For December 2008
Submit Your Green San Francisco & Bay Area Favorites
Use this form to offer suggestions to other readers about your favorite eco gifts, green shops, and general suggestions for more environmentally conscious choices.
1) Friends of the Urban Forest - Dreaming of a Green Christmas
* Sold out for 2008 - Check with FUF in November 2009. Friends of the Urban Forest is offering a tree "for rent" on Christmas. San Francisco residents can order a live, potted tree for $90. Each tree is selected as one that will thrive in the environment of San Francisco . . . such as a Strawberry Tree or Southern Magnolia. After the holidays Friends of the Urban forest picks up the trees and plants them on city streets. Each year Friends of the Urban forest plan almost 1000 trees on San Francisco streets.
Through December 15, Friends of the Urban Forest also offers tree dedication gifts, where your gift recipient will have a tree dedicated in their honor.
2) Christmas Trees and Alternatives
Although Christmas tree growers tout the benefits of real Christmas trees as a sustainable and renewable resource, what's often not addressed is the farming methods of those trees. Anyone who's looked into Christmas tree cultivation knows that, depending on the source, the trees can be sprayed (with pesticides) and treated (with chemicals like fire retardants). And yet, the common alternatives such as artificial trees are far from perfect in this regard, as the National Christmas Tree Association will point out.
The Seattle Times last year ran a piece on the relatively new Coalition of Environmentally Conscious Growers and the certification they're providing on certain inspected tree farms. You can also inquire at any farm or stand about the origins and farming methods of the trees. Often, organic or sustainably raised trees will be advertised and posted at the site of the lot.
Getting an organic or sustainably grown tree requires advance planning since the limited organic locations such as Black Road Christmas Tree Farms (in the Los Gatos area) sell out early. For those who like to purchase a tree later in the season, this is often not an option.
Living Christmas trees can be an option for some, but they do require space and special care for successful planting outside, and not everyone has the room outdoors.
You can also choose to decorate an existing potted tree in your home, decorating with organic greens to bring the sights and smells of Christmas into the mix. People decorate everything from ladders (with lights and ornaments) to homemade art trees as alternatives to the norm.
3) Free Eco-Wrapping at Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market
If you opt for Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market goods as holiday gifts this year, you'll get complimentary, environmentally-friendly wrapping as part of your purchase. On December 6, 13 and 20 of 2008, a wrapping station at the South Driveway will package your purchase (of $30 or more) into crates or bags.
More about the San Francisco Ferry Building.
4) Local Holiday Crafts Fairs
On December 13 and 14, 2008, the KPFA Crafts and Music Fair celebrates its 38th year. More than 200 judge-picked artists participate. And the regular selections of arts and crafts also include green items, fair trade crafts, and arts made from repurposed materials. There's a full lineup of musical entertainment on both days as well as a food pavilion.
Other Bay Area holiday crafts fairs:
- Mission Bazaar (SF 12/6 & 7)
- Berkeley Farmers' Market Annual Crafts Fair (12/13)
- GAIA's Annual Party and Craft Sale (Berkeley 12/14)
- Root Division Annual Holiday Gift & Art Sale (SF 12/13)
- Feria Urbana Sale (Oakland 12/13)
- Indie Mart (SF 12/13)
- Berkeley Artisans Holiday Open Studios (12/6-7, 13-14, 20-21)
5) Use LED Holiday Lights
You'll notice an abundance of LED Christmas lights on public trees and decorations around San Francisco. LED lights use approximately one tenth the energy of conventional lights. They're also safer and cooler, lighting without the heat of traditional tree lights. Check out Holiday LEDs for more information.6) Sponsor a Wild Animal
Below are several Bay Area groups that give you the opportunity to sponsor an animal -- for yourself or as a gift. These "adoptions" are donations which contribute toward the animal's care -- at organizations which devote their time and resources to rescuing and rehabilitating our wildlife:
- Marine Mammal Center: Adopt a Seal
Choose a photo of a marine mammal from the website and use an online or printed form to send in your donation for adoption. - Wildcare (Marin): Adopt a Wild Animal
You can choose from a variety of animals, from a ground squirrel to a bobcat. - International Bird Rescue Research Center: Adopt a Bird
Adopt birds from ducklings to Pelicans. IBRRC was a primary source of care and rehabilitation for bird victims of last year's Cosco Busan oil spill. - Lindsay Wildlife Museum (Walnut Creek): Adopt an Animal
Adopt an Acorn Woodpecker, Great Horned Owl, or Mountain Lion among other animals in the care of Lindsay - Both the San Francisco Zoo and the Oakland Zoo offer zoo animal sponsorships as gifts.
7) Reduce Plastic & Cut Plastic Rings
This point relates to the above wildlife gifts. Just recently, a friend saw a wild, migrating duck with a plastic soda ring around its neck. Most of us know that our waste ends up somewhere, but it's often not until you have a visual of a heaping landfill or a wild animal asphyxiated by plastic, that the imperatives of this reduction cycle hit home.
If you haven't yet watched the short film, The Story of Stuff, check it out when you have 20 minutes to spare. The film talks about the intangible and tangible aspects of our consumption habits. And it depicts the issue in an accessible and succinct way.
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