How You Can Give Better Holiday Gifts AND Be More Environmentally Friendly

 It's the holiday shopping season, and Grinning Planet would like to point out that the holiday phrase "Ho, ho, ho!" also relates to being green--it's the Jolly Green Giant's tagline. Well, OK, that doesn't exactly get us to the "eco-friendly" meaning of being green. But when shopping for holiday gifts, there are a number of ways we can be environmentally friendly.

All manufactured items, including gifts, require material and energy to be produced, and production and transportation of the items results in some level of pollution. Here are a couple of ways to make sure those resources aren't a waste:

1) Useful Gifts -- One of the best ways to ensure the resources related to your gift don't get wasted is to make sure your gift doesn't end up gathering dust in a closet. While "surprises" can be nice, giving someone a gift out of the blue without any clue whether they'll truly like it or use it may get you one of those half-hearted "Um, oh, cool, thanks" responses. A different approach is to ask your giftees for wish lists, which works especially well within families, where social protocols and rituals can be more easily adjusted. This lessens the surprise factor but guarantees that you're giving a gift that the person will use.

2) Drawing Names -- As families and circles of friends grow, the number of gifts being exchanged can increase rapidly. Rather than each person within a group giving a gift to every other member of the group, names can be drawn so that each person gives gifts to only one or two people. This reduces the overall amount of resources related to presents and will reduce your holiday stress level. It may be too late this year to implement such a strategy, but if you'd like to try it next year, suggesting the change to your family/friends just after this holiday season will give people time to think about it and adjust to the idea.

Regardless of how you arrange your gift giving, choosing environmentally friendly products will be better for the planet than buying everyone an economy sized bottle of cloying cologne or some other non-green item. When looking at items claiming to be green, the US Federal Trade Commission advises that shoppers look for quantitative or specific claims, rather than general claims like "green," "eco-friendly," or "environmentally safe," which are open to interpretation. Better descriptions are things like "made from organic cotton," "made from 50% recycled materials," or "manufactured without animal testing."

Here are a few categories of gifts that would be more eco-friendly than some others:

1) Organic -- A gift basket of food is a typical holiday gift that's even better if at least part of the basket is filled with organic yummies. If you know someone who is a coffee lover, they will flip over the bag of organic gourmet coffee you give them. Organic flowers are available, as are flower arrangements that are not organic but whose growers minimize their use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Organic cotton clothing and bedding are also making rapid gains in popularity.
2) Fair trade -- Buying fair-trade items--items typically made by indigenous peoples--often helps the creators sustain themselves without resorting to environmentally unwise practices such as clearcutting forests. Whether it's art, coffee, chocolate, soaps, or carpets, buying items labeled "fair trade" lets you avoid purchasing gifts that were produced by companies that use exploitative labor practices.

3) Recycled -- These days, lots of things are made out of recycled materials--from works of art to clothing. A great holiday gift might be some of the very cool clothes they now make from recycled cotton. Some eco-friendly clothing even includes 50% fibers from recycled plastic bottles.

4) Honorary Gifts -- How much stuff does anyone really need? Once we reach a certain age, getting more "stuff" is as much a storage problem as anything else. Donating money to a person's favorite charity or cause in their name is a nice substitute.
To some extent, a nice holiday get-together with family and friends, full of good cheer and warm conversation, is as good a gift as many of us really need. But for the instances where a gift is appropriate, here's a good starting point for your eco-friendly shopping: Grinning Planet's Green Products and Services page ( http://www.grinningplanet.com/5005/green-products-services.htm ).

(Disclaimer: Grinning Planet does not receive any commission from the companies listed on the Green Products and Services page.)

Finally, we'd like to put in a word for our dear departed Uncle Freeman. When cash got short, he still never skimped on the Christmas gifts--he just sent them C.O.D.

For jokes, cartoons, and more great environmental information, visit http://www.grinningplanet.com .

© 2003 by GrinningPlanet.com
You have permission to publish this article electronically or in
print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. Must
be published complete with no changes. A courtesy copy of your
publication would be appreciated.

About the Author

Mark is a writer, financial analyst, web developer, environmentalist, and, as necessary, chef and janitor. Grinning Planet is an expression of Mark's enthusiasm for all things humorous and green, as well as a psychotic desire to work himself half-to-death. Hobbies include health foods, music, getting frustrated over politics, and occasionally lecturing the TV set on how uncreative it is.

 Mark Jeantheau

More Articles 

Environmentally Friendly Boating - Andrew Dillan
As a boater, you want the waterways to stay clean. To make sure that your beautiful scenery will be around for your next trip out, here are a few tips that you can use. 1. Lead by example. Next time you are at the marina, be sure to bend over and...

Decentralize the Workforce... Telecommuting can provide a safe work environment - Edward B Toupin
In the wake of the terrible tragedy in New York and at the Pentagon, perhaps we need to reevaluate the way we handle and position our workforce. The World Trade Center was a huge target containing a congregation of thousands of individuals and...

Environment- Maintaining the Delicate Balance! - Dell Ambint
What exactly do we mean when we speak of the "environment"? It is more complecxt than saying it is only our surrounding. The environment is a delicate equilibrium between every ingredient in our surroundings called the ecosystem. ...

Make Your Environmental Resume Fed Ready Now - John Esson
Make Your Federal Resume Fed Ready Now Uncle Sam is fussy about your paperwork Environmental Career Center Hampton, Virginia Want a great job with a good salary, security, nice benefits, and promotion opportunities in natural resources...

Seven Simple ways to Help The Environment and Your Wallet - Juan Anselmo Borla
The world is a big place with big problems. Some environmental activists demand we stop living our lives and look at everything we do as an Earth-changing event, but not everyone can focus their entire lives around saving the planet. The truth...

MVCC and Daffodil DB: Improved Performance in Multi-User Environment - sachin garg
Multi-Version Concurrency Control (MVCC) is a complex technique for enhancing database performance in a multi-user environment. In contrast to most other database systems which use locks for concurrency control, Daffodil DB preserves uniformity of...

Recycle For Cash: A second fridge is costly to you and the environment - NC
(NC)—This is not a true statement. You could say something like: "A second, operating fridge could be costing you up to $100 per year on your hydro bill, say energy analysts, and the coolant chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) emitted by the fridge,...

The Gates - Environmental Art at Central Park - James Monahan
From February 12 to 27, 2005, Central Park exploded in a radiant orange as Christo and Jeanne-Claude unveiled their art installation, The Gates. The Gates was an exhibit of sorts that aimed to artistically interpret the bleak winter and...

Spruce Your Environment, Spruce Your Spirit - Patricia Twitchell
After a long winter, this is the time of year to spruce up your environment with a good Spring Cleaning. It’s amazing what doing this can do for one’s state of mind. Not only does a good spring cleaning seem to lift our spirits, it has actually...

Holiday Decorating Ideas And The Environment - Jeanette Joy Fisher
Have you thought about how your holiday decorating affects the environment? What can you do about your holiday decorating to improve your happiness and at the same time be kind to the environment? The good news, taking action to decorate...

Stay At Home Work - Creating A Great Home Office Environment - Charles Fuchs
When you begin any kind of stay at home work or home based business, it’s a good idea to put a lot of thought into your stay at home working environment.  After that cubicle where you were forced to make good use of your space, it’s easy to...

New incentives help homeowners and the environment - NC
(NC)—It just got easier for Canadians to do their part to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change thanks to a new federal incentive that provides extra motivation for improving the energy efficiency of your home. ...