Get Green This Christmas

Buy local produce – choosing local produce is much better for the environment than food that has been
air-freighted around the world. See www.glosgreenguide.co.uk for details of local farmers markets and
shops that sell local produce.

Buy seasonally - Buying produce that is in season also helps to cut down the food miles. To see what’s
in season at the moment go to the information pages at www.vision21.org.uk.

Don’t overbuy and ultimately waste food at Christmas – ordinarily the UK throws out a third of the food
that we buy. Up to 40 per cent of festive food is wasted. This creates methane in landfill and has added
carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide and pesticides etc that went into growing it. Not to mention the waste of
energy and water and resources that has gone into producing, transporting and selling the food in the first
place.

Go organic - If your food has been produced organically its cultivation will include none of the potentially
harmful pesticides usually associated with farming. An organic turkey may still get slaughtered in the end,
but until then it enjoys a free-range life. Greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, are
approximately 50% less from organic farming, as nitrate fertilizers (which release nitrous oxide) are not
used. Nitrous oxide is a staggering 296 times more harmful to our atmosphere, than carbon dioxide.

Go veggie - The meat industry is responsible for more of the world's greenhouse gas emissions than
cars, according to a UN report. Meat production contributes to high levels of methane and nitrous oxide,
both of which are more powerful greenhouse gases than carbon dioxide. A lot of animal feed also uses
soya and maize grown on land that has been cleared by destroying rainforests. Deforestation releases
CO2 and globally this creates more global warming than the world’s transport!

Make things – Get the whole family involved in making Xmas cake, Xmas log, trifle, mince pies etc, etc
from ingredients (organic, local) rather than buy over processed, over packaged produce. It could be fun
and messy and the kids get to lick the mixing bowls clean.

Make the most of Christmas leftovers rather than throwing in the bin - a turkey carcass makes great
stock for soups for example. Shops sell 16 million turkeys and 830 million sprouts. Bubble & Squeak can
be pepped up with Stilton from the Christmas Day feast. TV chefs swear by fried Xmas pudding for
breakfast! Make sure you also recycle any foil used in cooking. Turkey foil wrap will create 3,000 tons of
waste this Christmas. http://www.recycleforgloucestershire.com

Buy loose produce and avoid all the packaging - 125,000 tons of plastic end up in the bin each festive
season.

Reduce, re-use, recycle – With the credit crunch, is it worth putting yourself and the planet into debt?
(The world is now living beyond its ecosystems capacity to regenerate and goes into ecological debt
around 6th October). Give the planet a Christmas present and use less of its resources, so that date goes
back to New Year’s Eve. It is difficult with children and peer pressure, but within three months, 41 per cent
of the toys children receive will be broken. Most will go to the tip. Buy presents from charity shops, carboot sales, ebay, and the local papers classified section. Or get free from freecycle. Reduce the number
of people you buy for (or number of things you buy/increase quality, so they last longer) – perhaps make
them a craft present (this shows far more thought), or make them a meal or take them out for the day or
give them your time to do something for them. Re-use household items, like modifying an item of clothing
to make it unique or use recycled materials to make something special and cool. Recycle Christmas
presents: it could be from people you don’t like or who don’t put much thought into your present selection
– simply leave wrapped and return it to them next year. Please take this rather un-festive tip with a pinch
of Christmas seasoning, we are not Christmas scrooges! But in that spirit, we know someone who had a
beard for years and received aftershave from a relative year after year! He could have returned to sender
or more charitably taken this and all unwanted gifts to a charity shop in the New Year.

Give someone a low carbon experience – take them for a walk in the beautiful Gloucestershire
countryside (get there by public transport if you can) or take them to see The Robins or the Cherry &
Whites.
Registered in England and Wales No. 3709442 - A not-for-profit company limited by guarantee - Registered Charity No. 1083642

Buy someone a goat – or safe water or some seeds, tools or build a classroom or train a health worker.
All of these things can be given to people in the world who really need your help at Christmas and the rest
of the year e.g. Oxfam Unwrapped – Oxfam work with people who are already affected by climate change
as do other aid agencies. http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/Hub.aspx?catalog=Unwrapped

Give to charity instead of buying people things – aid charities such as Christian Aid
(http://www.presentaid.org/?gclid=CNH6nqW365YCFQaB1QodcRtjOQ)
and
Practical
Action
(http://www.itdg.org/) are helping people whose environment is already degraded by the way we live. Or
donate to environmental groups such as Friends of the Earth (http://www.foe.co.uk/), Biofuelwatch
(http://www.biofuelwatch.org.uk/index.php) or dare we say, Vision 21 – membership is open to all.

If you want to buy new – purchase ethical and fair trade or trendy and cool ‘green’ items. See New
Internationalist
(http://www.newint.org/shop/)
or
Centre
for
Alternative
Technology
(http://www2.cat.org.uk/shopping/ ) for examples.

Plan ahead to live more sustainably – mark important dates for you and the planet in the informative
and
colourful
Flipside
calendar
available
from
Vision
21,
see:
http://www.vision21.org.uk/index.asp?page=flipside

If you have a Secret Santa ar work – Set a limit of £1.00 (which doesn’t mean you all go down to
Poundland!) or a fiver, so that people have to be more creative or stipulate that people must make
something; using humour, as one of the ingredients helps here.

