We’ve all heard the 12 days of Christmas, some of us a hundred times every year. Partridges, gold rings, eight maids a-milking - all for one person! Like the bulk of Christmas production, it’s not a very sustainable song.
While you’re unlikely to receive turtle doves and geese for Christmas, here’s a revelation for you: you could be making just as much of an impact on the environment as the singer’s ‘true love’ without realising it!
Wrapping paper, packaging, gifts and trees will all influence your carbon footprint, which is why we’ve put together our very own 12 days of (eco-friendly) Christmas to help you remove ozone destruction from the festive spirit.
Ideas for Sustainable Christmas Decorations
From eco-friendly Christmas decorations to reusable gifts, sustainable Christmas ideas are easy to come by. While it can be difficult to take unsustainable production out of one of the most celebrated holidays in the world, even a small change in your routine can make a big impact on your carbon footprint. Never underestimate how much of a difference you can actually make!
1. Make Your Own Christmas Decorations
Instead of the annual partridge in a pear tree, you could always try making one yourself (out of paper, not partridges). Whether you’re decorating the office or sending trinkets home with your employees, making your own Christmas decorations is a whimsical spin on tradition. Handmade decorations can last for years, and every December you’ll have a reason to retrieve those mementos and relive some memories. Clay, paper, cardboard, glitter and paint will all help to sharpen up the office - and you’ll have a story to tell for every piece, too!
2. Use Second-Hand Decorations
Did you know that European turtle doves are an endangered species? Unsurprisingly, the expansion of landfill sites and the consequent loss of habitat is one of the causes of their decline. That’s why waste reduction is so important, meaning that buying second hand decorations is much better for the environment. Shop for your office decorations at charity shops rather than designer stores: you never know when you’ll come across a hidden gem. Your office might not look as chic and polished as a CEO’s desk, but a few strange thrifting finds are bound to give your colleagues a chuckle.
3. Bake Your Own Decorations
If you’re the kind of business that enjoys a new style every year, salt dough might be the eco-friendly angle for you. Salt dough can be moulded and cooked into any shape you’d like, from baubles to stars, snowflakes, snowmen or even frogs if you fancy. Bake up your decorations, take them to work, and hang them for the Christmas season. Once December is done, all you have to do is send them out for collection alongside the rest of the festive food waste.
4. Buy Ethical Christmas Crackers
Instead of spending money on four calling birds to present at the Christmas do, you can do some digging to find the most sustainable Christmas crackers you can buy for the party. Try to buy plastic-free if you can (and yes, that includes the toys inside!). Plenty of sellers are peddling eco-friendly cracker options for the Christmas party this year, and each one will have its own pros and cons. Take the time to read up on the company’s sustainability, the ingredients in the crackers, and their production process to make the most carbon neutral purchase possible.
How to Have a Sustainable Christmas Tree
By the end of November, every office manager worth their salt will be looking for the biggest and most impressive centrepiece for reception: the Christmas tree. Finding an environmentally friendly Christmas tree is a subject of debate, however, and it’s not always as simple as real vs fake. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to keep Christmas sustainable, no matter whether you have a fake tree in storage or are committed to a series of live trees annually escalating in size.
5. Recycle Your Christmas Tree
We’ll admit that gold rings aren’t quite as bad for the environment as some of the other gifts on the “12 days of Christmas” list. Five rings of gold are quite an investment, however, and it would be a lot cheaper to give the environment a gift by recycling your eco-friendly Christmas tree every year instead. Having a real tree picked up, ground down and recycled into garden chips saves your office from getting stuck with a dying tree, saves your tree from ending up in the landfill, and lowers the demand for fresh logs to grind up and layer gardens with. Everyone wins!
6. Buy Local Christmas Trees
Did you know that if the “six geese a-laying” were bar-headed geese, they could rack up over 1,000 air miles every day during migration season? Luckily, there’s no carbon footprint associated with their flight - unlike the shipping of your office Christmas tree from Point A to Point B. One of the best ways to keep an eco-friendly Christmas tree is to buy it locally. Shipping in the biggest tree you can find or driving out to search for the best tree available both have an impact on the environment. Sometimes you need to sacrifice having the biggest tree in the office block in favour of supporting your local farmers.
Buy a Potted Christmas Tree
Is a real or fake Christmas tree more sustainable? The truth is both have their pros and cons. If you’ve already got a plastic tree, reusing it every year is a form of waste reduction - but if you don’t, buying a real tree each year is far more eco-friendly than supporting the plastic tree industry. While the choice is up to you, there is a secret third option for people on the fence: buying a potted tree. While your live tree won’t be as big and impressive as the officially grown, annually chopped Christmas trees, it’ll live for years with the right care. Take it home to care for or just leave it in the office year-round as a decorative plant.
Eco Friendly Christmas Gifts
Whether you’re hosting Secret Santa this year or showing your employees that you appreciate them, buying environmentally friendly Christmas gifts is a great way to be thoughtful about your gift-giving. From purchasing save-the-planet gifts to investing in recyclable wrapping paper, your office Christmas party will soon be on the road to being crowned the eco-friendly bash of the year.
8. Buy Reusable or Refillable Items
Buying reusable or refillable items is a great way to encourage your employees to pick up sustainable habits at home as well as in the office! Refillable cleaner bottles, lip balm tubes, shampoo squeezers and other products are great catalysts to the ‘ripple effect’ of recycling. Just make sure that you include the first refill with the gift - it’s not a good present if they need to buy something to use it!
9. Make Your Own Gifts
While it’s much more time-intensive than heading out to the shopping centre and buying gifts for your coworkers, we suggest taking some time to make your own gifts. Knitting, crocheting, drawing, painting and origami can all make thoughtful presents for your coworkers, although they may take some time to finish. A gift you’ve taken the time to craft, however, can really show a person how much you appreciate them and improve morale during the busy Christmas period.
10. Buy Local Gifts
The further away the item is made, the higher the carbon footprint of buying it tends to be. High street and designer shops can be tempting when it comes to showing your employees that you appreciate them, but it’s much better for the environment to shop locally. It’s also an opportunity to walk down the street and get to know all the independent shops and small businesses nearby.
11. Buy Recyclable Wrapping Paper
To wrap up your eco-friendly Christmas presents, it’s time to invest in recyclable paper. While the shine of plastic wrapping paper on a square-boxed gift looks sleek and professional sitting on a desk, it’s far more eco-friendly to use paper-based recyclables to tie your Christmas up with a bow. It doesn’t have to be pattern-free brown paper, however - you’ll find plenty of vibrant colours for sale printed on recyclable wrapping paper (it’ll just be a little less shiny).
12. Support Ethical Businesses
Finally, you can finish up by supporting ethical businesses this Christmas. Check out the carbon footprints of delivery companies, gift sellers, waste management providers and any other business that Christmas brings you closer to. Every action you take could be the catalyst for the companies around you to start making green changes too!
