2022 climate-conscious gift guide

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Gift boxes. Photo by Tofros.

A selection of gift ideas to show love for your people and your planet

By Daisy Simmons, Yale Climate Connections

‘Tis the season for conundrums — at least for the climate-conscious who find themselves torn between reducing carbon emissions and holiday gift-giving. So take heart: It IS possible to indulge in your generous nature while keeping a lighter carbon footprint.

Read on for three categories of climate-conscious gifts.

For those equally climate-virtuous

Some people on your list may be just as climate-conscious as you. As such they may be happiest with a present that’s climate-conscious and that combats emissions — whether through direct action or educating more people about the problem, and the solutions.

  • The World Economic Forum has a few tips that might appeal to your recipients, such as planting a tree or buying a piece of coral in their name.

  • Or consider a Climeworks gift certificate for direct-air carbon capture. The group says a $30 gift, for example, will remove and store 25 kg CO2 in your recipient’s name.

  • Looking for an emissions-reducing gift for the whole household? Yale Climate Connections regular contributor Dana Nuccitelli suggests taking advantage of the tax credits and rebates available in the Inflation Reduction Act. “Now’s the time to upgrade your gas water heater or stove to a cleaner heat pump or induction version,” he says. “What better gift for your family than cleaner indoor air, plus lower monthly energy bills?”

  • Want something a little more budget-friendly that also helps improve your home efficiency? Make a draft dodger snake — Bob Vila has some simple and cool DIY ideas here.

  • Your fellow climate-oriented friends and family may also appreciate catching up on their related reading. For these folks, check out Michael Svoboda’s YCC review of 12 new titles for climate activists and academics.

  • For those who prefer to learn through cinema, find out if the Wild and Scenic Film Festival On Tour is heading to your neck of the woods.

  • For more emissions-busting gift tips, check out our 2021 gift guide for tips on Buy Nothing communities, climate action vouchers, and renewable energy credits.

Memorably material-free: Experiences and homemade treats

Material-free gifts like tickets to games or shows, babysitting vouchers, and memberships mean good times — and generally low to no planet-warming emissions compared with the impacts of producing and transporting material goods.

Here are a few for your giving inspiration:

  • Got a kayaking enthusiast on your list? Turn to a local outfit for guided kayaking, snowshoeing, and other fun treks. Or head to Airbnb to scout for unique locally hosted experiences, from beginner surfing lessons in Santa Cruz to mountain e-bike touring in Asheville, North Carolina.

  • Check out classes based on your recipients’ interests, like in-person cooking classes at a local co-op or kitchen store, a knitting class, or perhaps a belly-dancing class.

    Quality online options are seemingly endless now, too, thanks to Masterclass (think intentional eating with author Michael Pollan or conservation with Jane Goodall) and Udemy (explore a range of courses on climate change plus hundreds of lessons in gardening, among many others.)

  • For your 21-plus set, book a tour to a carbon-neutral provider convenient to them. For example at the New Belgium brewery in Fort Collins, Colorado, your gift recipient can learn all about Fat Tire, America’s first certified carbon-neutral beer.

  • Look into local museum and performing art center memberships for the culture-oriented people on your list. Or consider a subscription you know they’ll love, like New York Times Cooking ($5/month).

  • Give the priceless gift of time in nature in the form of an America the Beautiful National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass — an annual pass that gets one vehicle into any national park or forest ($80). Many states also offer annual state park passes: California, Florida, Maryland, and more.

  • Got something you’re really good at? Offer up services for friends and family, like a bike repair, massage, oil change, or even tax prep.

There’s also still time to make something that wins over loved ones’ hearts … and appetites. You might whip up a batch of seasonal salted pecan caramel popcorn or glögg using organic ingredients and a reusable container.

Or, really please your crowd and take a cue from YCC contributor Karin Kirk’s holiday playbook. She gifts bread kits — “Put the dry ingredients for a no-knead bread in a silicone or plant-based/non-plastic bag, and send it off with instructions for mixing, rising, and baking. Instant treat.”

Her other holiday hit? “Boozey treats,” she says. “We’ve put our garden to proper use making plum gin and raspberry vodka. And honestly, it’s hard to go wrong with this theme!”

