Many entrepreneurs (like me) have led different lives and have tried several different avenues to create something meaningful that reflects their core values.
Before owning a plant, flower and rock shop and designing wedding and event florals, I taught at the College of Charleston in the Geology Department for 11 years. I have a master’s degree that focused on paleoclimatology in which I studied in detail the geochemistry of the pre- and post-impacts of humans on Earth. I’ve always been interested in the natural world — how it works and how to protect it — since I was a kid coming home with pockets full of rocks. My science roots and passion for the environment shape most of my decisions even now as a business owner.
While teaching at the College of Charleston, I volunteered to be on the board of a nonprofit called Lowcountry Environmental Education Programs (LEEP, for those of you who might remember our biodiesel school bus). This nonprofit took underserved, primarily minority students in the Charleston area to the marsh and to the beach to teach them about how to be better stewards of our fragile ecosystem. Many of these young students had never been to the beach, even though they only lived 15 minutes away.
I was interested in helping to develop an environmental curriculum with LEEP but also found myself on the events committee, even though I never planned a big party. I noticed previous fundraising events never matched our core values. Events were wasteful so when I took over, we executed Charleston’s first zero waste event in which everything was recycled, composted or reused. We had 400 guests and walked away with a box of trash mostly filled with packaging and cigarette butts. It was quite the feat for the early 2000’s.
I was really interested in infusing environmental standards into the wasteful event industry, so I founded a company in 2010 called Blue Planet Green Events as a side hustle to my adjunct teaching career. It wasn’t an easy transition getting wedding and event vendors to think sustainably. But I was really passionate about showing others how easy it could be to tweak standard operating practices.
Eco-friendly event planning led to incorporating flowers, which added another layer to figure out how to become more sustainable. In 2012, I read a book called the 50-mile Bouquet written by my now mentor and friend Debra Prinzing. It opened my eyes to the incredibly harmful environmental and labor practices of the floral industry. When most think of flower farms, they think of open fields of beauty with happy workers living their best lives.
But over 80% of all flowers used in America for anything from weddings to funerals are imported from other countries with little to no environmental or labor laws — think animal factory farming but for flowers. People and the environment pay the ultimate price for the general populations’ demand for all things to be grown all year round regardless of the season. The first article I ever wrote for the City Paper in 2020 tackled this issue in detail.
I’m inspired by nature, science and humanity to take a continual look at how to have less of a footprint and inspire those around me to care about the environment.
Ways we tackle our waste
Support more sustainably grown flowers and better working conditions by purchasing 100% American and locally grown flowers for the retail shop and 90% for our wedding work.
Every week for the last four years or so, we’ve donated any leftover flowers to Amor Healing Kitchen. It’s a wonderful nonprofit that delivers all healthy vegan meals (and our flowers) to those undergoing chemotherapy while mentoring high school students in the kitchen.
We pay SMART Recycling to pick up all of our flower compost every week. Last year, we composted 17.99 TONS of floral waste that would’ve ended up in our landfills. That’s the weight of more than two male African elephants.
We recycle all cardboard received in packaging if it can’t be reused.
What I have learned in over 13 years in business is that I alone can’t fix all of the issues with the floral industry, but we certainly can help chip away through leadership and education.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “We must use time creatively, in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right.”
We are always pivoting to do better.
Toni Reale is the owner of Roadside Blooms, a unique flower, plant, crystal, rock and fossil shop in Park Circle in North Charleston. roadsidebloomsshop.com.
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