Environmentally Holiday?

Earlier this week I went to a "Greening Your Holiday" workshop put on by the Sierra Club and Berkley's Environmental Advisory Committee.  I got some interesting tidbits from it, some of which wasn't necessarily new information, but I needed reminding of.  Here are the highlights:

- Real trees are much more "green" than fake trees

This item has generated more discussion within my household than anything else.  Most fake trees today are made in China (big carbon footprint just for shipping alone) and are petroleum based plastics (more carbon footprint), many have lead in them or lead dust on them, AND there isn't a good program for recycling them.  While most of your live trees often come from a farm nearby (most tree lots here in the Detroit area get trees from mid to western to northern Michigan farms), which helps reduce transportation carbon.  Tree farms are, well, farms.  So, while you are cutting down a tree, it was grown for that purpose, just as a cornstalk was grown for the purpose of cutting it down eventually.  Additionally, live trees filter CO2 while they grow, and they can be composted.  Here's an interesting article about the issue:
http://www.livescience.com/environment/091210-christmas-tree-green.html
Here's another:
http://www.sierraclubgreenhome.com/featured/oh-christmas-tree-oh-christmas-tree%E2%80%A6/

My wife and I were speculating on how long you have to keep a fake tree to make up for its carbon footprint.  The first link appears to plan on keeping a tree for only 3 years - this seems short to me, but perhaps that's as long as they last these days.  We have a fake tree.  I inherited it from my Great Aunts Marion and Letha, and my dad believes it is from the 1960s (it sure looks like it - there is no mistaking that this is a fake - and a bad fake at that).  So, I suspect that it's made up for its carbon footprint.  But I'm sure this debate will rage on in my household as our poor little tree continues to look worse and worse and we contemplate replacing it.


- New LED xmas lights cut energy consumption dramatically

We recently picked up a couple strings of the LED lights, although they are still dramatically more expensive than the traditional minibulb lights.  I spent about $19 (on sale) for two strings totaling 110 lights.  This compares to a string of minibulb lights that I picked up at the same time that cost $2 (on sale) with 100 lights.  Yeah, the LED lights use less energy, but even if you figure the traditional minibulb lights use about 50 watts compared to about 0.5 watt (or less) for the LED, that would require me to keep them lit constantly for years to make up for the additional cost.

Some conversions and math:  (DTE Energy residential costs: 6.49 cents/kWh = 6.49c/3600 Watts) (50 Watts = .01389 kWh) so...  50 Watts costs nine hundredths of a cent/hour (0.01389kWh * 6.49 cents = 0.09 cents), which means I'd have to light them for about 18,888 hours to make up for the $17 additional cost (cost of string 1700 cents/0.09 cents for energy per hour).

Considering we only burn them for about 4 to 5 hours (let's be generous and say 6 hours) per night, that means I'll have to use these for 3,148 nights to make up the cost.  Or energy costs will have to skyrocket.

Ok, so these are an entirely "environmental" choice and not an economic choice at this point. Let's just leave it at that for now.

- Tips for how to eat local - the 100 mile challenge (eat an entire meal of foods from within 100 mile radius)

Basically, my wife was most interested in where to find meat that is locally produced, and purportedly, the local farmer's market has local meat.  We've bought Kowalski Meats, but we are still not sure whether they are actually Michigan meats or just packed in MI.  Boarshead is another meat that could be from Michigan, but that's often a crap shoot, since they have plants all over the US.  There are a few other brand names as well, but we'll be checking out the farmer's market for other meats that we use on a regular basis (chicken, ground beef, ground turkey, pork chops, etc.).

- Tips for how to make your own wrapping materials (some paper, some not)

My family has often talked about dumping wrapping paper in favor of wrapping fabric, fabric bags, or something of that ilk, but inevitably we've failed with the exception of a few pieces of fabric.  Or we give it away on wrapped gifts and don't get it replaced.  One of the thoughts that came out of the workshop though was to buy old curtains and baskets to make a nifty little designed gift package, rather than just traditional wrapping.  We also did colorful paint stamps on newspaper to make your own wrapping paper designs at the workshop.  This was something that... um...  well, it sort of screamed "hippie" to me.  And I'm pretty sure my wife thought my newspaper-stamped-wrapping paper was trash.  Oh well, it was fun to make even if it's not something I'm likely to use.

After all this we had several casual discussions during the workshop about some of the things that others do to "green" their holidays.  This was fun to learn what others are doing:
- No big box stores - only local shopping.  Supports the local economy.  Often much lower carbon footprint.  Often much more unique gifts.  But it also likely means no Playstation3 for Christmas.... ;)
- Only homemade presents - one couple bought themselves a home-remodel this year, so for Christmas they are "shopping" at home in order to create new gifts and not spend more money they don't have.  They are trying to find stuff to give to each other that can be easily made from stuff at home.  Interesting thought.  I think this would be fun for a few gifts, but I love finding fun gifts for loved ones that I likely don't have in my basement.  Plus, I just don't have the crafty talents to make good gifts (again, no Playstation3, either).
- Regifting - because as a culture we have so much stuff that is only used periodically at best (or never), many felt that we need to get over our disdain for regifting.  I have a mixed feeling on this.  I think that regifting is fine in concept (isn't that just basically how "vintage" succeeds anyway??)  But often regifting is thought of as unloading your crap or unwanted stuff on others, rather than thoughtful regifting.  One person at the workshop mentioned that they regift books, which I think is brilliant, and my Mom and I have done this in the past.

So, how green are your holidays?  What other green tips did I miss?