Material goods you can feel good about gifting

While other categories of gifts may be even more climate-friendly, a growing number of retailers are ramping up their own carbon neutrality efforts. Many shops are brimming with sustainable gift options, from solar gadgets to recycled jackets and shoes.

First, a few rules of thumb to help make any shopping expedition a little climate-friendlier:

  • Consider who you’re buying FOR. Retail returns in 2021 accounted for 16.6 percent of total U.S. sales, according to the National Retail Federation. And with an “estimated 10 percent of all returns ending in a landfill, the environmental impact is not trivial,” per McKinsey analysis.

    Avert returns with a gut check before making any purchase. Is your prospective gift something they need or want? And is there actually room for it in their home? Also consider asking about and honoring people’s wish lists.

  • Consider who you’re buying FROM. Some retailers are climate-friendlier than others — find out who they are and favor them in your shopping choices. Small, local businesses may be a good place to start. Also look for retailers with reputable, relevant certifications, like Climate Neutral, Corporation B, EWG-Verified, or 1% for the Planet.

  • Consider what materials are used. Look for renewable/reused/recycled materials wherever possible and avoid plastic gifts — unless they’re made with recycled or ocean-bound plastic. According to Beyond Plastics research, the U.S. plastics industry contributes roughly 232 million tons of CO2e gas emissions per year — equivalent to the average emissions from 116 coal-fired power plants. Plus, just under 9% of plastic in the U.S. is actually recycled, according to Environmental Protection Agency data.

Enough with the don’ts, let’s get to the do’s. Here are a few low-impact physical gifts for the recipient archetypes on your list:

The clean energy buffs

The foodies

  • Inspire their love of plant-based fare with a vegetable-centric cookbook. Food & Wine’s list has 16 contenders, from easy weeknight wins to James Beard-winning chef creations.

  • Help them store their delectables with pretty beeswax food wraps, and then clean up the mess with biodegradable, reusable Swedish cloths.

  • Food writers from a range of publications swear by the reBoard cutting board, made from recycled kitchen scraps.

  • Score intrigue points with a novel — and climate-friendly ingredient — like kelp. Atlantic Sea Greens offers foodie fare like cranberry kelp cubes perfect for making smoothies, or try the Ginger Sesame Sea-Veggie Burger.

The musically minded

  • Look for instruments with Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification. Martin and DeMars are examples of companies prioritizing FSC-compliant renewable wood in their guitars.

  • The House of Marley offers headphones and earbuds made with FSC-certified wood and recyclable aluminum — in addition to supporting global reforestation via One Tree Planted, and ocean conservation via the Surfrider Foundation.

The gardeners

  • Gather an assortment of pollinator-friendly and heirloom seeds appropriate for your recipient’s zone and make a theme basket. Potential add-ins include biodegradable CowPots (Karin’s go-to) and a sturdy and sustainable hand tool.

  • Splurge on a Haws watering can (also Karin-approved), handmade in England by a socially and environmentally responsible company that’s been around for 100+ years. These are hard to find in the U.S., but this Canadian retailer sells them and is Black-owned, certified B-Corp and donates 1% of profits to environmental projects.

  • Another splurge? Borrow Dana’s plan for his mom (spoiler alert, Dana’s mom!) and gift a bird feeder with a camera powered by solar panels.

The ones who appreciate your keen fashion sense

  • If you’re shopping for jewelry, opt for baubles made with recycled gold and silver, responsibly mined stones, and conflict-free diamonds. Treehugger has more tips here.

  • For toiletries, head to Henry Rose Fragrance, billed as the first fine fragrance line to be both EWG Verified and Cradle to Cradle Certified; Good Time’s low-waste shampoo, conditioner and body soaps; and/or Carbon-Neutral-certified Leaf’s plastic-free razors.

  • Need socks? A few climate-conscious contenders out there include Bare Kind’s Rainforest Trust bamboo socks made at a third-generation family-run factory and The Giving Socks, where every pair you buy supports tree restoration in Africa.

  • For outerwear, check out Patagonia’s “recrafted” line of garments made from old clothes. Climate-neutral, B-certified TenTree also offers a wide range of stylish jackets and coats.

