The Sustainable Christmas Guide

As the nights draw in, the fairy lights go up and the kids start scribbling their letters to Santa – it’s impossible to ignore that Christmas is a coming.

It’s easy to get caught up in the whirl of parties, presents, mulled wine and food. But many people end the holiday season questioning why it hasn’t quite measured up to their expectations. Where was the festive cheer and good will to all men? What happened to enjoying quality time with family or friends? Did we really spend that much? And where can we recycle the tree this year?

It’s definitely got us thinking at BPEC – so we’ve come up with our own Advent Calender, a check-list of 25 easy, practical things to do for a merry, peaceful and sustainable Christmas. Try a few of these and we reckon your Christmas will be a cracker!

How to have a more sustainable Christmas

Those folks at Life2 really do come up with some good ideas. Not content with offering us all a range of helpful practical leaflets on everything from ‘Surviving Modern Life’ to ‘How to Make the World Better’, they’re now running workshops too. After the amazing popularity of their ‘How to have a better Xmas’ book last year – they’re now offering a special one day workshop on how to do just that.

Richard Docwra, from Life2 said, “Xmas can be a special time, but many people think it has become too commercialised and has lost some of its meaning – a bit like life in the modern world generally.”

And the workshop?

“Will help people get in the Xmas spirit,” said Richard. “People will have a chance to explore some of the things that really add meaning and fun to our experience of Xmas – from spending time with people and getting some rest, to trying to waste less and value what we have more. We want people to come away with a range of practical ideas and tips to enable you to have a happy, wise and meaningful festive period!”

And why do we like the sound of all this? Because anything that helps people to have a more sustainable Christmas – for themselves, their families and the planet – sounds like a good thing to us.

The ‘How to have a better Xmas’ Workshop is running in Lewes, East Sussex, on Saturday November 27th from 11-5pm. You can find out more here.
Or download one of their ‘How to have better Xmas‘ books for FREE!

Are you doing your bit to slow Climate Change?

We know you are – so please tell us all about it. Our Climate Connections team – want to hear your stories. We’d love to sing the praises of local families, individuals and community groups, and tell everyone what you are doing on the ‘All we are missing is you…’ page of our website.

If you have a story to tell, why don’t you share it with us? Perhaps you’re growing your own food, either on an allotment or on your garden or balcony. Maybe you have decided to travel less by car and use more public transport or even cycle around town. It could be that you are more careful when using energy in your home or just worried about extreme weather conditions. Are you involved with a campaign?

We want to hear from you. Send your story and a photo to climateconnections@bpec.org or call us on 01273 766610, we’d love to hear more.

How would you like to exhibit your Environmental photography?

How would you like to exhibit your photographs in an international platform of world-class documentary photography?

FotoDocument is a new arts and education, not-for-profit social enterprise, and it wants your photos for its Fringe Documentary Project. They’re creating an online gallery of photographs highlighting environmental projects from around the world. So if you have photographs showing green initiatives which you feel are inspiring and would like people to know about, send them up to three photographs and they’ll be considered for the FotoDocument’s on-line picture grid.

FotoDocument have already selected nine photographers from seven different countries to produce photo essays which show working solutions to the problems associated with climate change and environmental degradation. Your photos could stand alongside theirs and promote a local project you think is worth shouting about. Find out more by visiting the FotoDocument website.