Make office parties – as green as possible. If you’re allowed alcohol, buy local beer and wine.

Carol singing – makes you feel Christmassy and is a low carbon activity.

Consider walking to local festive events this year – rather than travelling further afield on the
motorway.

Do you really need a real tree - As many as six million Christmas trees (75% of those purchased),
enough to stretch end to end from London to the (melting) North Pole and back, will be incinerated or
dumped into landfill sites in Britain once the festive season is over creating, carbon dioxide and methane
emissions. As with food, nitrate fertilizers, water and chemicals will have been used in growing the tree. If
you have an artificial tree, make it part of your Christmas tradition and bring it out each festive season as
your children grow up .

If you just love that yuletide pine smell, get a tree with their roots intact - These are either grown in a
plantation then transferred to a pot, or grown from seed in a container. If you're looking for a tree that can
be put outside and re-used next year, go for the latter as it will have a better chance of survival. Keep the
tree in a cool place once indoors, water it well and acclimatise it gradually when you return it outdoors.

When you do need to dispose of a real tree after Christmas, be sure to recycle it - You can find out
where your nearest facilities are by entering your postcode at Recyclenow.com.

If you are replacing Christmas lights go for energy saving ones. LED lights use less energy than
conventional Christmas lights, so you should go for this kind.

Use edible treats on tree rather than plastic decorations. See http://tinyurl.com/69qmcx for chocolate
snowmen and star decorations. Or make your own edible decorations.

Make eco-friendly decorations - you can find instructions on how to create eco-friendly decorations
online at http://greenliving.suite101.com/article.cfm/going_green_for_the_holidays__3_

Use last years decorations – reusing is more environmentally friendly than buying the "latest fashion"
decorations. Again taking them out of the Christmas box, can be part of the families Christmas tradition. If
you use them long enough, they will become cool and retro!

Get 100% recycled wrapping paper - available from the http://www.naturalcollection.com/naturalproducts/Recycled-Christmas-Wrapping-Paper-Tags-.asp, 52 square miles of wrapping paper - enough to
gift-wrap Jersey - will be ripped off by Boxing Day. If you can control excited children to unwrap carefully,
then this paper can be re-used again next year.
Registered in England and Wales No. 3709442 - A not-for-profit company limited by guarantee - Registered Charity No. 1083642

Use something that would otherwise have been disposed of to wrap your gifts - Look through
magazines for colourful pictures.

Bags and boxes are an alternative to wrapping paper that can be recycled by you, and the person you
are giving them to. For gift wrapping alternatives go to http://www.eartheasy.com/gift_wrapping.htm

Try Recycled Christmas cards. -decorated with vegetable-based inks. http://tinyurl.com/5jhxgz

Recycle cards from last year – to make new ones; they could be customised to make more personal or
humorous. You can put stickers over old names etc. More than a billion Christmas cards - 17 for every
man, woman and child - will be delivered this year. That's enough to stretch around our globally warmed
world 5 times.

Try sending e-cards (this won’t make you look tight, or lazy, just eco-minded, we hope) or reuse old
cards as gift tags or recycle them.

If you want to buy new cards – buy from an environmental campaign group or a charity.

For invitations to parties include instructions on how to arrive by public transport. Or try to
encourage/organise lift sharing/fuller taxis. Or cycle or walk. All of these options mean that you will not be
drink driving over the holiday season.

Fridges - Instead of making ice keep bottles and cans in the fridge or store drinks outside to keep them
cool.

Turn the thermostat down – to 18 C (and keep it there for the new year). With all those friends and
family packed into the living room and the warm glow of sharing the holiday with each other, together with
the additional warmth provided by the odd eggnog you may not even need the heating on at all.

Instead of arguing about who wants to watch Noels House Party or the Great Escape – switch the
TV and Top Box and Sky set and video and DVD and aerial amplifier and external speakers off and play a
game of Monopoly, charades or cribbage or murder in the dark. That way you can switch the lights off as
well!

Get your Nan to knit a jumper – insulate the hot water storage tank. Make your home cosy and get a
present for the loft and cavity wall and insulate yourself from the nasty weather and increasing energy
costs.

Buy your electrical goods a present – and switch to a truly holly ‘green’ electricity tariff. Please see:
http://www.vision21.org.uk/index.asp?page=goodenergy, https://www.ecotricity.co.uk/switch/step1-yourdetails/?partnership=V21

Avoid disposable plates, cutlery, napkins and tablecloths. If you must use disposables, use recycled
ones.

If travelling to spend Christmas day with family – avoid the stress and gridlock of the M6, M25 etc and
let the train take the strain or take a coach. National Express coaches now have comfy leather seats with
bags of leg-room. You can watch a DVD on your laptop. For local trips, walk or cycle so you can all enjoy
a glass of bubbly.

Don’t fly for Christmas – (unless you’re visiting relatives the other side of the world). Aviation is the
fastest growing source of greenhouse gases. If travelling to Europe go by train or coach or car share.
You’ll see more and the journey becomes part of the festive break.

Remember Christmas is a time for sharing – spare a thought for the myriad species we share the
planet with.
Registered in England and Wales No. 3709442 - A not-for-profit company limited by guarantee - Registered Charity No. 1083642