Energy/Sustainability Column: Greening up your Holidays
Christina Ingersoll MBA'10
Issue date: 12/8/09 Section: Opinion
How to green up your Holidays this year: Well this is an easy topic, and so much fun! You can make ornaments out of Wrigley's gum wrappers, you can pour organic wine, and serve locally grown, organic potatoes in your Hanukkah latkes, honorably slaughtered ham at your Christmas dinner table, and humanely harvested beeswax in your Kwanza candles.
You should consider giving gifts like baskets woven out of folded strands of recycled paper, hand-knit sweaters made from unraveled old sweaters, and if you're giving someone something very special - how about a Prius? The new ones get even better mileage than the old, and they now have solar panels in the roof! Remember to use recycled paper to wrap everything, and consider using twine instead tape for non-petrochemical present giving. Better yet, pack all your gifts into colorful reusable bags and make the wrapping part of the gift!
Speaking of presents, a locally cut live tree is better than an artificial tree made of PVC leaves and an aluminum core. If you can find a vintage "everlasting" Christmas tree, and you can blow off and compost the dust, that would win over a real tree. But the best tree is probably the one that is already planted in your yard. Try decorating with hemp strings of organic popcorn and co-op raised cranberries to feed the natural wildlife. You can create stars for the tree with old coat hangers and some needle nose pliers and cover them with reclaimed aluminum foil. That way the whole thing can go in your recycling bin at the end of the season.
See, it's easy! But now for a little reality check moment. What's the largest source of environmental impact of your holiday? Well, where ya goin'? Assuming that most of my readership is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts but is also headed somewhere else for the holiday, I think I'm safe in assuming that the largest collective impact that Sloan students will have on the environment-author included-is our travel.
According to the 700-page Stern Report on the economics of climate change, CO2 emissions from aviation are about 600-700 mega-tons per year, or about 2-3% of total global CO2 emissions. 2-3% may not seem so impressive, but consider that aviation is currently the fastest-growing source of CO2, and is expected to keep growing for at least the next 20 years (unless the industry completely collapses, but that's a topic for a separate article.) Flying creates more than just CO2 emissions and it emits in a different way. Part of the problem is that an airplane flying at 32,000-40,000 feet over the sea means that the emissions are pumped directly into the upper atmosphere.
You should consider giving gifts like baskets woven out of folded strands of recycled paper, hand-knit sweaters made from unraveled old sweaters, and if you're giving someone something very special - how about a Prius? The new ones get even better mileage than the old, and they now have solar panels in the roof! Remember to use recycled paper to wrap everything, and consider using twine instead tape for non-petrochemical present giving. Better yet, pack all your gifts into colorful reusable bags and make the wrapping part of the gift!
Speaking of presents, a locally cut live tree is better than an artificial tree made of PVC leaves and an aluminum core. If you can find a vintage "everlasting" Christmas tree, and you can blow off and compost the dust, that would win over a real tree. But the best tree is probably the one that is already planted in your yard. Try decorating with hemp strings of organic popcorn and co-op raised cranberries to feed the natural wildlife. You can create stars for the tree with old coat hangers and some needle nose pliers and cover them with reclaimed aluminum foil. That way the whole thing can go in your recycling bin at the end of the season.
See, it's easy! But now for a little reality check moment. What's the largest source of environmental impact of your holiday? Well, where ya goin'? Assuming that most of my readership is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts but is also headed somewhere else for the holiday, I think I'm safe in assuming that the largest collective impact that Sloan students will have on the environment-author included-is our travel.
According to the 700-page Stern Report on the economics of climate change, CO2 emissions from aviation are about 600-700 mega-tons per year, or about 2-3% of total global CO2 emissions. 2-3% may not seem so impressive, but consider that aviation is currently the fastest-growing source of CO2, and is expected to keep growing for at least the next 20 years (unless the industry completely collapses, but that's a topic for a separate article.) Flying creates more than just CO2 emissions and it emits in a different way. Part of the problem is that an airplane flying at 32,000-40,000 feet over the sea means that the emissions are pumped directly into the upper atmosphere.
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resume CV
posted 1/26/10 @ 11:06 AM EST
Green Holidays is a great idea!
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