So, ways in which we tried to reduce our carbon emissions this Christmas:
Send e-cards - save on transport and manufacturing emissions. It does seem a bit of a waste to send paper cards which just get chucked away in January. We used Cancer Research which has a choice of cards, and rather usefully remembered all the email addresses from last year so it was very quick to send cards out again. We donated some money to show that we were not just being cheapskates :) Added advantage is that you can send them out on Christmas Eve rather than worrying about last postage dates. Friends of ours send ecards with cute pictures of their kids in santa's elves outfits, which is a bit more personal alternative (but, I think only if you have kids - a presidential-style couple shot by the holly-covered mantlepiece is a bit much).
A cautionary tale - my father insisted on printing out his ecard so he could put it out with his others. Some people may not appreciate ecards.- Virtual presents - we gave a few people Oxfam Unwrapped presents. Saves on transport and manufacturing emissions, and helps save the world. The two school books to an African school reduced my teacher mother-in-law to tears on Christmas Day. So if you put a bit of thought in, it can still be a nice personal present. I'm usually first in line to be cynical about some of these schemes - not sustainable, is the money actually doing good etc - but I have two friends who work at Oxfam who assured my that this scheme does genuinely help, so I decided to trust them.
- Food
- Buy locally - save on food miles by sourcing local turkeys and other food.
- Avoid food with lots of packaging
- Don't buy too much food that will just be wasted.
- Reusable trees - get a real Christmas tree that you can replant in the garden (transport emissions) - we didn't actually do this, as we didn't get round to putting up any tree. But in theory, this has to be better than getting a new tree every year. Or is it? Perhaps we should encourage more trees to be planted? My instinct would be that the transport emissions would more than offset any CO2 absorbed by the tree, but I am happy to debate this. Or, just get an artificial one - will last for years.
- Foist eco-presents onto others (whether they like it or not) - ho ho ho. Credit to my father who bought us a "no more standby" electrical plug device. We gave a few people onya bags. Buy kids board games instead of plastic electrical things requiring batteries.
- Use recycled wrapping paper - didn't manage this in the pre-Christmas rush. Oops. At very least, make sure you recycle all your cards and paper.
- Turn off the Christmas lights (and all the other lights) when you are not around (save energy). Consider remonstrating neighbours who insist on lighting up their whole house with moving santa tableaus.
- Get low-energy LED christmas lights (save energy).
- Recycle presents - come on we've all done it. Better to pass on that tasteful jumper than to throw it way and add to the landfill.
