Sustainable Holiday Gift Ideas

The Homemade Gift

Recipe Book: Gather favourite recipes from your friends and family, and arrange them together into a recipe book. By adding photos and a line or two about each person, you can make the book even more personal. Once you've compiled the sheets, coil-binding costs only about $1 per book.

Edibles: Baking will always be appreciated, especially if it contains chocolate! As any time-stretched student will tell you, frozen meals are always a welcome convenience. A tray of lasagne, a pot of stew or your favourite casserole will definitely be received with thanks.

Plant Cuttings: Cuttings from plants that you have around your home make for a great personal gift. Try finding unique containers at second-hand stores (teapots, mugs, bowls) to use as planters.

Mixed Tapes/CDs: Who doesn't love receiving new music? Selecting each song with the recipient in mind creates a very personal gift, one that will offer many hours of enjoyment.


The Used Gift

Giving an item an extra-life helps reduce our dependence on new resources, and as any antique-hunter can tell you, browsing through vintage shops and goodwill stores looking for treasures can be a lot of fun!

Books: Find new releases at a fraction of the cost, or old, hard-cover versions of favourite classics and children's tales.

Clothing: Comfy sweaters, flashy silk scarves, or a funky hat or bag… with a bit of effort, you're bound to find a new favourite.

Jewellery: Incredible amounts of energy (and toxic chemicals) are used in the extraction of gold, diamonds and other minerals to make new jewellery. Many second-hand and antique stores have a great selection of vintage jewellery, and at great prices too!


The Non-Material Gift

Giving a gift of service requires the use of little or no natural resources. Whether you buy a gift certificate from a professional, or give a coupon offering your own time, it will be a welcomed treat.

Services: Massage, snow shoveling/yard care, an evening of childcare or a dog walk.

Tickets: To a concert, the theatre or a movie.

Skill-sharing/Professional Lessons: Music, cooking, languages, pottery, knitting, sewing, yoga, home-repair, car or bike maintenance.


The Gift of Charity

What to get for the person who has everything? Make a donation to an organization that is important to that person, and write a note in a card explaining your action. For a list of Canadian Non-Profit organizations, visit www.charityvillage.com


The Waste Reducing Gift

Consider giving a gift that will keep on giving… to the environment! Check out some of these items which will save energy, resources and money. Your friends and the environment will thank you.

Compact Fluorescent Lightbulbs (CFLs): These lightbulbs are now available at almost all hardware stores, and will fit into any standard lightbulb fixture. They use only 25% of the energy of a standard incandescent lightbulb, and they last ten times as long!

Low-Flow Showerheads: Older showerheads can use as much as three times the amount of water as newer, high-efficiency versions.

Programmable Thermostats: These automatically adjust the temperature in the home for day and night levels. More than 60% of the energy used in Canadian homes is for heating!

Reusable Grocery Bags: These heavy-duty cloth bags cost only a few dollars, and save the waste of a plastic bag every time that they are used.


The Ecological/Ethical Gift

Here are a few final things to consider for the other items on your gift list.

• Look for items that have recycled content.
• Choose items that are produced locally. By choosing to buy locally you reduce the amount of greenhouse gases emitted during transportation of the product, and you support your local economy.
• Look for organic items. When you choose organic, you help to reduce the negative costs to the environment from artificial fertilizers and pesticides, as well as the potential negative health effects to the grower and consumer of the product.
• Buy items which bear the ‘FairTrade' logo. This logo guarantees that the artisans and farmers who produced the product have been paid a fair and living wage.


For other great sustainable gift ideas, visit: www.buynothingchristmas.org

For more information on ethical consumption check out: unpac.ca/economy/ethicconsumption.html


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