Will you be giving a flower bouquet to your loved one this Valentine’s Day? If the answer is yes, then why not make it a ‘green’ one!

Retailer Marks & Spencer is using a special kind of packing for its dozen fairtrade roses, which it claims uses less water, to transport thousands of flowers this Valentine’s.

It claims it is the first retailer on the high street to use what is called the Modified Atmosphere Packaging (MAP), where flowers are sealed in an airtight bag and no water is used at all for transportation. It works by “almost putting the flowers to sleep” by helping slow down the respiration rate of the flowers.

By using MAP, M&S claims it will save more than 10,000 litres of water over the Valentine’s period – equivalent to around 40,000 cups of tea. It will also help the firm cut its carbon footprint as each bouquet requires less space, which enables it to cut the number of delivery trucks used for the flowers by a quarter.

Charlotte Curtis, M&S flowers expert said: “Both M&S and our customers are always looking for ways to save water and MAP is a great opportunity to significantly reduce consumption in a simple, effective way. We’re hopeful that MAP will be a big success that’s rolled out across lots more of our home delivered bouquets in the near future. Trials are already underway and proving successful to make sure that this happens soon.”

The project has been introduced as part of the company’s Plan A sustainability initiative, which is M&S’ commitment to become the world’s most sustainable retailer by 2015.