Guide to Green Gifts for the Holidays

Resources • Dec 21

This is an overview of the presentation Sara gave at our December meeting.

Why Give Green?

Consider the life cycle of an item: extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal. Check out: Story of Stuff
Environmental, social, and economic responsibility
Encourage recipients to live more sustainably

Gifts That Give Back

Donate to a charity or NGO in the name of the recipient.
Adopt an animal, plant a tree, etc.

Material-Free Gifts

Concert tickets
Dance, music, or kickboxing lessons
Gift certificates to spas, or restaurants
Homemade gift certificates for home-cooked meals or household chores
Certificates to Netflix or iTunes
Digital subscriptions to magazines
Memberships to gyms or museums

Homemade

If you have arts and crafts skills, use them, but make sure it’s a useful item
Get inspiration or buy homemade at Etsy

How to Buy a Green Gift

Be thoughtful about your purchases and pick useful items built to last. Even greener options don’t make good gifts if they end up in an attic or landfill or attic.
Buy from a sustainable company.
Pick products made from recycled or renewable materials.
Buy products made in the U.S. from local stores.
Look for fair traded imports such as jewelry, housewares, and handicrafts.
When in doubt, buy food. Organic, Fair Trade Certified and locally grown foods and gift baskets are a safe bet- and usually don’t go to waste.

Green Gift Guides

Wrap Responsibly

Make the wrapping part of the gift. Fill a bamboo mixing bowl with organic fruit and Fair Trade Certified chocolate.
Use newspaper, magazines, paper bags, old posters, scrap fabrics, or old maps as wrapping paper.
Use alternative materials like recycled wrapping paper of tree-free paper.

More Green Gift Ideas

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Events Calendar

Gators for a Sustainable Campus on Facebook

Join a GSC Campaign:

Florida Green Fee

The Green Fee referendum, which proposed a 50-cent per credit hour increase to tuition to fund renewable energy and efficiency on campus, passed with 78% of voting students in the spring 2007 student government election.

We worked with students from all around Florida at the Youth, Energy & Sustainability Summit at UF September 22 to make plans for passing the green fee in the state legislature this spring. Go join the Google Group to get in on the campaign!

Sustainability Outreach

GSC gives campus-wide sustainability presentations that consist of a PowerPoint and Q & A, covering questions such as "What is sustainability?", "What are we doing to promote it?" and "What can I do to help?"

Greening Local Schools

Parents at J.J. Finley Elementary were concerned about waste at the school, so they've asked for our help to develop a recycling plan and a more sustainable lunch program. The school hopes to serve as a model for other public schools in Alachua County.

The Green Team

The Green Team leads the Tail-Gator Recycling Program, a volunteer-oriented mission to provide recycling services to on- and off-campus tailgates at all home football games.

Consumption Reduction

Help us campaign to raise awareness about the impact our consumption habits have on the planet.

Recycling

GSC participates in the annual RecycleMania, challenging schools around the country in a competition to increase on-campus recycling.

Food Systems

Our Food Systems task force works to raise awareness about local and organic food issues. We maintain an organic garden plot at the UF Organic Garden Co-op.