They're dreaming of a green Christmas (or go directly to the holiday numbers!)
 By Mark Clayton | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

   A few years ago, Bill Cooke was mulling over ways to make his
Christmas greener, more environmentally friendly, when he discovered he
could buy a ton of air pollution.

   "It was just like a light bulb went on," says the Sloansville, N.Y.,
resident. "I'm thinking: How come it took me so long to realize I could do
this at Christmas?"

  Thus it was that along with toys, games, and other gifts beneath the
Cookes' tree, there appeared a "clean air certificate" citing the
elimination of 2,000 pounds of sulfur-dioxide emissions. Cost: $50. (See
sidebar, page 16).

   Mr. Cooke's wife smiled supportively, as he recalls. But "the kids
were a little young to really get it."

   Welcome to the new world of "environmentally conscious" holidays. Once
again this year, "green" gifts like Cooke's will be swamped by a national
tidal wave of toaster ovens, ties, video games, and battery- powered kiddie
cars - all encased in packaging bound for the landfill. But along with the 5
million extra tons of trash generated between Thanksgiving and New Year's,
there are signs, too, that the environment will be getting its own kind of
Christmas bonus: Many people want to "go green."

  Some are primarily interested in helping the environment; others want
to simplify their lives.

   "There is a growing concern that the holiday season has gotten just so
wasteful," says Betsy Taylor, president of the Center for a New American
Dream, an advocacy group for voluntary simplicity. "People are not
comfortable with the feel of it."

  More than half of Americans say their lifestyles produce too much
waste and that more recycling, energy, and water conservation - and less
packaging - are needed, the center's polling shows.

   While Americans are less enthusiastic about activities such as home
recycling and saving electricity, a rising number of people say they would
pay more for products that cause less pollution, a 2002 Roper poll found.
Sales of "health and sustainability" products grew to $138 billion in
2003, up 7.6 percent over 2002, according to figures cited by the Natural
Marketing Institute (NMI) in Harleysville, Pa. During that period, sales
rose in categories such as natural and organic foods (up 11 percent),
energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs (6 percent), hybrid cars (45
percent), ecotourism (60 percent), and goods from recycled materials (10
percent).

   "This is a very environmentally conscious group," says NMI marketing
consultant Gwynne Rogers of the 55 million consumers who make "green"
purchases. "They are interested in where the product came from, how it's
going to be used - the whole product life cycle. They're not going to forget
these values at Christmastime."

   There is also a mainstreaming of environmental values among consumers,
Ms. Rogers adds, with many organic and other products appealing to people
"who aren't crunchy-granola Berkeley types."

  Two forces - voluntary simplicity and environmental concern - are
boosting the market for alternative holiday gifts. For example, sales at
Greenhome.com have grown 25 percent over last year, says Lawrence Comras,
president of the five-year-old ecogift company.

   "People are more anxious to feel part of the solution, not part of the
problem," he says. "We're like little elves running around scouring the
country for ecofriendly products, getting them all under one roof, and
making it easy for people to act on their good intentions."

   Hot ecogifts this season include LED outdoor holiday lights that use
1/50th of the electricity and last 20 to 30 years. At $10 to $15 a string,
they cost about five times as much as regular lights, but they save money in
the long run, Mr. Comras says. "And they're prettier."

   Other popular buys include heavy canvas shower curtains, handbags made
from recycled rubber tires, and organic textiles including hemp and organic
cotton.

   Consumers also are helping the environment by pursuing simplicity. "My
husband and I have been working over the past few years to simplify
Christmas, both for our bank account and our environment," writes Melissa
Podeszwa, a resident of Auburn, Wash., in an e-mail.

   Two years ago she and her family capped per-person spending at $100
and cut it to $50 last year with the proviso that everything fit in a
stocking. Gifts include family members' time - giving a trip to the zoo, for
example - handmade cards, ornaments, and recycled bags decorated with
holiday stamps and stuffed with symbolic gifts. A homemade sun ornament
represents a solar-panel donation, honey sticks show regard for bees,
organic milk-chocolate coins for cattle, and so on. Cost: $5 each.

