consider this

My friend, Barb and her trusty assistant, Natalie, are the Queens of Green so I'm jumping on their bandwagon this Christmas, especially after reading a great article by Spencer Hunt in the Columbus Dispatch:

The goal of an environmentally conscious holiday is to change spending habits and traditions in ways that cut pollution without diminishing the Christmas spirit. Consider this:

• Every year between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, people throw away 25 percent more trash than normal: about 1 million extra tons a week;
• The number of greeting cards mailed each year in the U.S. could fill a 10-story football stadium, according to waste-reduction advocate Use Less Stuff.
• Powering decorative lights strung on homes will result in power plants producing more than 400,000 tons of carbon dioxide, the lead ingredient in global warming and cost homeowners more than $250 million.

Most of us are already aware of how to reduce our footprint on the planet but it can be tough reinventing tradition. The following Christmas considerations aren't that big of a jump:

• Choose LED lights if you're gonna' string 'em up - I bought mine this weekend for our FAKE Christmas tree (fake is also good, but I just learned that REAL trees store carbon, provide habitat, are grown locally, and 90 percent are recycled as compost and mulch).
• Use gift bags that can be re-gifted - my girlfriends and I do this all the time.
  
• Send email holiday greetings to those in your address book (see my previous post) and only snail mail cards to those who aren't as technically advanced.

Ready to make the leap?