Dan's Environmental Corner – Make a high impact with low impact gifts.
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Dan's Environmental Corner – Make a high impact with low impact gifts.
Dan's Environmental Corner - Making a high impact with low impact gifts
As Christmas approaches it’s a great time to consider how you can make a low impact on the environment while still giving great gifts to people.
Here are five quick ideas:
• Give an experience.
Giving an experience to people i.e. a voucher for a family tramp, a planned adventure, bike ride or picnic is great in a number of ways. Gifting an experience brings people together for valuable time with loved ones, is low impact on the environment and in the case of trips into the outdoors, can often be shared adventures that become treasured memories.
• Make your own.
Receiving a home made gift is often more valued than a bought one. Home made gifts can be everything from cards, art and furniture to clothing and plants. Often you already have the resources to make great gifts for your friends and family from the resources you have at home.
• Recycle
Have a good old sort through your belongings; most of us have some great possessions that we don’t use now and may be best in someone else’s hands. Old tennis rackets, pairs of skis and snowboards in the shed, extra clothes you don’t use but are still great!!
• Less is more
Quality over quantity always wins. If you do buy a gift make sure it’s something you know that person will use and also, that it will last! Among the plethora of brands available for any product there is usually some that are higher quality than others. Buying higher quality but fewer gifts will mean that your gifts can be used and valued for a long time.
• Buy local or NZ made.
Again if you decide to buy think about local or NZ made gifts first. These gifts are usually of quite high quality, support local and NZ industry, have low environmental impact through lack of shipping and can be taken back if they break.
These are just a few ways to lower your impact this Christmas, and they often have a high impact on the people who receive them – so I challenge you to try a few!!
Have a great Christmas!!
