THE 12 CARBONS OF CHRISTMAS
Or How To Be Carbon Conscious Without Being A Party Pooper
We are often asked what you can do to be more sustainable during the Holiday Season… so, this year, we give you our tips to the theme of the 12 days of Christmas!
A Partridge in a Pear Tree
Life cycle Analysis showed that on a carbon basis, artificial trees are only lower in carbon than real cut trees after at least 5 years of use. And that doesn't even consider the plastic footprint.
Two Turtle Doves travelling far … Whether it’s to visit friends/family or to absorb the Christmassy atmosphere abroad, any flights will increase your carbon footprint big time!
Three French Hens Nestling down… Crack out your favourite Christmas jumper and turn down the heating… The heat from the turkey roasting in the oven on Christmas day will also provide extra heating to the house!... prevent wasting energy heating rooms that don't need it.
Four Calling Birds tellling you to consider environmentally friendly wrapping paper... magazines/newspapers around the house, or using reusable wrapping fabric - perfect for use in stockings. Using string instead of tape will also help to preserve the wrapping paper.
Five Gold Rings put your indoor and outside Christmas lights on a timer so that they aren’t wasting electricity when you forget to turn them off after a couple of sherries… You could also consider solar powered smaller lights to go in your garden instead of full battery or mains powered.
Six Geese a-Laying report 4.2 million Christmas dinners were wasted… -equivalent to 263,000 turkeys; 7.5 million mince pies; 740,000 slices of Christmas pudding; 17.2 million Brussels sprouts; 11.9 million carrots and 11.3 million roast potatoes.
Seven Swans a-Swimming that the vast majority of us don’t keep our prizes from Christmas crackers... so why not consider getting crackers with just the cheesy jokes and hats, making sure to recycle the paper and cardboard afterwards?
Eight Maids a-Milking Christmas for all its worth and ending up with presents they don't want/need? Give the gift of carbon offsetting by supporting one of our projects.
Nine Ladies Dancing out your moves to reduce your footprint! Try and reduce TV time at Christmas.. For those with kids, whilst on your walk, you can even collect twigs, berry and leaves to make your own Christmas decorations.
Ten Lords a-Leaping into action this Christmas ... making a reverse advent calendar, getting into the Christmas giving spirit and encouraging a less wasteful lifestyle.
Eleven Drummers Drumming in the new year with a pledge to reduce your footprint. Make a Low Carbon resolution and … start by measuring your Carbon Footprint and make a pledge... to reduce your meat and dairy intake.
Twelve Pipers Piping to the sweet tune of carbon neutrality… you will not be able to completely remove your carbon footprint To find out more about carbon offsetting, check out our new Carbon Offsetting FAQs
