Green celebrations - ideas needed

[CravingTheSun]

Hi all,

I have been thinking about my upcoming year of celebrations - I have a lot of big friends and families birthdays/weddings etc. Does anyone know what I can send instead of cards/flowers/presents people don’t need or want (but you sort of feel like you have to send something!). Hopefully something that I can save a bit of money on too?

I also feel like people get very offended when you even talk about not sending a paper card...especially the elderly people in my family. Has anyone just said ‘that’s it, I’m not sending paper cards anymore’? How have others reacted? I just think it’s such a waste of resources - they literally get thrown in the bin (hopefully recycled) a week after.

Thanks!

Good for you. There is a market opportunity here for something along the lines of 'buy a goat for an African villager'. Trees are probably the most easily sold ideas. "I bought you a silver birch" as a memorial, or wildlife friendly native plants e.g. blackthorn, ivy, holly, crab apple and others to feed birds, or a mixed hedge scheme for encouraging re-wilding farms.
Sadly, the available tree planting schemes have instantly been corrupted. People are claiming a grant to plant, but just putting in solid plantations of non native, destructive, water-hungry, soil destroying, sterile fast growing trees designed to be quickly felled for timber.
Especially in cities, green walls, high hedges, green walls and wildlife oases (NOT statues!) can really improve air quality and quality of life. There always have been guerilla gardeners, but councils only need a nudge at an open door, and volunteers will eagerly provide labour if donors provide plants.
I'm not the right person to research it, but probably there are already people/organisations, doing those things. Communities really love it and nobody can be annoyed about having their name and the celebration event recorded on a list of donors to something as unobjectionable, can they?

Even your angry elderly relatives might be pacified by having a predator proof bird box in their name in a park or wood.