At the time of writing, Christmas is exactly 36 days away.
With that being said, we think it is high time to start preparing one's self for this festive event.
Thus, we thought it appropriate to create an article highlighting 5 eco-friendly Christmas gifts you could get one of your loved ones.
Why Buy Eco-Friendly Christmas Gifts?
Now more than ever, it is important to take into consideration the environment when purchasing anything, let alone Christmas gifts.
Why (you might be wondering)?
Well, collectively, we are trying to avoid a thing called climate change. Climate Change occurs when greenhouse gas emissions encompass the atmosphere of the Earth.
In doing this, the sun's heat is essentially trapped on Earth, and less of it is released back into outer space. This inevitably leads to global warming, which causes the climate to change physically.
At first, this probably doesn't seem like such a big deal, right?
Well, you would be mistaken. If you would like to learn more about the effects of Climate Change, we recommend that you read this article from NRDC.
In short, even slight increases in temperature could result in:
- More frequent and severe weather
- Higher death rates
- Dirtier air
- Increased wildlife extinction rates
- Acidic oceans
- Rising sea levels
This is why the goal is to essentially do whatever it takes to lessen the amount of CO2 that is released into our Earth's atmosphere.
Three of the biggest industries responsible for contributing to climate change are:
- Power generation
- Manufacturing goods
- Cutting down forests
As you may have guessed, products that we buy day to day may, in fact, fall within all three of the above industries.
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, something that is eco-friendly is 'designed to have little or no damaging effect on the environment'.
In essence, whatever you buy, should not cost the Earth.
5 Eco-Friendly Christmas Gifts
Now with all this being said, greenwashing has become quite popular in recent times.
For those of you who are not familiar with the term, it is simply when a company makes unsubstantiated claims to deceive consumers into believing that their products are environmentally friendly when in fact, they are not.
Now, we want to point out that there are very few products out there that are actually 100% environmentally friendly. With that being said, products that are able to substitute one of the aforementioned industries in a meaningful way are in our opinion, worth taking a look at.
1. Solar Panels
Solar panels or namely solar systems used to offset a homes energy consumption are a great example of a product that in itself is not eco-friendly.
However, it's ability to generate electricity for over 25 years allows the product to sort of pay back the energy required to make the product in the first place.
This phenomenon is known as the carbon payback period.
Believe it or not, but a typical solar panel will save 900
A typical solar panel will save over 1984 lbs of CO2 every year. This results in a carbon payback period of roughly 1.6 years.
Shop all our solar panels here.
2. Solar generator
Solar generators are more of a convenience item more than anything. Especially when one is trying to protect themselves from events such as a power outage.
However, with that being said, if you aim to buy a gas generator to provide power to your home during a power outage, then solar generators are by far the more eco-friendly option.
Solar generators come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. You could, for example, buy your children a 268Wh solar generator that they can use to charge their phones and laptops instead of using electricity from the grid.
This will not only bring down electricity bills but will teach them a valuable lesson in energy production and storage.
Shop all our solar generators here.
3. Rainwater tank
Rainwater tanks are perhaps one of the more overlooked products we have included on our list.
Believe it or not but rainwater tanks can save a ton of water for your household. This is especially true should you water your garden using municipal water.
Imagine every time you went to water your garden and you used rain catchment instead of municipal water. How much do you think you could save?
4. Greywater system
Similar to a rain catchment tank, greywater systems are all about saving water. Instead of capturing rainwater, they are designed to reuse the "grey water" produced by your home.
Think about the water your dishwasher or washing machine uses. This water is used once and then disposed of.
Grey water systems are designed to reuse this water, saving up to 28 liters of water every day.
5. LED lights
Last on our list are LED lights. You would be surprised about how many households still have incandescent light bulbs situated throughout their house.
With this, we recommend asking your significant other if they still utilize incandescent bulbs. If they do, you could think about gifting them LED light bulbs for Christmas.
At first, they might think what a silly Christmas present.
However, they might be pleasantly surprised to find out that LED lights use 75% less energy and are able to last up to 25X longer than incandescent lighting.
Final Thoughts
We hope you found this list of 5 eco-friendly Christmas gifts useful. And on that note, the team here at BLUETTI wishes all of your a merry Christmas and a happy (festive) New Year.
