[greenyes] [CRRA] Green Holiday Consumption

[Gary Liss <gary@no.address>]

Apologies for cross-postings

> To: "CRRA Members List" <crra_members@no.address>
> From: "Julie Muir" <juliem@no.address>
> Date: Tue, 14 Dec 2004 10:56:30 -0800
> Subject: [CRRA] Green Holiday Consumption

Dreaming of a Green Christmas
By Mark Clayton, Christian Science Monitor.
Posted December 11, 2004.

Despite the five million extra tons of trash generated between Thanksgiving 
and New Year's, many people plan to 'go green' and give environmentally 
conscious gifts.

A few years ago, Bill Cooke was mulling over ways to make his Christmas 
greener, more environmentally friendly, when he discovered he could buy a 
ton of air pollution.

"It was just like a light bulb went on," says the Sloansville, N.Y., 
resident.  "I'm thinking How come it took me so long to realize I could do 
this at Christmas?"

Thus it was that along with toys, games, and other gifts beneath the 
Cookes' tree, there appeared a "clean air certificate" citing the 
elimination of
2,000 pounds of sulfur-dioxide emissions.  Cost $50.

Mr.  Cooke's wife smiled supportively, as he recalls.  But "the kids were a 
little young to really get it."

Welcome to the new world of "environmentally conscious" holidays.  Once 
again this year, green gifts like Cooke's will be swamped by a national 
tidal wave of toaster ovens, ties, video games, and battery-powered kiddie 
cars - all encased in packaging bound for the landfill.  But along with the 
5 million extra tons of trash generated between Thanksgiving and New 
Year's, there are signs, too, that the environment will be getting its own 
kind of Christmas bonus Many people want to "go green."

Some are primarily interested in helping the environment; others want to 
simplify their lives.

"There is a growing concern that the holiday season has gotten just so 
wasteful," says Betsy Taylor, president of the Center for a New American 
Dream, an advocacy group for voluntary simplicity.  "People are not 
comfortable with the feel of it."

More than half of Americans say their lifestyles produce too much waste and 
that more recycling, energy, and water conservation - and less packaging - 
are needed, the center's polling shows.  While Americans are less 
enthusiastic about activities such as home recycling and saving 
electricity, a rising number of people say they would pay more for products 
that cause less pollution, a 2002 Roper poll found.

Sales of "health and sustainability" products grew to $138 billion in 2003, 
up 7.6 percent over 2002, according to figures cited by the Natural 
Marketing Institute (NMI) in Harleysville, Pa.  During that period, sales 
rose in categories such as natural and organic foods (up 11 percent), 
energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs (6 percent), hybrid cars (45 
percent), ecotourism (60 percent), and goods from recycled materials (10 
percent).

"This is a very environmentally conscious group," says NMI marketing 
consultant Gwynne Rogers of the 55 million consumers who make "green"
purchases.  "They are interested in where the product came from, how it's 
going to be used - the whole product life cycle.  They're not going to 
forget these values at Christmastime."

There is also a mainstreaming of environmental values among consumers, Ms. 
Rogers adds, with many organic and other products appealing to people "who 
aren't crunchy-granola Berkeley types."

Two forces - voluntary simplicity and environmental concern - are boosting 
the market for alternative holiday gifts.  For example, sales at 
Greenhome.com have grown 25 percent over last year, says Lawrence Comras, 
president of the 5-year-old ecogift company.

"People are more anxious to feel part of the solution, not part of the 
problem," he says.  "We're like little elves running around scouring the 
country for ecofriendly products, getting them all under one roof, and 
making it easy for people to act on their good intentions."

Hot ecogifts this season include LED outdoor holiday lights that use 1/50th 
of the electricity and last 20 to 30 years.  At $10 to $15 a string, they 
cost about five times as much as regular lights, but they save money in the 
long run, Mr.  Comras says.  "And they're prettier."

Other popular buys include heavy canvas shower curtains, handbags made from 
recycled rubber tires, and organic textiles including hemp and organic cotton.

Consumers also are helping the environment by pursuing simplicity.  "My 
husband and I have been working over the past few years to simplify 
Christmas, both for our bank account and our environment," writes Melissa 
Podeszwa, a resident of Auburn, Wash., in an email.

Two years ago she and her family capped per-person spending at $100 and cut 
it to $50 last year with the proviso that everything fit in a stocking.
Gifts include family members' time - giving a trip to the zoo, for example -
handmade cards, ornaments, and recycled bags decorated with holiday stamps 
and stuffed with symbolic gifts.  A homemade sun ornament represents a 
solar-panel donation, honey sticks show regard for bees, organic 
milk-chocolate coins for cattle, and so on.  Cost $5 each.

