Sustainable Holidays

Did You Know?

• A consumer needs to reuse an artificial tree for five to ten years to establish an environmental impact lower than that of real trees.
• If every American family wrapped just three presents in re-used materials, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields.
• 35 percent of Americans have an unused Christmas present collecting dust in their closet.
• Americans throw away about 25 percent more trash between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve.
• A single farmed tree absorbs more than one ton of CO2 throughout its lifetime.
• About 2.65 billion holiday cards are sold in the United States each year.
• LED lights use about 1/6 the amount of energy that traditional holiday lights use.

What Can You Do This Holiday Season?

• When disposing of an artificial tree, consider donating it to a charity, a needy family or a re-sale store, since many artificial trees are not biodegradable.
• Consider sending digital holiday cards, purchasing paper products made only from 100% post-consumer recycled materials, and re-using other paper products to make cards and wrapping paper.
• Consider giving experiences rather than stuff! Use the So Kind Registry to create a list of experiences you’d like to receive.
• Shop locally and from thrift and re-sale shops for your holiday shopping.

Sustainable Tourism

Traveling is an integral part of the holidays, so it’s important to think of environmental impacts. Sustainable tourism can be simply defined as “Tourism that takes full account of its current and future economic, social, and environmental impacts, addressing the needs of visitors, the industry, the environment and host communities.”