Editor's Note: This is Part 1 of a 3 part series identifying community-oriented shopping opportunities for this holiday season.
With so many earth-friendly local retailers, even Kermit would admit that this holiday season, it’s easy being green.
“Supporting locally-owned and green businesses this Christmas is one of the most important choices consumers can make,” says Elissa Sangalli Hillary, executive director of Local First, an association of over 450 local businesses. In its recent Local Works! study, the group found that a 10 percent shift in existing consumer spending to locally-owned businesses would create 1,600 jobs in Kent County.
“Local First challenges people to make that happen!” says Hillary. “Right now, we’re fighting to keep jobs and resources in our community.”
This year Local First is selling coupon books, good at over 200 of its member businesses, as an additional incentive to buy local. A nice gift in its own right, the book is for sale at 20 area businesses, including online at Rapid Growth.
“Local business owners are invested in our community,” says Hillary. “They live here, they play here, they worship here, and they want to make West Michigan a better place.”
Gifts that Keep on Giving
Look to local retailers for green gifts that keep giving after the holidays are long gone.
“People want gifts that serve a purpose rather than just sitting on a shelf,” says Joanna Hively, co-owner of Global Infusion, a local fair trade retailer. “And they are concerned with how the products they’re buying are produced.”
Fair trade stores like Global Infusion, a stop along tonight’s Uptown Holiday Shop Hop in Grand Rapids’ Uptown shopping district, sell ethically produced items you can feel good about buying. These include useful items such as baskets, cookbooks, food items, jewelry, purses, bags, hats, scarves and more. Global Infusion will also be participating in the local Sierra Club chapter’s Green Holiday Expo this Saturday at the David D. Hunting YMCA in downtown Grand Rapids (noon to 4 p.m.).
Plants, the quintessential green gift, make great presents for hostesses and mothers, says Katey Romence, whose family owns Romence Gardens.
“People are giving more live things,” Romence says. She personally recommends the flowering amaryllis, “a unique gift you can watch all winter.”
Reuse. Recycle. Re-gift.
You can save green by giving green with pre-loved presents and “re-gifts”.
“More and more people are eco-friendly and into recycling,” says Rosa Piccione, owner of Rosa’s Closet, a consignment boutique in East Grand Rapids. She believes the current economic situation has made people more open to buying and receiving pre-owned gifts.
“Resale shopping is not just for ‘people in need’,” she says. “It’s for everyone.”
Rosa’s Closet, which is celebrating its one-year anniversary this weekend with a 25 percent off sale, accepts only clean, well-maintained, high quality items for consignment. Unsold items are donated to the Women’s Resource Center.
Shopping consignment can also lead you to one-of-a-kind items for the trendsetter on your list.
“One Girl’s Treasure is all about recycling and renewing,” says sales associate Chelsea Harris about the downtown resale shop. “People want that different look, that different style you can’t find in department stores.”
An anchor of the Century Street antique mall, Antique at Victoria’s Warehouse, another Local First member, is a veritable treasure trove of collectibles and vintage Americana.
“We stay in business because we sell made-in-America recyclables,” says Trish Bishop, a Victoria’s employee. “People would rather buy used American than new from China.”
Likewise, re-gifts, once considered taboo, are becoming increasingly accepted (provided you don’t give them back to the people who gave them to you).
“My family does a white elephant exchange every year for our big holiday party,” says Michelle Swift, a green living enthusiast and Eastown resident. “We used to have a play auction with fake money for re-gifted items. This year we had a Santa Claus laugh contest for gifts.”
Speaking of reuse, the jury is still out on whether you should reuse a Christmas tree. Artificial trees are not only petroleum-based and non-recyclable, they are also more than likely (80 percent) to be rich in volatile organic compounds and other toxins. Avoid PVC if you go artificial. Putting up a real tree and recycling it after the holidays is generally a greener option, particularly if it was grown within a few hundred miles. The greenest option by far would be purchasing a balled or potted tree that you can replant outside.
Like most of the other items on your gift list, Christmas trees are sold by a number of local retailers.
Ruth Terry is a freelance writer and artist living in the East Hills neighborhood. She also works as a fund developer and consultant for local nonprofit organizations.