"I confess, I've gone green and I don't mean a la Grinch!" says Carmela 
Vignocchi of Grover Beach, Calif., in an email.  Her family has consciously 
shifted away from the "consumer spending crush." Along with setting 
per-person caps from $10 to $40 in any given year, the family has also 
limited Christmas to handmade gifts.  Last year, her parents received 
organic-food gift baskets from the local co-op and energy-efficient light 
bulbs.

Environmental groups are also gearing up for a green holiday.  The
80,000-member Citizens Campaign for the Environment has launched its third 
annual push for "ecologically conscious holiday shopping." On its list of 
gift ideas a block of wind-generated electricity, a hybrid car, even whale 
adoption.

For $40, you can adopt Cardhu, Regulus or Ember from the Whale Center of 
New England.  These humpback whales "have been seen hundreds of times," 
according to the group's website.  You receive a photo of your whale, an 
adoption certificate, a CD of whale calls, and your whale's biography.  The 
money supports whale research.

By contrast, the Nature Conservancy puts its adopt-an-acre donations toward 
buying rainforest land.  And a myriad of Internet-based companies are 
willing to take your money to plant a tree in your own or someone else's 
name just about anywhere.  Care should be taken to check the company's 
background and reputation to ensure those dollars will actually plant trees.

Even holiday wrapping paper is scrutinized by some ecogivers.  "I guess it 
was about a decade ago that I saw how our garbage and everyone's garbage at 
least tripled Christmas week, most of it boxes, wrapping, packages," says 
Paul Fehringer of Buffalo, N.Y.  "It really upset me.  I thought 'We can do 
this with a lot less waste.' "

So the Fehringers, including their son and daughter, began wrapping gifts 
in recyclable newspaper or brown paper with no dyes and metals - all tied 
with bows kept from the year before.  Gifts have also become fewer, 
smaller, and often handmade.  Christmas cards are emailed to friends.

"My wife was not very open to all this at first," he says.  "She was just 
so used to the shiny wrapping paper and tons of gifts.  It was hard to 
break from that tradition."

Ultimately, such steps reflect a growing dissatisfaction with the holiday 
status quo, say some observers.

"People are beginning to understand that the world is not working in lots 
of ways," says Bill McKibben, scholar in residence at Middlebury College 
and author of "Hundred Dollar Holiday The Case for a More Joyful Christmas."
"Overconsumption is the great North American environmental problem and 
Christmas kind of baptizes that overconsumption, sanctifies it.  And people 
are beginning to wake up to that."

Retire a Pollution Permit For those who want to give the gift of cleaner 
air, here's a possibility pollution allowances.

Each allowance - actually a serial number issued by the US Environmental 
Protection Agency - lets a power plant emit 1 ton of sulfur dioxide into 
the air.  The Adirondack Council, a nonprofit group fighting acid rain in 
upstate New York, is selling them.  When someone buys one, the allowance is 
retired, preventing the SO2 from going up a smokestack and helping to 
create acid rain.

If that sounds a little wacky, the story of how the Adirondack Council got 
into the pollution-permit business is equally bizarre.

In 1997, a power company gave the council 10,000 SO2 allowances.  "I think 
they expected us to sell these pollution credits and raise some money for 
the organization," says John Sheehan, a spokesman for the council.  "Rather 
than do that, we wanted to find a way to retire them and keep them off the 
market."

The allowances, which also trade on the commodities markets, now fetch more 
than $700 each.  But the council is still retiring the credits for just $50 -
instead of making millions selling them back into the market.  There are 
about 3,000 left, Mr.  Sheehan says.

Holiday numbers Christmas sales in the United States are projected to rise 
to $219 billion this year - up 4 to 6 percent from last year.

Holiday sales are projected to rise 17 percent in South Africa - the best 
showing in two decades.  Germany is expected to see a 1.5 percent increase 
over last year.  But in Britain, deep discounting by retailers failed to 
keep sales from falling in the run-up to the season.

The US imported $312 million worth of Christmas tree ornaments from China 
between January and July of this year.  But overall, China's exporters 
report a "chilly" holiday season.

Between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, Americans generate an extra 5 
million tons of trash.

Sources National Retail Federation; various country estimates; US Census; 
1997 Use Less Stuff Report.

Mark Clayton is a staff writer for the Christian Science Monitor.

Gary Liss
916-652-7850
Fax: 916-652-0485
www.garyliss.com