  • Shoes offer a world of climate-conscious opportunity, from Thousand Fell’s fully recyclable sneakers and Cariuma’s National Geographic Gecko canvas shoes made with organic cotton, sustainably sourced rubber, cork and recycled plastics to Rothy’s ballet flats, knit from single-use plastics and available in 21 colors.

For the kids—and kids at heart

  • From stackables to push cars, little ones love the sustainable wooden toys from PlanToys.

  • For school-age kids, try plantable pencils they can use now, plant later.

  • Your young Lorax lover will love the “I speak for the trees” hoodie at tentree.

  • The rainforest-guardian doll, aka “Lottie,” is made with recycled cardboard, soy ink, and bio-degradable string — and a portion of your goes to the Rainforest Trust.

  • Check out Eco-bricks for budding engineers. Any of these FSC-certified wood building sets is ready to please, but the Wanderlust collection’s architectural builds may especially delight kids who live in featured cities like Chicago.

  • Help older kids learn about climate change — and action — with video games that bring climate issues front and center, like one of these.

Check the climate-conscious off your gift list

By thinking outside the gift box and exploring new ways to bring climate consciousness to gift-giving, you can unlock the next level of holiday spirit: to act generously and responsibly.

Red List calls out ‘perfect storm of unsustainable human activity decimating marine life’

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Turtle at Sea. Photo by Jeremy Bishop

“As the world looks to the ongoing U.N. Biodiversity Conference to set the course for nature recovery, we simply cannot afford to fail,” said the head of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

By Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams

During the United Nations biodiversity summit in Montreal, an international conversation group on Friday highlighted how humanity is dangerously failing marine life with illegal and unsustainable fishing, pollution from agricultural and industrial runoff, and activities that drive up global temperatures.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species now features 150,388 species, 42,108 of which face possible extinction. Of the 17,903 marine animals and plants on the list, more than 1,550 are at risk.

“Today’s IUCN Red List update reveals a perfect storm of unsustainable human activity decimating marine life around the globe. As the world looks to the ongoing U.N. Biodiversity Conference to set the course for nature recovery, we simply cannot afford to fail,” Bruno Oberle, the group’s director general, warned Friday. “We urgently need to address the linked climate and biodiversity crises, with profound changes to our economic systems, or we risk losing the crucial benefits the oceans provide us with.”

The primary aim of the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)—which is hosted by China but kicked off earlier in Canada this week due to Covid-19 restrictions—is the development of post-2020 global biodiversity framework (GBF).

A top priority for many parties to the treaty—along with the United States, which has failed to ratify the CBD over the past three decades but is still participating in the summit—is to protect 30% of lands and waters by 2030. However, as activists and Indigenous leaders from around the world have noted, there are serious human rights concerns regarding implementation of the 30×30 goal.

COP15 comes after the fifth round of discussions about establishing a U.N. treaty for the high seas, or the two-thirds of oceans outside territorial waters. Those August talks failed to produce an agreement—which, as Laura Meller of Greenpeace’s Protect the Oceans campaign warned at the time, “jeopardizes the livelihoods and food security of billions of people around the world.”

“While progress has been made, particularly on ocean sanctuaries, members of the High Ambition Coalition and countries like the USA have moved too slowly to find compromises, despite their commitments,” Meller continued. “Time has run out. Further delay means ocean destruction. We are sad and disappointed. While countries continue to talk, the oceans and all those who rely on them will suffer.”

Similarly, urgent warnings came with the update Friday. Ashleigh McGovern, vice president of the Center for Oceans at Conservation International, said that “with this devastating IUCN Red List update on the status of marine species, it is clear that business as usual is no longer an option.”

“Human activity has had devastating effects on marine ecosystems and biodiversity, but it can also be harnessed to drive action as a matter of survival, equity, and climate justice,” she added. “If we are to secure a new future for the world’s oceans and the essential biodiversity they harbor, we must act now.”

Jon Paul Rodríguez, chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC), pointed out that “most of the Earth’s biosphere, 99% of all livable space on our planet, is underwater.”

“Humanity acts as if oceans were inexhaustible, capable of sustaining infinite harvest of algae, animals, and plants for food and other products, able to transform vast quantities of sewage and other pollutants that we pour in coastal areas, and absorb the CO2 generated by land-use change and burning fossil fuel,” he said. “This Red List update brings to light new evidence of the multiple interacting threats to declining life in the sea.”

