Have a green Christmas

What's the deal with an eco-friendly festive season?

There's not much point in dreaming of a white Christmas in Ireland, but the prospect of a green one may be closer this year as a growing number of consumers adopt a more eco-friendly approach to the annual festive splurge.

Energy-efficient tree lights are reportedly selling fast in department stores, while major supermarkets have been talking up their green credentials in promotional literature in the run-up to Christmas.

Environmental considerations will not, however, temper spending. The average household outlay on booze, presents and food is expected to increase still further to an average of €1,431 this year, keeping us at the top of Europe's Christmas spending league, according to Deloitte estimates.

Based on our own estimates, however, the Deloitte figures seem short of the mark. It will be hard for many households to escape the season of goodwill for less than €2,500 - and that is before the growing number of Ned Flanders wannabes springing up around the country are taken into account.

These festive souls think nothing of adding as much as €1,000 to their electricity bills and thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere with increasingly elaborate (and some might say ridiculous) Christmas lighting displays inside and outside their homes.

The Power of One energy conservation campaign has again been urging people to consider the consequences of all this jollity, while trying not to come across like Scrooge.

According to the campaign, it is possible to use less energy without any hassle or inconvenience whatsoever. Making a few simple changes this Christmas will simultaneously lower energy bills and stop thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide being pumped needlessly into the atmosphere.

The burden that Christmas trees place on the national grid is substantial and should be taken into account when homes are decorating this year, says the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan. He stops short of suggesting that we should spend our Christmas bathed in gloomy darkness, but is in favour of people lighting their homes with energy-efficient lights.

This year has seen a growing number of LED lights for sale, unsurprisingly when you consider the savings that can be made. LED lights use up to 90 per cent less energy than their incandescent counterparts, are comparably priced and last up to seven times longer (100,000 hours when used indoors, which should see you through a few hundred more Christmases).

To light three sets of 100 traditional fairy lights, for eight hours a day over a 30-day period, typically costs €5. A similar display using low-voltage mini-lights will set you back around €2, while LED lights cost as little as 60 cent - and nothing is sacrificed in the way of brightness, if the Penney's LED lights Pricewatch reviewed last week are anything to go by.

The individual savings may be small, but if this transformation was repeated across all 1.5 million homes in the country the energy savings would be massive and the environmental benefits obvious.

In New York City, the LED revolution is in full swing and the city's most famous Christmas tree in Rockefeller Plaza has gone completely, er, green. It is being lit by 30,000 LEDs, which will save as much energy in a single day as the average US family uses in a month.

The city is also using carbon credits to offset the carbon dioxide generated during the tree-cutting process and once the eight-ton, 84-foot Norway spruce is taken down, it will be chopped into pieces to be used by the Habitat for Humanity home-building project.

While nothing quite so ambitious is happening in Ireland, the impressive lights which have illuminated Grafton Street this year are made up of 65,000 LED bulbs and will use up to 75 per cent less energy than the previous displays.

The Power of One is not the only group urging environmental restraint this year. Repak has also come out with a range of ideas and hints for a greener Christmas - and some alarming statistics too.

THIS YEAR, IRISHconsumers will eat their way through an estimated 8.5 million mince pies, 1.4 million tins of biscuits and nearly one million selection boxes. Despite all that eating, we'll also find time to pull more than 16 million Christmas crackers, which generate a truly shocking amount of waste.

Through packaging alone, Repak estimates that increased consumer activity will generate an additional 80,000 tonnes of waste over the 12 days of Christmas.

The biggest single waste generator, however, is unwanted presents. British consumer group Which? recently published a guide to having a greener Christmas, and at the top of the list of environmentally-friendly measures - along with lighting trees with LED lights - was the need to take care when buying presents. All too frequently, people panic-buy gifts which absolutely no one in their right mind could possibly want. The consumer lobby group urges caution and suggests that the best way for a family to cut unnecessary clutter this year is to buy experiences - concert tickets, a restaurant voucher or a day's paintballing - instead of junk.

Alternatively, for a feel-good Christmas you could consider charity gifts from Bothár, Oxfam Ireland, Sightsavers and a host of others offering a range of life- saving items which will be shipped to the developing world. Admittedly such gifts won't suit everyone, but it is certainly worth thinking about, and a whole lot better than wasting your money on some ill-advised talcum powder/aftershave combo in your local chemist.