Thursday, December 6, 2007
Elvis crooned about a “Blue Christmas” and Bing Crosby dreamed of a “White Christmas,” but this year many students hope to have a green Christmas as they strive for more eco-friendly holidays.
Brian Rock, associate professor of civil architectural and environmental engineering, said it was easy to forget to be careful with resources during the holidays.
LEDs, light-emitting diodes, have become popular over the past few holiday seasons. Rock said the lights were more expensive, but used 80 to 90 percent less energy than incandescent lights, which use only about 5 percent of their energy for light. Rock said LEDs would last longer, too.
Rock admitted that some eco-friendly gift ideas weren’t romantic, but said they would be beneficial in the long run. He said to refrain from giving electronics as gifts, because they were difficult to recycle and have short lives. Rock suggested buying “green gifts,” such as a Kill-A-Watt, a power meter that measures how much electricity a device is using. He said the meter also identified “electrical vampires,” or items such as TVs, phone chargers and personal computers that use a lot of energy, even when they are in stand-by or turned off. Also on Rock’s list are multipacks of compact fluorescent lamps, low flow showerheads, homemade gifts, birdhouses or other wildlife-friendly items, adopting a pet from a humane society, or for that really special someone, a high MPG car, such as a gasoline-electric hybrid.
Whether to buy a live or fake Christmas tree has become a recent debate. Rock said he thought if someone took care of their artificial tree and kept if for many years, it might not use as many resources as a live tree does when it is grown, transported and turned into mulch. However, many experts still say a live tree is the way to go, because artificial trees are petroleum-based and not biodegradable.
Eric Walther, owner of Strawberry Hills Christmas Tree Farm in Lawrence, said one acre of trees could replenish oxygen for about 18 people. He said a fake tree used several quarts of oil to be made. Walther also said the whole process of getting a real tree seemed more appealing.
“Think of the outdoor activity of going to get a real one, compared to going down to the basement to get a tree out of dusty old box,” Walther said.
Jeff Severin, director of the KU Center for Sustainability, said many of the best ways to be eco-friendly were little things, such as being resourceful and using reusable bags to wrap gifts. He said when shopping, people should decide what they were buying and where they would shop beforehand to be an efficient shopper and use the most effective route of transportation.
“Just plan things out so you don’t become that mega-consumer,” Severin said.
Severin said he enjoyed putting lights up outside his home, but used LEDs this year and had them on a timer that kept them on only from 5 p.m. to about midnight.
Megan Vaniman, environmental studies major and Kensal, N.D., senior, said students should use magazine ads instead for buying rolls of wrapping paper, and should go gift shopping at vintage and used clothing stores for some great finds that also cut back on resources. She said she planned to give some of her more interesting textbooks to friends she knew would enjoy them. This would cut out driving to the bookstore and spending money on new books.
Vaniman said she thought the “green revolution” was increasing in the U.S., and that the holidays were a good time to think about the concept.
“Consumerism, it’s huge around the holidays,” Vaniman said. “People go to the extremes.”
— Edited by Elizabeth Cattell
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