I’m dreaming of a GREEN Christmas?!!
I’m dreaming of a GREEN Christmas?!!
OK, so it may not be traditional, but how about a ‘green’ Christmas this year? I’m not trying to be Scrooge-like and ‘bah humbug’ about the whole thing, but making a few thought-through choices can help this to be a season that brings goodwill not just to those close to us but to people right around the world. The following tips are either ‘green’ or ‘ethical’ – or both, as actually it is often hard to decide where the dividing line between the two can be drawn.
Starting with the tree
Real or fake? Not as easy to decide as you may think – real ones are wasteful as they are thrown away at the end of the season and growing and harvesting them lays waste to acres of land every year, but on the other hand they are usually grown in this country providing UK jobs, the planting of new trees to replace them helps to consume CO2, and you can take your tree to be chipped (to be used on children’s playgrounds etc) in January at local recycling sites.
Fake trees are made from plastic which is made from oil (and we all know the increasing scarcity and cost of that!), they are usually manufactured abroad meaning there are no guarantees that they have been produced in factories where employees are treated well, paid a decent wage and protected from the harmful chemicals in the dyes etc, and no guarantees that the pollution from the factory isn’t released into the local environment; and then of course they have to be transported around the world creating more CO2 and using more oil. On the plus side they can be re-used year after year, reducing waste (though when you do come to throw it out it’s straight into landfill, never to rot away).
An ethical and green alternative to the above would be to not have a tree at all. You can decorate the house as usual but miss out the tree. If you want a focal point or something to arrange the presents under you could find a small branch that’s been blown off a tree to decorate – children would love a walk in the woods to choose the perfect stick and can paint it gold or silver before putting on the decorations. Friends of mine do this every year and their house always looks beautiful at Christmas (they are both artists though!!)
Of course when it comes to Christmas lights the fewer the better as they all add to increased electricity consumption and therefore an increase in greenhouse gases. When buying new lights look for low-energy ones, and always turn them off when out of the house and when you go to bed. (This also has the advantage of saving you money so that January’s bank balance needn’t be quite such a shock!)
Food
For ethical and green food shopping, local & organic is where it is at! Check where your meat has come from (you may be shocked how far!) A good butcher will provide you with reasonably-priced local meat, and some offer savings cards so you can start the new year saving up for next year and spread the cost.
Get veggies from the greengrocer or a veg-box scheme like Riverford who deliver to your door (08456.002311 to find out more). If you must shop in a supermarket for convenience get used to reading labels to see how far your food has come – every extra mile adds up to more greenhouse gases, and even if it is grown locally supermarkets have a nasty habit of sending produce to a central packaging and distribution depot up country before sending it back down here labeled ‘local’!! Beware of exotic fruit that has to be air-freighted in – a kiwi fruit from New Zealand produces more than its own weight in CO2 being transported to this country! And supermarket organic produce usually comes from abroad and is flown here – negating the environmental advantages of growing organically. The good news is that a traditional Christmas meal is entirely made up of seasonal UK veg, so you should be able to eat food with very few food miles – a good habit to get into for next year.
Gifts
I’m not going to try and tell you what to get Auntie Mabel (that’s one hard decision you’ll have to make on your own!!) but in general when gift shopping this year try to think about where things have been made, by whom, and how far they have been transported & how (air-freight not good!). Buy local & UK where you can, support fair trade where you can (Just Craft have an excellent range of gifts and can order more in from the catalogues available in-store), and for that awkward-to-buy-for person consider an ‘alternative’ gift – these are available from many charities and you can get almost anything – from a pair of sandals for someone with leprosy to a school! You send the money for the gift you choose to the charity and they provide you with a card for your beneficiary telling them what you have bought on their behalf. Last year my brother ‘got’ a stethoscope for an African health worker caring for AIDS orphans ‘cos he’s training to be a doctor – neat huh?!! Try World Vision, The Leprosy Mission and Oxfam as starting points, or pick up a copy of ‘The Good Gifts Guide’ from the back of church.
Those are just a few ideas to make yours a ‘greener’ Christmas. God bless your celebrations of His arrival on Earth – the ultimate in green Christmases, though the gifts from the Wise Men had done a few miles!