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The holidays are the best time of the year. Filled with family, friends, food, and hopefully a few days off, there’s not much to complain about! It also is a season of excess; we order expensive gifts from all corners of the world, growing our carbon footprint and the hole in our wallets. Here are some tips to be more ocean- and cost-conscious this holiday season.
Holiday cards
Opting for e-cards is certainly the most environmentally friendly way to share family photos with your extended network through sites like greenevelope.com and bluemountain.com, but if you choose to stick to the more traditional route of mailing holiday cards, be sure to source companies that use sustainable or recycled products or give back by offsetting their carbon footprint or planting trees.
Gift Wrapping and Packaging
Save and reuse all gift wrapping material given to you, especially gift bags! This will save you last-minute trips to the store, money, and time.
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Another substitute to buying new wrapping paper is a little DIY: using and decorating old paper grocery bags. This makes every aspect of the gift seem more personal and special.
Gift Giving
Every year we struggle to find appropriate, reasonably priced, and useful gifts for our loved ones. Instead of spending so much time online shopping or sifting through countless stores in the mall, you could make a donation to your loved ones’ favorite charity in their names.
If you prefer giving tangible gifts, the holiday season is a great time to visit craft and holiday fairs to support local artists and small businesses in order to minimize your carbon footprint.
For ideas on DIY gifts made from items you might have lying around the house, check out this awesome article, 40 DIY Gifts For Absolutely Everyone on Your List.
Other great environmentally friendly gifts include:
A subscription to a local co-op or Imperfect Produce, an awesome company that helps fight food waste by delivering “Ugly Produce,” the produce that would usually be thrown away by grocery stores because it is not aesthetically pleasing. Farm-to-door delivery services would also make a great gift, promoting healthy living, sustainability, and convenience.
Hydro Flask, a water bottle that has developed a strong cult following in the past few years, is the perfect gift for someone who is always on the move. Hydro Flask’s charity, Parks For All, supports the development and maintenance of public green spaces around the United States.
Lush Cosmetics is dedicated to offering 100% vegetarian cosmetics in conscious packaging, buying and making ethically, and fighting against animal testing. They are not only paving the way for more environmentally friendly cosmetics practices throughout the world, but they also have something for everyone on your list – including bath products, makeup, lotions, and shaving products.
Patagonia is an amazing outdoors-wear company dedicated to fighting climate change and creating long-lasting, sustainable clothing. They recently made headlines by donating the $10 million the company saved in corporate tax cuts to organizations fighting climate change.
