If buying less stuff is the first principle of sustainable consumption, then “mindful” buying is the second. We can start by buying less. But the next step is to buy better. When you shop this holiday season consider: Where did the item come from? How was it made? Who made it? How long will it last? Can it be reused or recycled when the recipient no longer needs it? Who benefits from the sale? To what extent and in what ways can it enhance the recipient’s life?
The unfortunate truth is that it is hard to practice mindful shopping when you buy from national or multinational chains, whether online or bricks-and-mortar. But you can frequently practice it at your locally and independently owned toy store or clothing store or jeweler. You can sometimes practice it online, when you seek out socially and environmentally conscious retailers. And you can also practice it by frequenting second-hand and vintage shops.
Large chains, bargain shopping and convenience shopping are here to stay, for better and for worse. They are part of the landscape. They may serve as the most direct and accessible routes to consumption. But we can sometimes take the windy, back roads instead. It may take longer, it may cost more upfront, but we may also find that it gives us more satisfaction and value in the end.
So you’ve decided to take a first step towards greening your holidays: you’re going to buy less stuff. So what do you give instead of “stuff”? Here’s a list of ideas to get you started
- Give tickets to theater, music, a sporting event; or dinner out
- Give a personal service such as a massage or facial
- Give a class in knitting, wood-working, dance, or cooking
- Give membership to a museum, gym or yoga studio.
- Give to a charity in honor of the recipient.
- Give an experience that you and the recipient can enjoy together.
There are lots of things we can do to “green” our holidays: from using LED holiday lights to reusing and recycling gift wrap. But these little things won’t add up to much if we ignore the bigger challenge: our buying habits. Our penchant for shopping has a profound impact on the environment (to learn the ways in and extent to which consumerism harms the earth, click here and here). And at no time do we buy more than between Thanksgiving and New Year’s.
If you want to green your holidays, start by asking yourself: “What can I give my loved ones other than more stuff?” We don’t really need all that “new stuff” anyway. It may be less convenient and take more time to give each other non-stuff but it may also provide more and longer-lasting satisfaction (this has actually been studied; click here for a link to a 2002 article published in The Journal of Happiness Studies). In other words, buying fewer expendable consumer goods isn’t just good for the planet. It may make us happier.
(to see more green holiday tips click here)
