While we should all try to be both environmentally and socially aware year-round, the holidays can be a time when such things are forgotten and environmental and social issues are abused even further. Here are several ways in which you can participate in reducing your impact and have an enjoyable and ethically sound holiday season.
1. Rent a live Christmas tree!
For all us Christmas celebrators: don’t contribute to the destruction of our environment by killing something that works to clean up our environment. Check out how you can keep your family traditions and maintain sustainable beliefs with a living christmas tree. Bonus benefit: live trees can be both dropped off and picked up!
2. Smart decorating.
Decorate your homes and christmas trees with LED strands of lights. Don’t forget to set those timers so your lights are only on when it matters, at night! Check out how you can keep your family traditions and maintain sustainable beliefs with a living christmas tree.
3. Use alternative wrapping.
So much wrapping paper goes to waste every year, reuse old wrapping paper or use old newspapers. Or maybe try something a little different and wrap with fabric!
4. Gift with less packaging.
Try to avoid buying gifts that have excessive packaging, neither you nor the environment need that in your lives. Besides, packaging just gets in the way of the important part, the gift.
5. Know your gifts.
Conscious gifting is better gifting. Make somebody else’s holiday season by making sure your gift isn’t exploiting slave and child labor. Give the gift of awareness to those caught in horrible situations for our benefit and support ethical operations. Bonus point: try choosing more sustainable products made from materials like organic cotton, hemp or wood.
6. Shop locally!
Support local businesses while cutting down on your contribution to air pollution through consumer goods (you can even buy your big family meals from locally grown farms). And no, shopping locally does not include your local Target or Walmart, try to avoid all national or multinational corporations.
7. Minimize travel.
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Granted, this is fairly difficult for college students as the majority of us have at least an hour or more of travel to get home (like myself with 8+ hours of air travel, oops). However, once at home with the family, keep other personal travel to a minimum or investigate greener ways to travel! Enjoy your time at home by staying in your area, use this time to see old friends and catch up with family.
8. Buy eco-friendly candles.
Whether it's to light up your menorah or just for the aesthetics, buy natural candles made of beeswax or vegetable oil to cut back on pollution. Additionally, take the authenticity of your holiday celebrations one step further and enjoy them by candlelight!
9. Turn down the heat.
Although it’s a fairly hard thing to do, especially out here on the east coast, try turning down the heat! Time to get up close and personal with your loved ones, or just put on a few more sweaters. To all my fellow west coasters/warm climate dwellers out there, cold at home in no way equates to the cold we have here, so turn down that heat and tell the rest of your family that they’re wimps.
10. R-E-C-Y-C-L-E.
This is one of the easiest things to do on this list, you barely need to go out of your way to help out the environment. Take all those recyclable items and make sure they don’t end up in the trash. Boom, you’re an ethical holiday star.
11. Share your green.
Now that you have a handful of tips for celebrating the most important season in an ethical way, get your friends and family on board! The more people taking simple steps to reduce pollution and minimize social exploitation, the wider the impact! So essentially, by telling your friends and family, you’re creating a much bigger impact than just yourself.
For more tips about being ethical and sustainable during the holidays and year-round, click here.
Have a wonderful holiday season and remember the powerful impact you have on the world around you!
