want to have flowers at home.”

Stemming from that personal preference, Alkhani hoped that others would to.“As a client, you would subscribe for either monthly, bi-weekly or weekly flower deliveries,” Alikhani explains. “The subscription model is one of the ways to keep our zero-waste approach. It allows us to source only the flowers needed for each set of arrangements. And that way we have no extra stock on hand and there are no unused flowers to be thrown away.”The monthly subscription costs $59, while it’s $70 for bi-weekly and $100 for weekly deliveries. The first bouquet delivery comes with a vase, which is then meant to be used to house the following bouquet deliveries. Flowers are delivered for free within the service area, which includes downtown Vancouver and the North Shore.This advertisement has […]