You won't find any compromises in this holiday gift guide. To make the cut, these gifts had to be carbon negative—they must remove more carbon pollution than they contribute to the atmosphere. They can't consist of stuff, so they don't have a carbon footprint from resource extraction, manufacture, shipping or mailing. They also can't encourage automobile travel or energy use at a remote location, like gym and yoga-studio memberships might, for example.
These gifts have to meet a high bar, and that's why you won't find a lot of gifts here (there's three). But we need a high bar to counter our low-brow approach to climate change.
There are plenty of dubious environmental gifts on the market. A couple of well-known environmental groups offer adopt-a-polar bear gifts, but the funds raised support the general funds of those organizations, and the donor gets a lot of carbon-intensive swag, like a stuffed polar bear toy that probably arrived from China on a smoky freighter. The gifts on this list promise a real carbon benefit, instead of assuming that polar bears will benefit from a contribution to the administrative costs of an organization, however well meaning.
These gift ideas are simple, reliable and transparent. You'll have an opportunity at the end to add gift ideas of your own.
Remember, every object you buy for your loved ones subtracts from the quality of their future. Let's give them a better future instead:
1 Get Them A Bike-Share Membership
Bike sharing has shown big environmental benefits. In Shanghai alone, bike sharing saved 8,358 tons of gasoline and reduced CO2 emissions by 25,240 tons in 2016, according to a study published this June in the journal Applied Energy.
It's increasingly likely that your loved ones have access to a bike-share system.
At least 330 cities across the world now host bike-share systems, according to a running list at Wikipedia. The National Association of City Transportation Officials says people used shared bikes on 35 million trips in the United States last year. That was a jump of 25 percent from the year before. You can find out if your recipients have bike share in their city by checking NACTO's map.
Some systems offer e-gift certificates,, like Washington D.C.'s Capitol Bikeshare, where you can buy someone an annual membership for $85. In Chicago, Divvy is offering 25 percent off of annual memberships on Green Friday only. Others do not. Randomly I visited Savannah, Georgia's CAT Bike program, where memberships are $60 and you can sign up a friend on the membership page.
2 Plant A Tree Or Fund A Forest
If you plant a tree on your own land or your loved one's land, it will start sequestering carbon dioxide right away. Look for long-living, fast-growing native hardwoods or select a tree from this convenient list of the best carbon-gobbling tree species. The yellow poplar absorbs 137.26 pounds of carbon, according to Slate. There are a number of common species close behind, including the silver maple, oaks, and pines. Consider planting a tree for each of your loved ones.
If you don’t have land but you can spare a few bucks, tree planting organizations can help. Watch out for organizations that send paper cards via snail mail and offer swag with memberships, including T-shirts, which have a big environmental footprint from water use and dying. I personally have planted trees in the U.S. with American Forests, which promises to plant a tree for each $1 donated, and in India with grow-trees.com, which is supported by the UN Environmental Program and the World Wildlife Foundation. Both tree-planting groups will send recipients an e-card.
3. Offset Their Carbon Footprints
Your loved ones are probably already doing all they can to avoid adding more carbon pollution to the climate problem, right? But even when we do all we can—when we give up cars, meat, air conditioning, clothes dryers, etc.—there are still inevitable carbon costs built into our society. Most electrical grids are still fueled, in part, by fossil fuels, for example, and if you must fly in an aircraft, there's still almost no way to do that carbon neutrally. That's when we turn to carbon offsets. They should never be used to facilitate carbon pollution, but they can be used to mitigate pollution that's unavoidable.
When we offset our own contribution to the unfolding climate crisis, we’ve done much more than nearly every other human being on earth. Now think of offsetting others. Instead of buying stuff for friends and family, consider offsetting their carbon footprints. They may get more peace of mind from a friendlier future than from a singing bass or a Chia Pet. The best place to offset is at the United Nations-sponsored Climate Neutral Now. We can calculate our personal carbon footprint using their calculator. Then, we can select the carbon-offsetting project that receives our contribution. They feature projects in energy, agriculture, households, transport, and waste handling.
If you're not sure about your recipient's carbon footprint, offset the annual emissions of the average American (about 20 metric tons) at Carbon Neutral Now for as little as $5! We can also spend more per ton—up to $8.50, depending on the project and its cost to implement. You may find a project you really like. The recipients will receive an offset certificate. Then we have to keep an eye on them to make sure they don’t use offsets as a license to pollute more.
Airline flights might be our biggest source of carbon emissions and they're not included in Carbon Neutral Now's calculator. Fortunately, we can calculate the emissions from airline flights via the International Civil Aviation Organization. And then add those pounds or tons of CO2 to our total calculation at Climate Neutral Now.
If you can think of truly carbon-negative gift ideas, please submit them here so I can include them in next year's guide.