   "I confess, I've gone 'green' and I don't mean a la Grinch!" says
Carmela Vignocchi of Grover Beach, Calif., in an e-mail. Her family has
consciously shifted away from the "consumer spending crush." Along with
setting per-person caps from $10 to $40 in any given year, the family has
also limited Christmas to handmade gifts. Last year, her parents received
organic-food gift baskets from the local co-op and energy-efficient light
bulbs.

   Environmental groups are also gearing up for a green holiday. The
80,000-member Citizens Campaign for the Environment
(www.citizenscampaign.org) has launched its third annual push for
"ecologically conscious holiday shopping." On its list of gift ideas: a
block of wind- generated electricity, a hybrid car, even whale adoption.
For $40, you can "adopt" Cardhu, Regulus, or Ember from the Whale
Center of New England. These humpback whales "have been seen hundreds of
times," according to the group's website (www.whalecenter.org). You receive
a photo of your whale, an adoption certificate, a CD of whale calls, and
your whale's biography. The money supports whale research.

   By contrast, the Nature Conservancy puts its "adopt-an-acre" donations
toward buying rain-forest land. And a myriad of Internet-based companies are
willing to take your money to plant a tree in your own or someone else's
name just about anywhere. Care should be taken to check the company's
background and reputation to ensure those dollars will actually plant trees.
Even holiday wrapping paper is scrutinized by some ecogivers. "I guess
it was about a decade ago that I saw how our garbage and everyone's garbage
at least tripled Christmas week, most of it boxes, wrapping, packages," says
Paul Fehringer of Buffalo, N.Y. "It really upset me. I thought: 'We can do
this with a lot less waste.' "

   So the Fehringers, including their son and daughter, began wrapping
gifts in recyclable newspaper or brown paper with no dyes and metals - all
tied with bows kept from the year before. Gifts have also become fewer,
smaller, and often handmade. Christmas cards are e-mailed to friends.
"My wife was not very open to all this at first," he says. "She was
just so used to the shiny wrapping paper and tons of gifts. It was hard to
break from that tradition."

   Ultimately, such steps reflect a growing dissatisfaction with the
holiday status quo, say some observers.

   "People are beginning to understand that the world is not working in
lots of ways," says Bill McKibben, scholar in residence at Middlebury
College and author of "Hundred Dollar Holiday: The Case for a More Joyful
Christmas." "Overconsumption is the great North American environmental
problem and Christmas kind of baptizes that overconsumption, sanctifies it.
And people are beginning to wake up to that."

   A way to clear the air this Christmas: Retire a pollution permit
For those who want to give the gift of cleaner air, here's a
possibility: pollution allowances.

   Each allowance - actually a serial number issued by the US
Environmental Protection Agency - lets a power plant emit 1 ton of sulfur
dioxide into the air. The Adirondack Council, a nonprofit group fighting
acid rain in upstate New York, is selling them. When someone buys one, the
allowance is retired, preventing the SO2 from going up a smokestack and
helping to create acid rain.

   If that sounds a little wacky, the story of how the Adirondack Council
(www.adirondackcouncil.org) got into the pollution-permit business is
equally bizarre.

   In 1997, a power company gave the council 10,000 SO2 allowances. "I
think they expected us to sell these pollution credits and raise some money
for the organization," says John Sheehan, a spokesman for the council.
"Rather than do that, we wanted to find a way to retire them and keep them
off the market."

   The allowances, which also trade on the commodities markets, now fetch
more than $700 each. But the council is still retiring the credits for just
$50 - instead of making millions selling them back into the market. There
are about 3,000 left, Mr. Sheehan says.

Holiday numbers
• Christmas sales in the United States are projected to rise to $219
billion this year - up 4 to 6 percent from last year.
• Holiday sales are projected to rise 17 percent in South Africa - the
best showing in two decades. Germany is expected to see a 1.5 percent
increase over last year. But in Britain, deep discounting by retailers
failed to keep sales from falling in the run-up to the season.
• The US imported $312 million worth of Christmas tree ornaments from
China between January and July of this year. But overall, China's exporters
report a "chilly" holiday season.
• Between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, Americans generate an extra
5 million tons of trash.
Sources: National Retail Federation; various country estimates; US
Census; 1997 Use Less Stuff Report
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