How to give climate-friendly gifts this holiday season » Yale Climate Connections

It’s the holiday season, and we’re thinking about how to make gifting greener. Features editor Pearl Marvell has a bunch of ideas for how to shop cleaner. Director of Audience Experience Sam Harrington likes to buy secondhand. And Editor-in-Chief Sara Peach favors experiences – especially weird family crafts – over gifts. How are you making your holidays climate-friendly this year?

This discussion has been edited and condensed.

Sam: The reason that we are thinking about climate change and gifting is, like we’ve talked about before, consumption requires a lot of energy, and producing all these things out of plastic requires petroleum and a lot of energy, and the burning of fossil fuels, etc. So with that in mind, how do you think about the climate footprint of your holiday gifting, if you are doing holiday gifting? 

Sara: Pearl, do you want to go first? Because I have an extremely Grinch answer to this question.

Pearl: Well, yeah, I think about it all the time, and I think about how wasteful the holidays are, really. Ultimately, one of the best things to do is to not do a lot, not overdo it, which is very hard when you have a 3-year-old who wants a bunch of trucks. 

I have a couple brands that are my go-tos that probably make me a really weird friend in terms of what I gift people. And then I also have some ways that I figure out, “Is this company one that I want to do business with?” And thirdly, I really try and keep it as local as possible.

So one of the companies that I like, have you heard of Tanit? [Editor’s note: Yale Climate Connections doesn’t accept advertising and isn’t affiliated with this or any other company mentioned in this conversation.] I am trying to reduce my plastic intake and outflow and it is very hard. 

Sam: Oh, yeah. 

Pearl: Long story short, I tried this company. They’re a Quebec company, and their shampoo bars and conditioner bars are awesome, and they have a bunch of different health products, beauty products, and cleaning products. And I just really like them.

Sam: That sounds cool. I have not had success with shampoo bars. I think that the sudsing is missing.

Pearl: And also dish soap, too. I haven’t tried theirs but, yeah, I still have yet to find a good sudsing dish detergent. I do get the plastic-free dishwasher tablet things. And then they’ve got the toothpaste tablet things that are good. The only problem I have with them is when you’re in a hot climate, they just kind of get all sticky.

Sara: That might be a problem down South.

Pearl: That’s definitely something to be aware of. But yeah, oftentimes I will gift friends cleaning products and toothpaste, and I don’t know what they think of me doing that, like if they think that I think that their house is unclean or something, but I want to give them something that they use. I haven’t given anybody toilet paper yet, which I think is actually a very nice gift, because who doesn’t need toilet paper?

Sara: It’s good to draw a boundary.

Pearl: Is it? Is it?

Sam: What’s the name of the toilet paper?

Pearl: Who Gives a Crap. The packaging is very pretty, and you can get all sorts of different packaging, and different qualities. It’s somehow recycled. I don’t know how that happens, nor maybe do I want to know, but it’s really, it’s really good. [Editor’s note: It is made from recycled paper, not used toilet paper.] We’ve been using it for a year now, and no complaints. 

Sara: Pearl, could you say more about the strategies that you use to evaluate companies?

Pearl: I’ve been looking at companies on Bcorporation.net. There’s thousands of companies. They have certain requisites companies have to comply with in order to be classified as a B Corp. I think it’s a good start, but then you obviously have to do your own research, too, because it’s not just about eco standards, but also governance and social issues.

Sam: Back to the idea of a normal gift, toilet paper is maybe not the most normal. But I do think that secondhand gifts should be more acceptable than they are. 

Pearl: For sure.

Sara: Absolutely.

Sam: I did get a friend two really cool faux Tiffany stained glass lamps for her birthday recently on Facebook marketplace for $50.

Sara: That’s an amazing gift. 

Sam: And then also, there are a lot of holiday artists markets in town. So also trying to get gifts there or making things myself. My dad gets Christmas cookies for Christmas every year.

Pearl: Hopefully, we’re shifting away from things having to be brand-new and be in this bright and shiny box advertised on TV. It should be something significant to you and to that person, even if it’s a secondhand book that means something to you. I think those gifts are way more valuable than something brand-new.

Sara: There’s an element in the vintage lamps example that that’s something special and pretty. It’s not like you’re getting somebody a used dust mop.

Pearl: Or underwear. 

Sam: And a lot of times it’s pretty affordable.

Sara: Yeah, that’s also a huge advantage.

Sam: I think that it can, like Pearl said, get tricky on the kid front. She can’t read so I think it’ll be fine to say this: I’m giving my friend’s 3-year-old my tea set from when I was little that I recently found in my parent’s basement. 

Pearl: Oh, that’s wonderful.

Sam: But it’s hard because they want the latest Disney merch or whatever.

Pearl: Yeah, and to see young girls being targeted by beauty companies already. 

Where I grew up, in the Caribbean, there wasn’t a lot, so then coming here, it’s like, “Oh yeah, beautiful and shiny and so much fun.” And now I’m just like, I’m good. It’s become way too much for me. I’m just completely over it. 