According to the IUCN Red List, 20 of the 54 abalone species—some of the world’s most expensive seafood—are threatened with extinction.

“Abalones reflect humanity’s disastrous guardianship of our oceans in microcosm: overfishing, pollution, disease, habitat loss, algal blooms, warming, and acidification, to name but a few threats. They really are the canary in the coal mine,” said Howard Peters, a member of the IUCN SSC Mollusc Specialist Group and research associate at the U.K.’s University of York who led the abalone assessment.

“The most immediate action people can take is to eat only farmed or sustainably sourced abalones. Enforcing fishery quotas and anti-poaching measures is also critical,” Peters noted. “However, we need to halt the changes to ocean chemistry and temperature to preserve marine life including abalone species over the long term.”

The update also raised the alarm about dugongs, particularly in East Africa and New Caledonia. Populations of the large herbivorous marine mammals are threatened by fishing gear, oil and gas exploration and production, chemical pollution, and the destruction of seagrasses they rely on for food.

“Strengthening community-led fisheries governance and expanding work opportunities beyond fishing are key in East Africa, where marine ecosystems are fundamental to people’s food security and livelihoods,” said Evan Trotzuk, who led the region’s assessment.

Another focus of the list is the pillar coral in the Caribbean, given that its population has shrunk by more than 80% across most of its range over the past three decades.

Noting that it is just one of 26 corals now listed as critically endangered in the Atlantic Ocean, Arizona State University associate professor Beth Polidoro, Red List coordinator for the IUCN SSC Coral Specialist Group, said that “these alarming results emphasize the urgency of global cooperation and action to address climate change impacts on ocean ecosystems.”

Amanda Vincent, chair of the IUCN SSC Marine Conservation Committee, declared that “the awful status of these species should shock us and engage us for urgent action.”

“These magical marine species are treasured wildlife, from the wonderful abalone to the charismatic dugong and the glorious pillar coral, and we should safeguard them accordingly,” she added. “It is vital that we manage fisheries properly, constrain climate change, and reverse habitat degradation.”

Nodding to the conference, Jane Smart, director of IUCN’s Science and Data Center, said the update reinforces her group’s “urgent call for a post-2020 global biodiversity framework that will be ambitious enough to cease destruction of our life support system and catalyze the necessary action and change to secure life on this planet.”

‘Turn off the tap on plastic,’ UN Chief declares amid debate over new global treaty

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Photo by Naja Bertolt Jensen on Unsplash

“Plastics are fossil fuels in another form,” said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, “and pose a serious threat to human rights, the climate, and biodiversity.”

By Kenny Stancil, Common Dreams

Hours before the first round of negotiations to advance a global plastics treaty concluded Friday in Punta Del Este, Uruguay, the leader of the United Nations implored countries “to look beyond waste and turn off the tap on plastic.”

“Plastics are fossil fuels in another form,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres tweeted, “and pose a serious threat to human rights, the climate, and biodiversity.”

Guterres’ comments elevated the demands of civil society organizations, scientists, and other advocates fighting for robust, legally binding rules to confront the full lifecycle impacts of the plastic pollution crisis. A coalition of more than 100 groups has called for limiting the ever-growing production and consumption of plastic and holding corporations accountable for the ecological and public health harms caused by manufacturing an endless stream of toxic single-use items.

Petrochemical industry representatives who attended the first intergovernmental negotiating committee meeting (INC-1) for a global plastics treaty, by contrast, attempted to bolster fossil fuel-friendly governments’ efforts to slow the pace of talks—convened by the U.N. Environment Program and set to continue off-and-on through 2024—and weaken proposals for action.

In the wake of this week’s opening round of debate, the Break Free From Plastic (BFFP) alliance launched a petition outlining what it calls the “essential elements” of a multilateral environmental agreement capable of “reversing the tide of plastic pollution and contributing to the end of the triple planetary crises of climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.”

According to experts associated with BFFP, an effective global plastics treaty must include the following:

  • Significant, progressive, and mandatory targets to cap and dramatically reduce virgin plastic production;
  • Legally binding, time-bound, and ambitious targets to implement and scale up reuse, refill, and alternative product delivery systems;
  • A just transition to safer and more sustainable livelihoods for workers and communities across the plastics supply chain; and
  • Provisions that hold polluting corporations and plastic-producing countries accountable.

