YOUR STEYNING ‘GREEN PIECE’ ARTICLE
By Sophie Goodall
Save money, help the environment and make your friends and
family smile this Christmas with fantastic, fun, ethical, green gifts!
Christmas is fast approaching and our thoughts turn to the inevitable and often time
consuming and expensive task of Christmas shopping. But it doesn’t have to be like
this!
Here’s some suggestions of how we can all easily save time, reduce our
environmental impact over the festive shopping season, give our loved ones some fun
original gifts and, particularly important in the current economic climate, save money!
Also, it will make you feel pretty good knowing you have done your bit to make a
difference!
If you struggling to find a gift for that special person who has everything, looking for gifts that
will not cost the earth, or trying to find unique green gifts for loved ones who care about the
planet, here’s some great ideas for some brilliant, green, ethical, fun Christmas gifts.
Good shopping habits
Before you start shopping think about your shopping habits and how you can make small but
significant changes to improve them. Say no to plastic bags - get into the habit of reusing
shopping bags, take them with you when you go shopping and don’t accept unwanted bags.
No gifts
Try to cut back on giving presents. If all the world consumed as much as we do in the UK,
we'd need three planets to live on. Is it absolutely necessary to spend and give so much? We
could spend more time on what matters - friends and family - and give a gift to our planet at
the same time.
Gift experiences
How about giving experiences which your family and friends will get real enjoyment from?
Theatre tickets, spa weekends, membership of an organisation such as the National Trust,
the RSPB or a gallery are great gifts which have the added bonus of cutting down on waste.
You could even give vouchers to family members promising to wash their car, cook them a
meal or to your partner promising to give them a massage!
Good gifts
Why not pay for a tree to be planted, save an acre of rainforest, adopt an endangered polar
bear or help train a midwife in Kenya. The Good Gifts Catalogue, Oxfam Unwrapped and
WaterAid Wahoo specialise in gifts which are given to those who need them. I was delighted
when my brother bought me a goat which was sent to a family in Africa to provide them with
milk and produce kids which other families in the community also benefit from!
Local Gifts
The Steyning farmer’s market, held on the first Saturday of every month, is a great place to
find some lovely locally produced items which make great gifts such as locally made fruit
juices, chocolates, jam and chutneys. Better still, make your own if you enjoy cooking!
Take a look round the shops in Steyning for some lovely and original Christmas gifts. If you
buy locally you will save time the time and hassle you could have spent fighting the crowds in
bigger town and city centres and shopping malls, and save fuel not having to travel there.
Antiques and second-hand gifts
Try flea markets, antique and charity shops for gifts - you'll be giving a unique present,
saving money as well as recycling. I love browsing Steyning’s charity shops for bargains!
Green or Eco gifts
There are some great on-line shops for buying green and ethical gifts. One of my favourites
is Ethical Superstore which sells everything from top eco-gadgets such as a mobile phone
and i-pod solar charger, and a water and energy saving eco-kettle, to wine glasses made of
recycled beer bottles.
Encourage your friends and family with a copy of an inspiring book such as ‘Save Cash and
the Planet’, published by Friends of the Earth and Collins. It is packed with ideas on how you
can save money and help the planet. ‘Go Make a Difference’ contains 500 practical tips on
how to make a difference.
Ethical gifts
Buy Fair Trade products. The Sussex Produce Company and Co-op sell a good range.
Choose from more than 3,000 products bearing the Fairtrade Mark now available countrywide. Spend your Christmas cash safe in the knowledge that your purchases are guaranteed
to make a real difference to the lives of marginalised farmers and their families in Africa, Asia
and Latin America.
Ethical Threads and People Tree sell clothes on-line made from organic cotton and produced
by workers who have been paid a fair price and worked in safe conditions.
Gift Wrapping Paper
Now you’ve chosen and bought your wonderfully green, and ethically sound Christmas gifts,
its time to wrap them. Each year in the UK we use enough wrapping paper to gift-wrap the
whole island of Guernsey. I always amuse my family by saving last year’s paper, ribbons and
bows and use them again. If you join me in taking this simple action you will be helping to
protect the environment and will be saving yourself money.
Try the Natural Collection's paper range made of raffia fibres from the bark of the mulberry
tree, coloured with sugar cane or banana. No trees are cut down to make it, as the fibres
keep growing back. Or use brown paper (undyed with toxins) and alternate these with
sparkly tin foil as wrapping paper, which, when everything has been unwrapped, can be used
in the kitchen.
Best wishes for a wonderful, green, relaxing Christmas!
More information:
Visit these websites for some great ideas for good, green, fun, ethical gifts:
Save an acre of rainforest with the World Land Trust
www.worldlandtrust.org/supporting/christmas-gift.
Dedicate a tree or entire woodland to a loved one: www.woodlandtrustshop.com/dedicate-atree.
Adopt an endangered animal through WWF: www.worldwildlife.org/ogc/index.
Search for eco-gadgets and green gifts: www.ethicalsuperstore.com.
Another good site for green and ethical gifts: www.hippyshopper.com.
For organic, fair trade and eco friendly products: www.naturalcollection.com.
For more green gift ideas: www.nigelsecostore.com.
Friends of the Earth online shop: www.foe.co.uk/shop.
For inspiring green books: www.greenbooks.co.uk.
For fairly traded fun organic cotton clothes www.ethicalthreads.co.uk.
The Good Gifts Catalogue to give gifts to those who need them: www.goodgifts.org.
Catalogues
Browse these catalogues for some lovely, green, original ethical gifts:
Traidcraft – request a catalogue by calling 0845 330 8900.
People Tree – available from Oxfam shops.
Oxfam Unwrapped – available from Oxfam shops.
Sophie Goodall
Environmental Advisor
[email protected]