The Annual Green Holiday List!

Can you believe it? The jolly time is just around the corner and now with global warming we can expect a greener Christmas in more ways than one.

Now some of you may be dreading the festive holiday. My goodness why? Is it the inability to move in shopping malls that you fear so much? The road rage and incivility of normally mild-manned people? The stress of investing your hard earned cash on something that will be recalled for toxicity? Or could it be the horrendous bills from your credit cards that you can expect in January?

If you are nodding vigorously yes yes and yes - nod no more. It doesn’t have to be this way. It’s time for…

The Annual Green Holiday List
Take control of the holidays. Give (and receive) meaningful gifts on a low-carbon and low-budget diet. It’ll be the best Christmas ever. Here are some green ideas on giving and spreading the green love…

The Gift of a Great Experience
Forget stuff – give the gift of a good time or help kick start a hobby….

• Tickets to sporting events, theatre, opera, ballet, film, concerts, lectures of favourite speakers, art galleries and museums. It’s a great way to support local culture.
• Lessons for the friend who always wanted to sing, act, dance, play music, skate, etc.
• Gift certificates to a favourite organic restaurant, organic spa or registered massage therapist.
• Babysitting services for the parents desperate for a night out.

Green Product Gifts

• Arrange with those on your list to give recycled gifts – a favourite book, a once-loved toy, clothing, CDs, DVDs, etc.
• If people are going to gorge on chocolate and cheese this holiday season, ensure that at least some of it is organic &/or fair trade!
• If clothes are on your list, put ‘organic’ beside them. Order online – the most convenient way to buy green threads and avoid the mall. The carbon savings don’t end there. If sending your organic gifts to loved ones in another city, order from the outlet closest to them to reduce carbon miles!
• Organic bedding, paper, cards, underwear, lip balm, soap, candles, etc. etc. await you at an eco-friendly shop (or website) near you. I like to throw in favourite green cleaning products for the uninitiated.
• Eco-friendly stores include: Thousand Villages, Grassroots (Toronto), Mountain Equipment Co-op, IKEA, the Body Shop, Cotton Ginny.
• Magazines like Utne, Resurgence, Yes! Magazine make great stocking stuffers – as do subscriptions. Not only do they provide great green coverage, they are printed on paper from managed forests.

Gifts for Kids
Why give your kids big-box-store-bought toys when they are only going to be recalled due to some horrendous toxin? Given that kids sometimes have more fun with the box than the toy itself, how much imaginative appeal do these toys really have…?

• Avoid quantity. Quantity just means a pile up of toys that quickly lose their appeal.
  Give a tickle trunk with a few costumes (such as clothes you don’t wear anymore). It’s a great way to get your kids active and stretch their imaginations.
• Get the kids out playing! Sport is a great way to get them active and socially engaged. You can buy fair trade soccer and footballs at Fair Trade Sports.
• Arrange a toy exchange with your friends or co-workers. Remember to donate some of your used toys to kids in need. Craig’s list and Freecycle are other great recycling sources.
• Greenpeace has a report card on toy companies and toxicity. Thumbs up to Brio, Chicco, Evenflo, Gerber, International Playthings, Lamaze Infant Development, Lego, Sassy and Tiny Love.
• Avoid toys that require batteries (a landfill hazard). Click here for naturally powered toy ideas.
• In your child’s name buy a goat or mosquito nets for families in need or a polar bear. To do so visit Oxfam, Nothing but Nets, or WWF – Adopt a Polar Bear.
• Treat your youngsters to the Nutcracker or other holiday performances.
• For more green gift ideas for the little ones, visit Treehugger’s How to Green your Kids’ Toys.

Buy Nothing
This is not for the faint of heart. It smacks of Scrooge but it’s not all bah humbug….

• Make your gifts. Whether it be organic fair trade truffles, CD compilations or scarves this is a great way to devote quality time for the people you love. Challenge yourself to learn to make something.
• Invite your friends or family over for a brunch or dinner. In lieu of a gift, gather all your friends together for a skate or skiing party, depending on where you live.
• Ask folks to give a gift to your favourite charity in your name.
• Ask for no gift.
• Remember – Buy Nothing Day is November 25.

That’s a Wrap
According to Earth Easy, if everyone wrapped just three gifts in reused paper or fabric gift bags we would save enough paper to cover 45,000 hockey rinks. Let’s do our bit….

• Your granny did it/does it – so can you! Save that paper and those lovely bows and reuse them.
• Cloth gift bags. Expensive but reusable.
• Recycled paper or hemp paper. Very difficult to find. You can pick it up at the Grassroots store in Toronto. Ask your local green store if they carry it.
• Buy large sheets of white recycled paper and have your kids decorate them with a Christmas theme.