BFFP member Graham Forbes, head of the Global Plastic Project at Greenpeace USA, said in a statement that “we cannot let oil-producing countries, at the behest of Big Oil and petrochemical companies, dominate and slow down the treaty discussions and weaken its ambition.”

“If the plastics industry has its way, plastic production could double within the next 10-15 years, and triple by 2050—with catastrophic impacts on our planet and its people,” said Forbes. “The High Ambition Coalition must show leadership by pushing the negotiations forward and calling for more ambitious measures which protect our health, our climate, and our communities from the plastics crisis.”

A global plastics treaty, Forbes added, represents “a major opportunity to finally end the age of plastic, and governments should not let this go to waste. We demand that world leaders deliver a strong and ambitious treaty that will dramatically reduce plastic production and use, open inclusive and justice-centered discussions, and ensure that the next INCs are free from industry interference.”

Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) senior attorney Giulia Carlini pointed out that profit-maximizing corporations “have deliberately manufactured doubt about the health impacts” of their products in previous treaties that address health issues, such as the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.

“There is strong scientific consensus that plastics-associated chemicals cause diseases,” Carlini continued. “If the treaty is to succeed in meeting its health objectives, it will be essential to set strict conflict-of-interest policies going forward.”

After more than 145 governments expressed support this week for developing a pact with specific and shared international standards—which could include a ban on single-use items and requirements to ensure reuse and circularity—Eirik Lindebjerg, global plastics policy lead at the World Wildlife Fund, said that “the momentum demonstrated at these negotiations is a promising sign that we will get a truly ambitious treaty with effective global measures to stop plastic pollution” by 2024.

“It has been a very important week in the history of protecting the environment and people,” said Lindebjerg. “This week we saw an encouraging level of agreement, both in formal and informal spaces, on the urgency of seeking a joint solution to this major threat to nature and communities, and to do so in a comprehensive, effective, inclusive, and science-based manner.”

However, he warned, “this is just the first step towards a legally binding global treaty that can help us stop plastic pollution.”

“The next stage of negotiations will be more challenging, as countries must agree on the technical measures and rules,” said Lindebjerg. “Although in the minority, there are also some powerful opponents of global rules and standards, which risk potentially weakening obligations on countries to take action. The push for an ambitious global plastics treaty has only just begun.”

“Millions of people around the world, whose livelihoods and environments are affected by plastic, have their eyes on these negotiations,” he added. “Now negotiators must harness this momentum to push for specific rules to be negotiated as part of the treaty.”

Lindebjerg’s assessment was shared by other summit delegates.

“Negotiations at INC-1 this week demonstrated that the majority of countries are ready to take urgent action to confront the plastics crisis, including by addressing the plastic production that drives that crisis,” said CIEL president Carroll Muffett. “Sadly, it also proved that plastic producers and their allies are equally committed to slowing progress and weakening ambition—from the U.S. insistence that the plastic treaty replicate the weaknesses of the Paris agreement, to last-minute maneuvers by other fossil fuel and petrochemical states to block countries’ ability to vote on difficult issues.”

“Despite these maneuvers, the world made real progress in Punta Del Este,” said Muffett. Robust “global commitments and binding targets remain both necessary and achievable,” she added, but securing them will require “the U.S. and other countries join the rest of the world in pairing claims of high ambition with the policies that high ambition demands.”

While this week marked the first time that governments have met to hash out global-scale regulations to restrict plastic production, the United States and the United Kingdom—the world’s biggest per-capita plastic polluters—have so far refused to join an international treaty to curb the amount of plastic waste destined for landfills and habitats, though both countries are reportedly now open to the idea.

“Over this week, we have seen multiple interventions raising whether the future treaty will be based on national action plans, or global, mandatory targets,” said CIEL senior attorney Andrés Del Castillo. “We know that this will be top of the agenda at INC-2. The failure of countries to fulfill their emissions reduction plans under the Paris agreement shows that we cannot afford another treaty that centers on the whims of its leaders.”

The next session of the conference aimed at creating a global plastics treaty is set to take place in Paris in May 2023.