Gifting

Purchase locally made gifts

Support your community and our economy by shopping at local retailers that sell locally made items — BermuniTees, Bermuda Candle Company, Della Valle Sandals or Davidrose Jewelry to name a few.

Sustainable giving

• Consider gifting all natural, organic items made from renewable materials. Some notable local retailers are Salt + Cedar, Cassine and Naked Zero.
• Gift with value, purpose or meaning to avoid accumulating unnecessary items that will go unused. For example, give money to a local charity in your loved ones name or give them money to put towards something they truly need, like starting a new business, groceries or even a utility bill.

Secret santa or “Gift-go-round”

To decrease spending, stress and waste, have each person in your family write down their name and a three item Christmas list (price limit optional) then have them pick a name out of a bowl or hat at random. The name you pick is who you buy for!

Re-gifting

Instead of throwing away unwanted presents, re-gift them to people you know will love them. Take off the gift tag, rewrap it and avoid re-gifting within the same circle of family members or friends.

Use environmentally friendly wrapping paper

Instead of buying rolls of glossy or metallic gift wrap, choose fabric, newspaper, old maps, blueprints, books, posters and other reusable, recyclable materials.

Decorating

Live potted tree

Avoid purchasing artificial trees that are made from plastics, toxins and other non-recyclables and opt for a live one instead. Support local gardens and re-pot for longer use.

Low impact holiday lighting

Reduce your carbon footprint by using energy-efficient LED lighting for outdoor displays, mini LED lights indoor for house & tree lighting. Make sure turn lights off at bedtime!

Homemade and Handmade

Create your own ornaments, decorations and holiday cards from scrap paper and materials saved throughout the year — you can even get the kids to help for a fun arts and crafts project!

Holiday dinner

 Choose organic, local and free-range

Take advantage of your local farms and markets for fresh, locally grown and raised ingredients for a sustainable, delicious and healthy meal.

Avoid single beverages

Cut down on waste by using pitchers to prepare homemade drinks in large quantities instead of soda bottles or cans.

No disposables

Leave the paper, plastic and Styrofoam utensils alone and bring out the fine china and cloth napkins for dinner. Have guests bring reusable containers for leftovers.

Activities

Follow Gombeys for exercise

A Bermudian tradition – Stay active, take your family outside to follow and dance with the Gombeys when they visit your neighborhoods on Christmas and Boxing Day.

Put down and turn off the technology

Instead of gathering around the tv, computer and hacking away on your mobile phones, pull out the board games and playing cards to save energy and be sociable!

What does your family do during the holidays to help the environment?

The post 13 Ways to Go Green this Christmas appeared first on RG Magazines.

By Ashley Yearwood 

A “green” business is one that runs in a capacity where little to no negative impact is made on the local or global environment.

We can look at sustainability in terms of farming and energy, but becoming sustainable also means thinking about the products that we buy, where they are sourced and how they are packaged. The media has exposed the poor working conditions in the countries where certain products are made or their ingredients are harvested.

One of the ways people are fighting against this is by opting for natural products sourced from green businesses. Many Bermudians have created their own natural products that range from beauty to clothing and everything in between. We now have a thriving market of Bermudian-owned green businesses.

Ase Naturals

Ase Naturals is a herbal retail business specializing in herbal products such as loose-leaf herbal tea blends, herbal bath teas and soaks as well as herb-infused body oils. Each product is handcrafted in Bermuda, vegan and organic.

Island Potions

Island potions is hair product company whose products focus on chemical free ingredients. Their story started from the company founder’s own hair journey. Fed up with spending money and time looking for products, she decided to go the natural route.

Naked Zero

Naked Zero is a one-stop shop for ethical, sustainable, mind, body and health- conscious products. From beauty to food and household items, they have a wide variety of natural products for people of all ages.

Ponda Pits

Ponda Pits is a locally run 100 percent natural deodorant that comes in several authentic Bermudian scents.

 Surishae + co

Surishae + co is dedicated to the sourcing of fair-trade, ethical companies, and creating cruelty free products and bringing them onto the island. Their natural ingredients keep it pure and simple so you don’t have to guess what is in your products.

Salt and Cedar

Salt and Cedar is an online store with a thoughtfully curated collection of high performing non-toxic skincare and beauty products for the whole family –– delivered to Bermuda.

Peoples Pharmacy

People’s pharmacy is constantly bringing in new products. The focus is on natural products that work for a variety of people. They have dedicated staff who are willing to help find the products for you.

Finding and using products from socially and environmentally conscious companies is the same as doing your part. Who knew it could be so fun, easy, and trendy to help out the environment!

This article was originally featured in the August 2018 edition of the Rg Green Pages supplement.

The post Made in Bermuda appeared first on RG Magazines.

It’s the end of the summer and time for the kids to head back to school. So how do you combine school’s three R’s of reading, writing and ‘rithmetic with the planet’s three R’s of reduce, reuse, and recycle? Here are five tips for getting off to a healthy, planet-friendly school year.

1. Get new school clothes second-hand.

Kids outgrow clothing very quickly, so buying new clothes from retail stores not only wastes a lot of money for very little value, but “fast fashion” also contributes greatly to both sweatshop labour and environmental degradation from the GMO crops, oil-based synthetic fabrics and toxic dyes used to make them. In fact, the clothing industry is the second largest polluter in the world—second only to oil!

2. Inventory your supplies before buying more.

Take a careful inventory of the school supplies you already have that can be used again. Do you have extra packs of pencils, or barely used notebooks? Do you really need a new ruler? Is last year’s backpack still fully functional? Is that lunchbox still in great shape? Reduce your consumerism and avoid last-minute impulse purchases by making a list of what you really need before you go to the store — and stick to it!

3. Choose non-toxic and eco-friendly school supplies.

PVC, also known as vinyl, contains chemical additives including phthalates that are linked to asthma, learning disabilities, diabetes and other chronic health problems. Congress banned phthalates in children’s toys, yet they are widespread in school supplies like lunch boxes, backpacks and three-ring binders.

Choose backpacks made of recycled PET or natural canvas, and avoid the shiny, plastic models that often contain PVC. (They will last longer, too!)

It’s harder to find binders that are not made of vinyl, but look for brands that are labeled PVC-free.

Some crayons that are imported from China have been found to be contaminated with asbestos. Choose crayons that have been manufactured in the United States.

More and more retailers are carrying eco-friendly versions of every day school supplies, so choose recycled pencils and markers, refillable or recycled pens, and 100% recycled, chlorine-free notebooks and printer paper, too.

4. Pack a zero-waste lunch.

By packing a whole food lunch for your child in a reusable lunch box with a reusable bottle of water or milk, you will help reduce the amount of paper bags, food packaging and wasted food your child produces — and they will be so much healthier for it too.

Making a lunch made with whole food (and not packaged, processed food) doesn’t have to be hard or time consuming. Get your kids involved in choosing lunch ingredients, so they’ll be less likely to pitch stuff they don’t want to eat.

5. Explain to your kids why you’re making greener, healthier choices.

Making planet-friendly choices when getting ready for school is great, but what is even more awesome is teaching your kids why you’ve made those choices.

Sometimes, explaining how that shiny vinyl dinosaur backpack is full of toxic nasties or why that package of processed cookies pollutes and harms endangered animals is all it takes to calm a complaining child.

Hopefully, because of your thoughtful conversations with your kids, they will grow up to help create an island and a world where such toxic and polluting products don’t exist in the first place.

This article was originally published in the August 2018 edition of the RG Back-to-School supplement.

The post Go Green for Back-to-school appeared first on RG Magazines.