As the holidays draw near, many consumers are embracing greener practices. There’s no shortage of ideas in Nashville, Tenn., a place that knows how to throw a party.
This year, Nashvillian Jennifer Casale opened a “one-stop Earth-friendly shop” named the Green Wagon in Sylvan Park and East Nashville, communities being revived by green-minded kindred spirits.
While at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Casale taught recycling and water conservation. “That’s where I had the idea for the Green Wagon,” a way to help more people reduce “our collective carbon footprint.” She returned to Nashville, believing that affordable, accessible green products were “an unfilled niche that Nashville was ready to support.”
Microloans and creative input came from individuals in San Francisco and Washington. Now Casale’s next-generation general stores feature clothes, mattresses, healthy foods for special diets and a “refilling station” where customers refill bottles with products from shampoo to household cleaners at lower cost. Many products are made locally.
Casale, whose business is named for her 1982 station wagon that runs on waste veggie oil from a local green-certified restaurant, shares these eco-responsible holiday tips:
» Challenge yourself to buy gifts made by local artisans, or at least made in the USA. “This not only supports your local economy, but reduces the carbon footprint of your holiday cheer” by reducing the miles that goods have to travel.
» Send e-cards. For paper greeting cards, try Earth-friendlier options. Green Field Paper Co. makes 100 percent recycled cards, printed with soy ink. “There are wildflower seeds in the paper, so the recipient can plant the card after reading it.”
» Shop local farmers markets for holiday dinner ingredients.
» Look around your house for alternative gift wrapping. “Get creative,” Casale says. “Most wrapping paper can’t be recycled because of the metal content, dyes and laminates used.”
» Keep unwanted catalogs and other “waste mail” out of your mailbox by signing up at mailstopper.tonic.com to have your address removed from mass mailing lists. “It works!”
» Instead of artificial air fresheners, use soy candles scented with essential oils, or simmer water, cinnamon and other festive spices on the stove.
“Green living” is catching on, concurs Ashley Currie, who started iHospitality this August to provide sustainable packaged goods for events. “From Nashville’s ‘buy local’ program with local farmers to our Greenway Initiative, which helps to connect communities through the preservation of natural park trails … businesses and consumers want to make positive steps to lead a more sustainable lifestyle.”
Currie adds these holiday tips:
» Keep reusable bags in the car and elsewhere. Avoid getting unneeded bags when shopping.
» Clean out your “holiday closet” now. Donate to local family service nonprofits and schools.
» Say no to receipts: Increasingly, retailers are asking if you want printed receipts. Also, chemicals in many receipt coatings have been linked to health risks.
» Minimize use of nonrecyclable/noncompostable tableware and individually bottled beverages.
» Buy local. Currie says, “You are recycling your money back into the same community in which you live, work and play.”
Reach Robin Tierney at [email protected].