Be sure to check out the film – What would Jesus Buy, scheduled for wide-release on November 16th – just in time for the holidays. It’s a hilarious and sober look at our spending habits over the holidays.

For a good chuckle, click here for Big Box Mart.

Green Happenings

Green Design in an Urban Setting - Lecture by David Moses
Brought to you by Architecture for Humanity and my friends Liz and Dave (which means it’s guaranteed to be great!)
November 26
6:30 – 9:30 pm
Gardiner Museum, Toronto

Rally Around the Earth for Climate Justice and a Safer, Healthier Planet!
Rally on December 8

In the News

Grandma’s Hunger Strike Continues…
Donna Dillman stopped eating to raise awareness on uranium mining in Sharbot Lake

CLIMATE CHANGE: The Worst Can Still Be Avoided
Reassurances from scientists and government officials as the 27th session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) began Monday in Spain. But we must act!

Energy-ecology dilemma is like a ticking time bomb
More warning that we must step up efforts to mitigate the upcoming energy crisis and global warming.

Voter Anger May Free Up Energy Bills
From the New York Times. Nothing like expensive oil to kick start conservation.

Other News

BBC – The Greenroom

Ecoshock Radio

Green Bloggers

Grist Magazine

Monbiot

My Green Element

New York Times – Environment

StopGlobalWarming.org

Tree Hugger

Zerofootprint Blog

I’m Dreaming of a Green Christmas….

Halloween is over. This can mean only one thing….Christmas.

Christmas everywhere…in the malls, store fronts, advertisements. Christmas carols. And those Whos in Whoville with their tromblomboppers and clacktrapslappers and their….

Well you get the picture. Buy I’m no Grinch…despite being green.

TO Think About This Week

Back by popular demand, well by Vanessa in my office, I am devoting this installment to ideas on greening your Christmas.

What’s the Big Deal? – Buying someone a book on flags of the world, a CD on the greatest pipe flute hits or a three-piece toilet scrub kit, destined to fill some remote corner of their closet, is a waste or your money and energy. Let’s face it. Besides, it promotes a whole industry dedicated to producing unwanted products for panicked gift buyers.

All products have a greenhouse gas price tag due to the energy produced to create them. This of course includes wrapping paper. How many trees equal the amount of wrapping paper used? According to a 1996 UK statement by Friends of the Earth, 50,000 trees are required every Christmas to wrap gifts in the UK alone. That’s a ten year old estimate. I wonder what it’s like now?

Green Gift Ideas

Rather than a product why not give an experience? Can’t afford some of the following? Chip in with others.

1. Gift certificates to your favourite restaurant, museum, art gallery, science centre or book store.
2. Tickets to a play, concert, opera or dance. Tickets to the sing-along Messiah.
3. Tickets to a sporting event.
4. Passes to go skating or skiing.
5. Gift certificate for a massage or spa (like Body Blitz in Toronto).
6. Weekend getaway to a bed & breakfast.

How about green products?

1. Fluorescent light bulbs for the stockings.
2. Slippers, scarves, mitts, etc. made from organic cotton.
3. Organic wine, cheese, tea, etc. Fair Trade chocolate and coffee.
4. A friend, Elizabeth McCallum, is selling natural candles. If you don’t know her and want to learn more, contact me for details.
5. Visit your local eco-friendly store. Sometimes practical gifts really are the best.
   Make your own tasty goodies (Vegan fair-trade organic is about as eco-friendly as you are going to get).
6. Put together your own CDs – far more personal.
7. If you knit or sew, this is your time to shine! – home made gifts really are the best. Well, maybe. If someone genuinely raves about your craftsmanship, you know what to do.
8. For other green gift ideas visit Ideal Bite.

Gift Wrap alternatives:

1. Save and reuse wrapping paper and ribbons. Yes, just like Grandma. But just think, painstakingly pulling off the tape slows down the gift receiving process making it all the more enjoyable (for you anyway. For your family, not so much).
2. Buy the gift bags if you’re a Speedy Gonzales – people are more likely to reuse them, anyway.
3. Buy recycled paper. Although, this is very hard to find.
4. Buy hemp paper, usually found in your local eco-store.
5. Use the colourful funny papers for your wrapping.
6. Fabric bags – you can buy them at eco-stores or make your own.
7. Don’t wrap all your presents. Leave some from Santa.

Stop Global Warming
More than 511,000 to date have signed up to stop global warming. Join us!
http://www.stopglobalwarming.org/

In the News
CBC – “Blair calls for 'bold' action after stark climate change warning”
You know it’s serious when economists get in the action

Net Zero Energy Healthy Housing - The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) is preparing to launch a new initiative which will provide housing options that contribute to individual health and comfort, conserve resources, minimize environmental impact, and are less expensive to operate and maintain. These homes will be designed to produce as much energy annually as they consume. You are invited to take this survey.

