Sustainabloom puts industry spotlight on The Giant Co.: Cutting waste one bouquet at a time
Sustainabloom puts industry spotlight on The Giant Co.: Cutting waste one bouquet at a time
Sustainabloom, a supplier of sustainable floral packaging, is putting an industry spotlight on The Giant Co. for the grocer's efforts to reduce plastic waste. By rethinking its floral plastic sleeves, The Giant Co. reduced six tons of plastic annually — a seemingly small change with outsized results.
The new sleeves are thinner and shorter than the standard floral sleeve. Before the switch, product and consumer testing showed no changes in quality or appearance compared with traditional sleeves. When the company printed the change on floral sleeves in stores to call out the reduced plastic use, customers noticed.
"Customers comment on it and say it's great we are doing this," said Kevin Prill, category manager of floral for The Giant Co. "We've had no complaints."
Prill manages floral purchasing for roughly 200 stores across Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia, where the company is seeing strong growth in bouquet sales.
"As a company, we are always looking to be as sustainable as possible," Prill said. "And for floral, we wanted to start with the quickest and biggest impact we could do right away."
Together with Sustainabloom, the floral team examined sleeves with different thicknesses, lengths and plastic mixes to reduce total plastic used for packaging flowers. Each had different benefits. However, a switch from the standard manufactured sleeve — such as reducing the amount of plastic — would create a custom product from the manufacturer's perspective. For GIANT's new sleeves, developed in partnership with Sustainabloom, the cost difference was minor — about a half-cent per sleeve.
Given the positive results, Prill sees an opportunity for the overall floral industry to move in the same direction.
"This is the way to go," he said.
The next steps at GIANT include plans to expand the new packaging efforts beyond core bouquet lines to DIY, the consumer bunch program, and roses. The company also is working on pot covers.
Prill's advice for others who want to be more sustainable?
"Keep challenging yourself, with everyday items and your programs," Prill said. "Even though you've been using that same item or packaging for years, maybe it's time to look at it and see if there are more sustainable, better options out there."
