Christmas gifts with a conscience

We all search for a perfect gift for our loved ones for Christmas time but with never ending season festivities, it seems shopping time just slips away and by the time you get around to wander out to the shops, it is like you have joined a circus. Endless queues, hordes of people and at least here in Oz, temperatures soaring through the roof making you wish for the beach.

The good news is that there is a variety of ways to bypass this Christmas shopping madness and by doing so also helping the planet and its people. There are many charities you can donate to which will make a great gift. And with the large number of projects worldwide needing funding, there should be one that suits your loved ones.

The best ones are those which offer to send through the certificate over email, reducing paper use and posting costs ensuring your donation end up where it is most needed. This is also great if you are running short on time as all you have to do is provide the date you want the email to be sent. However, some people may still want something they can put under the tree and if you so wish there is also a large number of charities which offer to post a certificate and sometimes also a gift to go with it.

Blue Ventures offers the opportunity to sponsor a child in Madagascar to go to school for one year for a mere 20 pounds and through The Sheldrick Wildlife Trust you can foster an orphaned baby elephant for one year for USD 50. Both these organisations email you a certificate and information sheets of where your money goes. You will also receive regular updates on your baby elephant's wellbeing and improvements.

If you wish your donation to come with a gift pack, the Australian Orang-utan Project will send a certificate, photo, fact sheets, fridge magnet, etc. when you adopt a baby orang-utan for AUD 55. WWF (from AUD 50) and Oceana will send a soft toy of your adopted animal together with the certificate, from USD 50.

This is only a selection of many other organisations offering a Christmas gift that will keep helping animals and people in need for the entire year making your present last a lot longer!

A better way to shop

Plastic bags are widely used and here in Australia a large amount of single use plastics bags are being used every day by all main grocery stores. These bags are being used in excessive amount as not only do you get one bag for your groceries, but pretty much one bag per item, god forbid that milk or meat is put in the same bag as vegetables although the meat is wrapped in yet again more plastic and most milk cartons are plastic. Being single use plastic bags they are not very strong so the average check out person will also double bag your items to prevent the bag breaking whilst you carry your groceries home. An average weekly buy at the supermarket may provide as many as 20 plastic bags.

Plastic bags take up to 1000 years to break down which is bad enough if people did do the right thing and disposed of them in the correct way as they will fill up landfills for hundreds of years to come. Even worse is that many of these plastic bags never make it to a landfill and enters our waterways were they pose a large threat to wildlife. Marine life is especially vulnerable to this with many animals becoming entangled and mistaking plastic bags for food. There is however a very simple solution to this, use green bags. These are cloth bags that can be reused over and over again, readily break down in landfills and pose less of a threat should it enter our waterways. With such a simple solution it is surprising how many plastic bags are still being used and how readily available they are.

Some countries and certain shops have dealt with this problem for years by charging for plastic bags encouraging people to bring their own bags. South Australia have taken the war on plastic bags one step further and are setting a extraordinary example for the rest of Australia and the rest of the world by introducing a ban on the single use plastic bags. This new legislation comes in to effect in January 2009 with a phase-in period til May 2009 and will see no free single use plastic bags being provided by retailers. Now it is up to the rest of the country to follow suit and us as individuals taking a more responsible approach to our shopping.

Responsible drinking

With increasing interest in eco-friendly options and more products catering to the environmentally conscious there is little reason these days to shake our heads and say, "How can I make a difference?" There are many ways that we can make a difference, or at least decrease the global impact of our activities. And what better way than making a toast to all this new found interest in our planet's health with Cascade's new green beer. Do not worry the beer is not actually green. It still has a lovely amber colour and it supports a carbon off set scheme in Hobart, Tasmania. By reducing methane-rich gas from decomposing public waste via a flaring process, the beer is 100% carbon off-set. They have also taken steps towards making the production of this beer more eco friendly by reducing their green house gas emissions by 16% as well as reducing their water use by 30%. No small feat in a country where drought and water shortages are always big on the agenda.

If you are not a beer drinker but would still like to salute a greener world there are other responsible options. In the UK Snow Leopard Vodka gives 15% of their profits to wildlife charities specifically trying to save the snow leopard. They have also set up the Snow Leopard Trust UK to work alongside other charities with the aim of saving the endangered snow leopard. Unfortunately, this vodka has not made it to the Australian market yet, but by asking for it in your local bottle shop or ordering on-line you can in deed drink more responsibly.

So bottoms up everybody!

Links

http://www.cascadegreen.com.au

http://www.snowleopardvodka.co.uk