Get Involved

Here are some invaluable tips from our Green Team for Global Wellness you can use now in your Christmas plans:

• Many of us will be hosting family and friends for meals this Christmas season. When you plan your menu, stop to consider the “food miles” of your meal as well as the potential packaging waste of prepared foods. Food that travels thousands of kilometres has a huge environmental impact, as does food that has been processed, prepared, and packaged. Think about all the delicious recipes that can be made from food purchased at your local farmers’ market – squash soup, roasted brussel sprouts, locally raised, free-range meat, roasted root vegetables, among many other possibilities.

• As we begin to decorate our homes for the Christmas season, we are surrounded by opportunities to buy multiple trinkets and doodads that promise to put us in the festive spirit. Please stop to consider the environmental impact of our Christmas decorations. Instead of commercially made decorations that are ultimately destined to become landfill, think about decorating with elements from nature, food that can be decorative and also delicious, and high quality items made by local craftspeople that will be used for many, many years and outlast the decorating trends of a given season.

• As you begin to consider purchasing gifts for friends and family as a way to celebrate Christmas, pause to think of the environmental impact. Statistics vary, but the vast majority of goods we buy are no longer in use after only 6 months. Instead pf buying “things” consider gifts of your time (snow shoveling), gifts of an experience (trip to the museum), gifts of consumables (homemade soup), or if you really want to give an object, a gift made by a local business or crafts person that will be both beautiful and useful for the recipient for many years to come.