Have Yourself a Green Christmas

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Nativity scene at Sacred Heart Catholic Church...

Nativity scene at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, in the historic Barelas neighborhood, Albuquerque, NM, Jan 2008. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Black Friday is approaching fast, and with it comes the official start of the Christmas shopping season, which we hope will culminate into a great green Christmas.  Now is the perfect time to put into place a game plan to ensure that this hectic time of our lives can proceed as smoothly as possible.  Also, with some planning, we can have an enjoyable holiday without disrupting our commitment to live green.

A great place to begin with our holiday planning is in the selection of retailers to shop for holiday foods, gifts and decorations.  A good source to make this determination is Newsweek Green Rankings.  This website provides several listings, including the greenest retailers in America, the World’s greenest companies, as well as the least greenest companies.  Additionally, listings per industry, such as food and tech companies also are provided.  In reviewing these entries, the savvy green shopper can see how publically traded companies in the United States are globally rank “based on their actual environmental footprint, and sustainability communications“.  These rankings have been produced by Newsweek in collaboration with Trucost and Sustainability, two leading environmental organizations.  Making this list is not a matter of choice, and companies cannot opt out of inclusion.  These evaluations provide green-minded consumers an excellent resource to make informative decisions on businesses worthy of their dollars.

Perhaps the second largest area of importance to consumers during the holiday season is decorating.  Starting with Christmas trees, it is important to remember that there is nothing green about an artificial Christmas tree.  Even the color is not natural.  Generally, they have been imported from China, and they are made from petroleum-based chemicals and often contain lead.  Most importantly, they cannot be recycled.  On the other hand, a real Christmas tree provides a beautiful and fragrant decoration for the holiday season, and it can be recycled into mulch or purchased with a ball root that can be planted.  Imagine a grove of trees representing past Christmases celebrated by the family.  Another point to mention is that the purchase of live trees often can be made from local harvesters, thereby providing economic support to the community.

Tree lights and decorations also are important.  This year, please try to use LED lights.  They burn 10% of the energy of older incandescent bulbs, and they are safer because they run cooler in temperature.  LED lights can be used indoors and outdoors.  When purchasing other greenery, try to avoid plastic wreaths and garland because they contain harmful compounds.  Visit local nurseries and buy natural products that can be recycled.

When it is time to shop for gifts, try to break out of the box this year.  Support local holiday fairs and fair trade bazaars to purchase unique gifts while simultaneously supporting these artisans.  With the popularity of online shopping, please consider online gift cards and email Christmas cards.  These items reduce the need for paper and transportation for delivery, thus reducing the carbon footprint.

Christmas is a beautiful time to celebrate life and family.  It also is an excellent opportunity to recognize the beauty of our Earth and the need to preserve it for future generations.  To that end, let’s use this time to renew our commitment to live green, be green.

Sources:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/05/08/green-rankings-2012-frequently-asked-questions.html

http://greenliving.about.com/od/thegreenfamily/tp/green_christmas.htm

 

Ranking the Greenest Colleges

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Bloomberg Businessweek Rankings are used by prospective students as a way to gauge the overall quality of a school they may be interested in with respect to others. The site ranks both undergraduate and graduate institutions, and also analyzes individual programs and specialties. While past ranked disciplines range from teaching to agriculture, never has there been a ranking with respect to specifically green programs. However, as of August 14th 2012, the site is now beginning to rank such specialties in their “Green College Rankings.” According to the Bloomberg site, “The survey was conducted by the Sierra Club, the Sustainable Endowments Institute, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, and Princeton Review, which combined their separate sustainability rankings into one Businesswek ranking for the first time.

According to the survey, the greenest school in all the land is the University of California, Davis a result from pouring in resources both financially and in time into their sustainability initiatives.  Examples of their efforts include, “trash diversion, an initiative to keep garbage out of landfills by recycling, reusing, or composting it, the use of sustainable foods, and the promotion of bikes on campus (which amazingly resulted in over 20,000 bikes being used). Other schools who made the top five include the Georgia Institute of Technology, Stanford University, the University of Washington, and the University of Connecticut,

 In short, these rankings are a tremendous boost to the green movement as well as for prospective students. This information was not available when I was looking into schools, and while the “green rankings” may not have ultimately been the main reason I would have gone to a particular school, it would have nonetheless planted a seed in my mind as to which universities were ahead of the curve, and who actually cared about a planet. This ranking also provides another criterion in which schools can stand out. Publishing yearly green rankings will provoke schools to think and act in terms of sustainability, and will provide them an incentive not only in saving the planet, but also in raising their overall ranking. The prospective student ultimately benefits from transparent data of a school’s sustainability initiatives within a ranking format, which may help that individual in making their decision on where to go to college. Overall, the green rankings have the ability to help both schools and students alike, and will aid in promoting a lifestyle in which we all live green, and be green.

source: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-08-14/a-green-college-ranking-declares-a-winner