Saturday, August 9, 2008

Day 110 of our Green Year: Green Gift Giving

My dad celebrated his birthday on Thursday, and today we are holding a big birthday party for him at my parent's farm. As a result, there will be a lot of gift giving going on, and Layla and I have decided to make our gift giving a bit more green than it has been in years past for birthdays. So, here are some great ways that we have, and you can, go green with gift giving.

These are easy ways to go green with your gift giving and help out the environment in the process.

  1. Only buy something a person is going to use. There is no point buying them a singing bass that they will think is cute for the first hour, and annoying for the next ten years.
  2. Try and buy a consumable gift like organic tea, coffee, fruit fresh flowers and anything else that will not take away from the environment when you give it to someone.
  3. Donate money to a charity in the name of the person. This may seem like a cheep way to go, but it is actually a very thoughtful gift and the right person will really appreciate it.
  4. Make a gift yourself like a sweater or anything else that could eventually be considered a family heirloom. The person you give the gift to will love it.
  5. Buy a gift that is made or produced in your local area. You will be able to support your local economy by doing this, and hopefully help keep a local shop in business for a little while longer as they compete against the big companies in town. You also save the environment because you don't have to have the gift shipped to you, which creates emissions.
  6. Always think about the packaging before you give someone a gift. This is very important because to go green you have to think about the gift itself, and the packaging that goes along with it. Too many people forget about this.
No matter whose birthday it is, or how much money you may have, it is possible to go green when you are getting a gift for someone.