#Happy Holidays #Sustainability

Staying sustainable this festive season

Despite the best intentions across the rest of the year, the festive season – with all its celebrations, decorations, gifts and eating – can have a really significant environmental impact. But never fear! With a little extra thought and forward planning, it’s easy to have a much greener holiday season than a typical celebration would bring. 

From food swaps to shopping smarter, there are loads of options to cut your impact this festive season – and we’ve got plenty of campus activities to help you do so. Take a look below for a whistle-stop tour of all our sustainable seasonal activity, plus some top tips for having a more eco-friendly festive season from our friends over at Giki Zero.

Sustainability is for life, not just for Christmas – if you’ve not already checked out our LUU Acts For Earth campaign, make sure you do. It’s our way to ensure that us and our members are always informed, involved and ever-improving when it comes to the environment, and we’d love for you to get involved.

Discover LUU Acts For Earth

Seasonal sustainability on campus

There’s plenty of festive fun on campus this year, but we’re not letting our sustainability slip. Here’s a taste of what you can expect.

Scream’s Sustainable Swap Shop

The consumerism that has come to be a major feature of Christmas and other gift-giving holidays is at the heart of many of the sustainability issues associated with the season. To combat this, we’re setting up a Sustainable Swap Shop inside Scream, where students are invited to bring in a gift-worthy unused item and swap it for another. Sharing is caring, and gifting something pre-loved is a great way to avoid the impact of buying new. We’re all about giving pre-loved things a new life this festive season and hope you’re just excited to declutter and help the environment at once! You can also donate items without taking one for yourself – all leftover gifts will be donated to charity. With this in mind, please make sure all donated items are appropriately gift-worthy!

Get involved in Scream from 6 – 10 December.

Pedal-powered Christmas Tree

Decorations are also environmentally problematic – the throwaway nature of some novelty decorations (usually made of plastic) and the carbon footprint of energy-draining lights make a not-so-jolly combination when it comes to the earth. In fact, a 2008 study from the US Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) found festive lights accounted for 6.6 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity consumption every year in the US. That’s enough to power the entire country of El Salvador for a year…

We’re drawing attention to that fact with our pedal-powered Christmas tree, where students power the lights by cycling on a stationary bike instead of plugging them into the mains! Join us in the Foyer from 11-4 from 29 November – 10 December to feel festive, get in a spot of wellbeing-boosting exercise between classes, and bring some festive cheer to the Union without the carbon footprint.

And a special perk for getting involved

Everyone loves free food, so to bring some holiday magic to campus we’re rewarding you for getting involved in our sustainable winter activities. All you need to do is download the Magic Stamp app – you’ll get a free scoop of Scream ice cream just for doing that – and get stamped when you participate in our festive fun. Once you’ve collected four stamps you’ll be rewarded again. What’s not to love?

You can download Magic Stamp from your app store or via get.themagicstamp.com – make sure to get the Leeds University Union stamp card by pressing the + symbol before kicking off your stamp collection. To claim your download reward, visit the Scream Fridge Bike on campus to get your first stamp, then head over to Scream in the Union building.  After that, just let the staff at the Tree or Swap Shop know you’ve got the app, and they’ll give you your stamp once you’ve got involved. Easy.

Other bits

Chances are you’ve seen the festive tent on the precinct already – but if not, make sure you do! It’s a real winter wonderland in there, and to also keep it as wonderful for the environment as we can, we’re donating to climatecare.org carbon offsetting projects to help make up for the energy used to run it.

For many, the holidays are all about the food, and with that in mind we’ve got lots of festive specials available. To keep the environment high on the agenda, Old Bar is offering a delicious vegan version of their group festive dinner complete with a tasty butternut and lentil wellington, Terrace have a tasty vegan option for their festive buffet, and Common Ground and Balcony have got a vegan Christmas Pudding Brownie for those with more of a sweet tooth. You can find more info about festive food at LUU here.

And off campus

Have you downloaded Giki Zero yet? It’s a brilliant tool for tracking your carbon footprint and finding innovative new ways to cut it down. Giki is well worth having year-round, but even more so during the festive season with its numerous suggestions for having a greener Christmas. Here are just a handful:

  • Recycle all your paper – but make sure the wrapping paper you use is recyclable. If it’s mixed materials or covered in glitter it often can’t be recycled, and tape will pose a problem too – just take it off before recycling the paper.
  • Buy low impact presents – how about an experience day or something handmade? You could even make a donation to a charity close to the recipient’s heart for a gift with a really positive impact.
  • Get paper and cards sourced from sustainable forests – look for FSC or PEFC certification.
  • Avoid giving unwanted presents – surprises aren’t always the most sustainable option.
  • Buy food locally – support local traders and cut your food miles.

And a few more from us:

  • Avoid overbuying food – if you’re cooking, do some research into reasonable portions and what to buy – this’ll save money (and fridge space) too. If you do find that you’ve overbought, use Olio to give away surplus food to those who will use it.
  • Make it as plant-based as possible. There are loads of fantastic meat replacements on the market that are perfect for festive meals, and save the faff of cooking two options for a mixed group of dietary requirements.
  • And if leftovers are inevitable, find a creative way to use them. Google will give some interesting suggestions!
  • If you’re visiting loads of friends and family during the break, opt to walk, cycle or take public transport.
  • Don’t buy into gimmicky traditions like Christmas crackers just for the sake of it. Look for more environmentally friendly options if they’re non-negotiable – they’re out there!
  • Be mindful about decorations – opt for LED lights if you can, and only have them on when they really need to be. They’re more expensive, but cheaper to run and better for the environment – better on balance, we’d say. It’s also worth thinking about other decorations like baubles and ornaments. Buy ones you think you’ll love for years to come, or ones not made of plastic. You can get pretty paper decorations or even make your own from air-dry clay!

We hope this provided some helpful inspo for a greener festive season, and we’d love to hear from you on our socials (@leedsuniunion on Twitter and Instagram) if you have any other tips you’d like to share or sustainable ideas you’re proud of!

But however you choose to spend the festive season, we’d like to wish you Happy Holidays from all of us at LUU.