Reducing your carbon footprint this Festive Season

Winter scene of a robin sat on a fir tree branch with a blurred snowy scene in the background

The Festive Season is a magical time of the year. The lights and decorations, the food, and of course spending time with friends and family. But while we all enjoy the festivities that season brings, the environment is not. The increased energy usage, waste, and consumption during can create a significant carbon footprint.

There are things we can all do to reduce our impact on the planet during the festivities. Here are few tips and hints to think about:

Season’s Greetings

Sending an eCard is an eco-friendlier alternative to traditional cards. Physical cards require paper, ink, and packaging, often ending up in landfills after the holidays, while eCards generate no physical waste. eCards also eliminate the need for transportation, cutting down on the emissions linked to delivering millions of cards each year. To help staff make greener choices this Festive Season, the OU has created eCards which are available on the Sustainability intranet page. When sending an eCard, keep your sender list to a minimum. Also put the eCard in the body of your email to avoid large attachments and keep the text short - longer style eCards with lots of imagery will use up more energy causing a higher digital impact.

Trees: Real or Artificial?

What is your persuasion? Real or artificial tree? If you already own an artificial tree, keep using it. The carbon footprint of a plastic tree is high, but only in the short term. Reusing it for over a decade can offset that impact. However, real trees are biodegradable, and many local councils in the UK offer tree recycling services. Look for a locally sourced, sustainably grown tree, or consider renting a tree.

Item	CO2 footprint (various units)	CO2 (kg/item)	Further considerations
Real tree	3.5 kg/tree, if chipped, or burned; jumps to 16 kg if decomposed	3.5-16 kg/tree	If you get a tree, make sure it gets chipped by your local council or local provider if possible. Many locations in the UK use the chipped bark for paths and around other newly planted trees.
Artificial tree	35-40 kg/tree, thus a lifetime needs to be at least 10-12 years (minimum)	Average of 38 kg/tree	Again, shipping and lighting the tree will add more to the footprint. You may want to consider donating that tree (if safe and permitted) to a charity shop or village hall which can use it again for another few years, instead of disposal.

Shop Local, Shop Sustainably

Gifts are a big part of the Festive Season. This year try to reduce your carbon footprint by supporting local and choosing gifts, think quality over quantity. Go for durable, meaningful items, experiences rather or second-hand gifts.

Item	CO2 footprint (various units)	CO2 (kg/item)	Further considerations
New Lego Toy	This is based on Lego, which could be called popular Danish building bricks.	~1.55 kg/set of plastic bricks	Item is approximately 700 pieces, and has a mass of 375 g.
New Doll Toy	This is based on Barbie, which could be called top selling female doll.	~0.63 kg/doll	A doll like Barbie weighs 180 grams and is comprised of at least 3 different types of plastics.
New wooden blocks	This is based on Jenga which could be called	~0.29 kg/set of blocks	Item mass is 800 grams, based on sustainably forested beech wood (‘Jenga’ is normally 54 bricks).
Used toy	Zero or very low indeed. Only local transport would needs to be considered.	0 or max 0.05 kg to account for transport.	Re-use of any toy without further releases (e.g. microfibres, etc) would seem to have almost no carbon impact. One might want to consider if the item has batteries or not as these do have an impact.

Wrap It

The UK throws away the equivalent of 108 million rolls of wrapping paper each Festive Season. And much of that paper isn’t recyclable due to glitter, foil, and plastic coatings. To ‘do your bit’ try and use recyclable wrapping paper, fabric, reusable gift bags, or brown paper.

Item	CO2 footprint (various units)	CO2 (kg/item)	Further considerations
Gloss paper	3.5 kg/kg paper; 1 roll of gloss paper weighs about 360-660 grams per roll	Assume 40 grams of paper used, so 0.14 kg CO₂e	Issues: glossy papers can’t be recycled easily and tend not to get re-used, unless you are great at wrapping and unwrapping and saving. There are also issues with bows, tape and ribbons. Keep in mind younger children like to tear things up, so reusing smaller pieces of glossy paper is better than landfill.
Brown paper	2.5-3 kg/kg of paper; 1 roll tend to be about 750-900 grams/roll	Assume 40 grams used, thus 0.10-12 kg CO₂e	Brown and plain (non-coated, non-glossy) papers also have relatively high footprints, however they are slightly easier to be recycled. These papers tend to be slightly higher in weight (~90 g/m²) but also tend to have higher recycled content. You can also decorate them as you see fit.

Eat, Drink, and Be Eco-Friendly

Plan your meals carefully to avoid overbuying and wasting food. Compost any leftovers you can’t use up.

For a lower-carbon option, consider incorporating more plant-based dishes into your festive dinner. The production of meat and dairy has been reported as one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. If you’re wanting to be as traditional as possible start off by swapping out a couple of meat-based dishes for veggie alternatives.

Item

CO₂ footprint (various units)

CO₂ (kg/item)

Further considerations

Tofu

One serving (100g) of Tofu is equivalent to:

0.08kg CO₂e (up to 2 kg per kg of food)

So for a family of four it’s about 320 grams, minimum, up to say a maximum of 0.5 kg

Beans and tofu have footprint of around 2 kg/kg food, perhaps higher than you originally thought. Keep in mind that your transport and cooking of the food will also raise the overall footprint of the food.

Turkey

10.9 kg/kg turkey

Based on a 4 kg turkey (which feeds about 6-8 people), then its 43.6 kg

Turkey has quite a high footprint, chicken is around 6.9 kg/kg; beef is 27 kg/kg with lamb being 39 kg/kg, so if you choose a meat-based dish, try to cook the amount that will be eaten. Encourage guests to take only what they can finish as many servings left on plates will simply be disposed off

The ‘How Bad are Bananas’ game is available to borrow and play with your colleagues, students or local communities, with special festive themed cards inspired by the above article. Please email sustainability@open.ac.uk to enquire about playing this game.

Source materials:

TOFU https://www.co2everything.com/co2e-of/tofu#:~:text=One%20serving%20(100g)%20of%20Tofu%20is%20equivalent%20to%200.08kg,equivalent%20to%200.08kg%20CO2e.

TURKEY https://8billiontrees.com/carbon-offsets-credits/carbon-ecological-footprint-calculators/carbon-footprint-chicken/

AVG TURKEY SIZES https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/christmas-portion-planner

TREES https://earth.org/real-vs-fake-christmas-tree-environmental-impact/#

GLOSS PAPER https://news.exeter.gov.uk/it-s-time-we-all-gave-serious-thought-to-how-we-wrap-our-gifts/

PLAIN PAPER https://www.asecopack.com/post/recycled-paper-vs-virgin-paper-reduce-the-carbon-footprint-of-your-business#:~:text=The%20carbon%20footprint%20is%20lower,kg%20GHGs%20might%20seem%20less

Weights of paper rolls can be found from many UK online shops (e.g. Rymans) selling paper products.

NEW TOYS (Plastic toys made from ABS) https://www.polybags.co.uk/environmentally-friendly/useful-numbers-for-environmental-studies.pdf

Levesque S, Robertson M, and Klimas C (2022), A life cycle assessment of the environmental impact of children's toys, Sustainable Production and Consumption, 31, 777-793, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S235255092200055