One Habit at a Time: Green Your Holidays

Happy Holidays!  We’re in those weeks when many of us do the most shopping and traveling (not to mention eating) of the entire year. We open our hearts and wallets to give to family and friends and charitable organizations. Here are some ideas for a greener season:

Gifts:  Trying to come up with gift ideas? Think of some of the habits you’ve changed in the past year. How about a stainless water bottle from www.kleankanteen.com, a collapsible bag from www.chicobag.com, a vegetarian cookbook or bicycling gear? For past articles, see www.fprespa.org/coolplanet.  Need more ideas? Try www.coopamerica.org

Decorating:  Consider upgrading to LED strings of lights for your tree or your house. Use pine cones, greens and berries from your garden to “spruce” up your house.  Recycle or reuse gift wrap, cards, labels, bags and boxes.  Even more fun: the Eddy family wraps their presents in holiday fabric!

Travel: What about buying Renewable Energy Credits to offset your own travel or as gifts for people traveling to you?  In our Cleaning Up Eden series, we learned about RECs from Steve Attinger, who works with Acterra’s Cool-It campaign. For a thorough explanation, including a carbon calculator, see www.cool-it.us/index.php?refer=acterra. If you do buy RECs through this site, please fill out the referral field with Steve’s name so that Acterra gets that feedback.

Contributions:  As a gift for the person who has everything, or as a year-end tax-deductible contribution, consider supporting earth-friendly organizations. You probably have your own favorites, but here is a list provided by Steve Attinger.
 
National organizations include:
   Sierra Club (headquartered in SF) www.sierraclub.org
   Rainforest Action Network (headquartered in SF) www.ran.org
   Forest Ethics www.forestethics.org
   Environmental Defense www.environmentaldefense.org
   National Resources Defense Council www.nrdc.org
   Greenpeace www.greenpeace.org
   World Wildlife Fund www.worldwildlife.org
   EarthJustice (headquartered in Oakland) www.earthjustice.org
   Nature Conservancy www.nature.org
   National Wildlife Federation www.nwf.org
   Pachamama Alliance www.pachamama.org
   National Audubon Society www.audubon.org

Local organizations include:
   Acterra www.acterra.org
   Conexions: Partnerships for a Sustainable Future  www.conexions.org 
   BayKeeper www.sfbaykeeper.org
   Friends of the River www.friendsoftheriver.org

First Presbyterian Church of Palo Alto
www.fprespa.org/coolplanet
December, 2007