Other News
Green Bloggers

Ecoshock

Grist Magazine

Tree Hugger

StopGlobalWarming.org

Alternative Energy Blog

Gifts That Don't Add to the Clutter and Help Ensure Ontario's Green Future!

My birthday’s coming up. Oh, I know I don’t need to remind you. Shucks, you probably have it marked down in your calendar. April Fools Day. Must be Cheryl’s big day.

Now, I know you’re probably wondering “what wonderful little gift could I get for Cheryl?” Please, don’t get something on my account. No, no really, it’s my small way of reducing ‘things’ in my life. But if you are in desperate need to get me a little something or other, I’ve listed a few ideas below…a few ideas on what to get somebody that won’t end up in the next yard sale or worse, landfill. Not that I would do that to your precious gifts, my dear friends. But it happens…to other people.

Our Chat with Ontario’s Minister of Energy, Donna Cansfield
For the thrilling inside story on how twelve upstarts secured a date with the Ontario Ministry of Energy, click on the link. And on that note….

TO Do This Week

If You Live in Ontario

Please take some time to write to:

Premier McGuinty
Energy Minister Donna Cansfield

Let them know about your position on Ontario’s energy future. Now is not the time to be apathetic! You – yes you are going to help prevent billions of dollars of possible debt and radioactive waste that will last a quarter of a million years.

You can help prevent a quarter of a million years of radioactive waste by taking just a few minutes to write to these important decision makers. It’s too important, isn’t it? Please take the time to write. You’re voice really does matter.

The good news is that Cansfiend and McGuinty have expressed strong interest in energy efficiency and renewable energy, and have taken important steps in supporting these sectors, including the recently announced standard offer program, which boosts small-scale deployment of renewable energy projects.

However, the government is also considering the recommendation made by the Ontario Power Authority (OPA) to build new nuclear reactors. According to Cansfield, nothing has been decided yet.

Nuclear energy has far too many problems that have yet to be resolved. The UK’s Sustainable Development Commission recently recommended that its government not build new nuclear reactors, arguing that the pitfalls to nuclear energy out weigh the benefits. California is fading out its nuclear dependency as is Germany (hopefully). However, the Ontario’s nuclear industry is backed by powerful lobbyists.

The OPA report was hastily put together and as a result grossly underestimates the potential of efficiency and renewable energy. It also underestimates the economic costs and risks of nuclear power.

Tell McGuinty and Cansfield how you feel! Pass this message onto your friends and family. If you wrote to the politicians already, write to them again! If you have ideas on how to conserve, let them know! If you have ideas on convincing others to conserve, let them know!

Learn more…
Go Clean and Green
Ontario Public Authority
Ontario Ministry of Energy

Fine Gift Ideas for a Certain Special Somebody….
Have you ever been in a situation where you want or need to buy someone a gift and haven’t the foggiest idea what to get them? I think we’ve all been there. Have you ever bought them something like a candle set or book on Napoleon and wondered it they’d be truly appreciated and enjoyed?

Well, next time you’re in a situation like that why not buy them a promising experience? Now of course, you’ll need to know your friend’s taste, but a few examples of a promising experience include:
• Gift certificate to your favourite restaurant or take them out to dinner
• Theatre/opera/dance tickets (most theatres are pretty savvy and can sell you ticket coupons so that the recipient can chose his/her date)
• Tickets to a sporting event
• A night away at a Bed & Breakfast
• Movie coupons
• Magazine subscription (are they into sports, current affairs, fashion, the arts, the environment…?)
• Tickets to an art gallery or museum
• Tickets to a lecture – is someone amazing coming to town?
• Manicure, pedicure, facial, massage

The nice thing about this is that you are supporting your local economy, including local artists, and you’re providing your friend with a (hopefully) memorable time. If some of these experiences are too expensive for you, you could always convince others to go in on them with you. You are also cutting back on unnecessary and unneeded stuff.

Other Gift Ideas….
My friend March Gregoroff will love me for this one…. If you want to support local artists, why not tell your friends that you started a fund to buy a piece of art. If they want to buy you a gift, encourage them to contribute to the fund. Once you have a healthy sum, browse through the local art galleries, find something that you’re absolutely in love with, buy it and then invite your ‘contributors’ over for a little “art unveiling” party.

Another option is to ask your gift-giving friends to make a donation to your favourite charity. For example, if you like to make a donation on by behalf, you could give to Easter Seals, the Sierra Club or Doctors Without Borders.