17 Ways to GREEN Your Holidays by Jennifer Kaplan
Walking the green walk, isn’t always easy, and the holidays present special challenges. It’s not always easy to mess with traditions. Last Thanksgiving I hosted a 100-mile Thanksgiving (I chronicled it in two blog posts on the Organic Mania blog). My attempt to convince my mother-in-law in Tampa that buying condensed milk at my local supermarket for her traditional key lime pie wasn’t really in the spirit of the plan, did not go over so well. That said, I can see a 100-mile Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanza or even a 100-mile gift rule.
Tip #1: Source locally. Use local and sustainable produce, flowers, beverages, décor and rentals for holiday parties and meals.
Beyond that, there are two primary categories of activities involved in greening holiday parties and events: Finding ways to minimize the impact of the consumption occurring at the event itself, including food, flowers, beverages, décor, gifts, etc.… Finding ways to mitigate the carbon footprint resulting from the airplane travel, car travel and lodging consumed for the event.
The good news is that there are a number of greening strategies that can deal with some or all of these factors that that are sexy and require little to no extra costs. Here are 16 other ways:
1. Make sure you have a recycling plan in place. Make recycling easy by having a sufficient number of well-marked recycling bins near where people need them.
2. If you are exchanging gifts (…think Secret Santa), make them green. There are a host of environmentally friendly gifts items ranging from aluminum water bottles to solar powered messenger bags to fair trade chocolates to locally made crafts that could fit the bill.
3. Donate leftover food. Instead of throwing away unused food, donate it to a local food bank or homeless shelter.
4. Don’t serve bottled water. By serving filtered tap water you will not only generate less waste but you can save a bunch of $$.
5. Don’t use disposable plates, cups, cutlery, etc…
6. Green your holiday cards. Look for cool green holiday card options. Then in the new year find good green things to do with holiday cards.
7. Eliminate envelopes by sending postcard invitations. [Good]
8. Reduce the amount of paper by sending smaller cards. [Good]
9. Use recycled content paper cards—strive for 100% PCW content. [Better]
10. Send holiday cards and invitations electronically. Services such as Sendomatic, ConstantContact and Evite are easy to use. [Best]
11. Encourage guests to carpool or use mass transit.
12. Encourage guests to book on greener airlines.
13. Use green transportation/Rent hybrid and alternative-fuel vehicles. Use a taxi or car service that uses alternative-fuel vehicles.
14. Encourage guests to rent small cars. Most small vehicles, other than small luxury cars, get better gas mileage. For example, 100% of Avis‘ economy, compact, intermediate and standard cars meet EPA guidelines for fuel-efficiency and are EPA SmartWay Certified.
15. Encourage guests to choose a green hotel. Unless they are like my in-laws; then forget about it…
16. Carbon-balance your dinner. You can balance the environmental impact of your meal or party with a carbon offset purchase from a company like TerraPass. It is quite simple to calculate an event’s carbon output and the cost of mitigation based on how many people will be attending and how many flights and hotel rooms will be used.
Republished with permission: Jennifer Kaplan is a Partner with Greenhance “helping small business grow green” Contact her at 202-288-2183 or online at: www.Greenhance.com, on Twitter at ~ http://twitter.com/greenhance and Linkedin http://www.linkedin.com/in/greenhance Pre-Order “Greening Your Small Business” http://tinyurl.com/GreeningYourSmallBusiness Source: Ecopreneurist.com
Holiday Shopping Ideas:
Bangalla Who said going green was expensive and drab? Bangalla has turned the green world upside with fashionable, stylish eco-friendly products which are not only practical but make cool gift items as well. Hundreds of items to choose from! Like the Eco-Produce Bags are eco-friendly recycled cotton produce bags. These functional bags are designed to carry fruit or venegetable or can be used as an everyday cosmetic or gift bag,. 3 packor 5 pack.
Sierra Club
Join Sierra Club for $25, get a free expedition backpack and protect our wildlands this holiday season.
Precycle ~ Tonic makes it easy for people to do good things. The definition of Tonic is “anything morally, mentally, or physically inspiring.” Tonic is a media company focused on the good that happens each day in neighborhoods all around the world.guilt-free experience, so enjoy it and help spread the word.
For more great holiday shopping ideas, check out the Premier Issue of the Women’s Holiday Gift-Giving Guide here: http://bit.ly/1Z6LSF
Note: When you purchase products from some of the holiday gift suggestions, WE Magazine may make a small commission or referral fee.