Sara: There aren’t any little children right now in my immediate family, which I think makes a difference. But a few years ago, we all just admitted that we didn’t really like giving each other gifts and that we would rather spend the money on an experience together. 

And the way that has played out, especially in the COVID era, is we do crafts together around the holidays, which sounds wholesome but isn’t the way it plays out in my family. Last Christmas, we made a gingerbread house together, but we turned the gingerbread house into a crime scene. We set up this whole little scene where there was a gingerbread person who had been murdered.

Pearl: I see the wholesomeness going down the drain.

Sara: We used the red icing to put a pool of blood around the gingerbread person. My family really enjoys doing stuff like that together. 

Pearl: That’s beautiful. There’s some study that was about when you give a thing, the brain has the release of dopamine or serotonin and enjoys it, but then adapts to it very quickly and gets over it. Whereas with an experience, the memory of that experience continues to grow and produce those happy chemicals in your brain. And I think there’s something to be said for gifting an experience instead of a thing. 

Sam: To bring it back around to Pearl’s earlier point, trying to do less is probably the most helpful thing.

Pearl: That is nice because I’ve had Christmases here in the U.S., and I won’t even remember what I got because you’re just in this state of overwhelm. I’d rather get maybe one or two things but have more of an experiential situation, for sure. 

Sam: I haven’t thought actually about the climate costs of books, but if I need something for someone, I’ll run to a local bookstore. Is that bad? I don’t know. 

Pearl: Are there any secondhand bookstores in the area? 

Sam: Definitely. Yeah, the bookstore that I like to support because it’s queer-and-trans-owned is all new books. Well, maybe that’s actually not true. They definitely have used children’s books. 

Pearl: Yeah, but if you find a bookstore that is owned by someone who represents a certain population, of course, it’s paper and all of that stuff, but I think it can still be worth buying new when you know who it’s going towards. When I do buy books, I always buy from a particular Puerto Rican bookstore just because I know where it’s going. Or coffee, I get all my coffee from Puerto Rico. 

Sara: The television show, “The Good Place,” addressed this, so it’s not really new ground, but it’s just really complicated to be a consumer right now. And there’s no perfect choice. We all have multiple values, one of which is protecting the climate. And sometimes those values are in opposition with a certain purchase. But I mean, it’s a book. It’s the gift of knowledge.

Pearl: It’s very important right now.

Sam: Books can be an experience, too, saying, “I really liked this,” and then you can talk about it together.

Pearl: I have books from my childhood, and I remember who got me each one.

Sam: True. Yeah. Michael Svoboda usually puts out a holiday climate book list for us, so depending on when this comes out and that comes out, we’ll link to it (Stay tuned, it’s coming 12/9).

Sara: And Daisy Simmons is coming out with a piece on environmental groups to donate to.

Pearl: That would be a cool gift, too: “I donated to this place in honor of you.”

Sam: I think this is a pretty good range of strategies. There are values-aligned choices if you’re buying something new, you could buy something secondhand, you could do an experience instead. Is there anything else that you have top of mind about this?

Pearl: I guess one thing we left out are the big names like Patagonia, for example. Companies that you know will take things back when they’re not usable anymore. But that has to be for someone you really like to spend that kind of money. 

Sam: The other thing that we didn’t talk about is the wrapping of gifts. I am a big fan of wrapping things in scarves and then reclaiming my scarf when it’s been unwrapped.

Pearl: I’m horrible at wrapping things, anyways. I should not be allowed anywhere near wrapping paper or scissors. So this family is very much, put it in a bag, reuse the bag. A lot of people get presents that come in “Congratulations, you’re having a baby boy!” bags.

Sara: Yeah, there’s one red bag that makes a circuit around my family for birthdays. 

Sam: Amazing. Well to end, I’ll echo Sara’s sentiment that this is hard, and if you’re trying and you’re thinking about it, that’s good.

Pearl: Yeah, there’s no perfect. I think that’s one of the hardest things about the climate movement and environmentalism. There’s this fear, or fear of judgment that you’re not doing it right, or you need to do more. You do what you can and that’s good enough. 

Sam: Yeah. Also, the flip side is just because you can’t make the perfect choices 100% of the time doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to make better choices. The choices you’re making do actually matter.

Sara: We all have different forms of power at different times in our lives, and as we look toward the U.S. federal government maybe not doing as much on climate change in the next few years, consumer power is a place where people can make things happen.

Pearl: If they’re of a certain age, you can just take your kid’s toys and hide them for a couple of months and regift it to them.

Sam: And if you’re somebody who is really splurging on the gifts and you’re putting a bow on a car, get that EV tax credit or buy someone a heat pump.

Sara: If anyone would like to buy me a heat pump, send me an email.

Pearl: I’ll take an EV, no problem.

Sam: All right. Well, thank you both, and happy holidays.