Sustainable Gift Giving

It's a challenge to be sustainable in a holiday season that is too often a cause for over consumption, but it can be done! In fact, there are many ways to heal the Earth’s climate while still showering friends and family with love and gifts.

Go Paperless!

Digital gift cards are a great way to give the gift of experiences like fun activities, e-books, massages, sustainable products, dining or music, especially if you support small local businesses.

If you want to create the “unwrapping experience” without the wrapping paper, get creative with brown paper bags, newspaper, crayons, markers, and paint! It’s the ultimate reuse and recycle! It can be a double gift if you create the gift wrap with friends at a fun holiday party! Or make it ahead of time and go to the party to swap wrap!

Hand Made

There are countless Holiday Craft Fairs this time of year. They usually feature local artisans and crafters who are unbelievably talented. Some create from reused/recycled materials and will warm the heart of your favorite eco warrior.

These small local events have a smaller carbon footprint than online craft selling sites, and more of the profits go to the artist or craftsperson.

Local food products are always a favorite, and winter-time farmers' markets are more common. Or simply contact your local farmer, confectioner, or artisanal producer directly.

Eco Restoration Gifts

Citizen driven ecological restoration efforts are increasing in number and scope. You can gift a pollinator garden or container, or maybe a bee lawn, by giving a gift certificate to a local native plant nursery. Purchase gifts of classes through a pollinator conservation group like Blue Thumb or Wild Ones. Tours through local restored natural areas, prairies, and woodlands are fun, interesting, and beautiful at any time of year. There are lots of small groups that work to restore local parks. Gifting info about these groups or joining with a friend is a great way to care for the Earth and do it with people who have similar values, and make new friends.

Bee a Benefactor

Donating on behalf of another person is a moving gift for the right person. You can donate locally or to global organizations and have quite an impact with even a small donation.

Conservation easements are of immense value to the efforts of conserving land for environmental purposes and can be a lot for one person to achieve on their own. Helping a landowner, especially an elderly person, prepare and go through this process would be a huge gift. The MN Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR), TheMN  Land Trust, DNR, and others have lots of resources for people who want to learn more.

Our Most Valuable Ecological Resource

Children and Youth are the best thing we have going for effecting true change in how we treat our Earth. Buy green educational toys and books. Donate to organizations that teach environmental skills to inner-city and disadvantaged youth. Babysit friends' and family’s children by taking them on a hike or to the Arboretum, so the parents can restore their personal ecosystems. Buy season passes to environmental organizations like the Arboretum, the Bell Museum, and many other organizations.

What will make the biggest impact on our Earth is caring relationships. Gift small, gift big, gift often, or all at once. The important thing is to give.

Happy Holidays

Happy Holidays, good people! Remember, a consultation from Bob Dahm at Earthwise Organic Consulting is a gift that holds lots of sustainable value for the environmentalists on your list!