Are Carbon Offsets for Real?

Whenever I buy an airplane ticket or reevaluate my electric bill, I think about purchasing carbon offsets...but my dad's skepticism has worn off on me a bit. I wonder if the companies selling these are serious legitimate businesses, or just some guys with a snazzy website. Luckily for me (and you), there are now companies that certify carbon offsets.

One such agency is Carbon Concierge. The Carbon Concierge has established some provider evaluation criteria, including:

• Business and Project Transparency
• Offset Quality
• Project Location and Offset Traceability
• Industry Leadership
• Business Model and Program Services Ratio
• 3rd Party Evaluation
• Education
• Social Benefit

These criteria have helped the Carbon Concierge develop a list of preferred offset providers. At this time, they recommend the following:

• Climate Trust
• Native Energy
• Carbonfund

While this does not replace doing your own due dilligence, it's nice to know that there are groups out there verifying the legitimacy of offset providers.

Image source: Business Day

Pay as you Drive Insurance

Progressive Insurance is now offering "pay as you drive" or PAYD insurance. Progressive will put a little tag on your car and it knows how often you drive - which, in combination with your safe driving record - determines your premium. Here are some potential benefits from our friends at Wikipedia:

• Commercial benefits to the insurance company from better alignment of insurance with actual risk. Improved customer segmentation.


• Potential cost-savings for responsible customers.


• Social and environmental benefits from more responsible and less unnecessary driving.


• Due to the 24/7 aspects of vehicle location, it enhances security - both personal security and vehicle security. The GPS technology could be used to trace the vehicle whereabouts following an accident, breakdown or theft. [1]


• More choice for consumers on the type of car insurance available to buy.


• The same GPS technology can often be used to provide other (non insurance) benefits to consumers,e.g. satellite navigation [1]


• Social benefits from accessibility to affordable insurance for young drivers - rather than paying for irresponsible peers, with this type of insurance young drivers pay for how they drive.

What interests me about this is the potential companies have to encourage green behavior. Think about it. If you drive less, you not only save gas, but also your premium. For some, this may be enough incentive to get them to bike or walk to work one day a week. It may also encourage parents (paying those big premiums) to encourage their children to drive less. If this product is successful, Progressive will win kudos for setting a new standard for risk mitigation in their industry and for changing their customer's behavior. Wow, that's pretty powerful.

So what other behavior changing ideas are out there?

Image from BBC News

State of Utah Moving to 4-Day Work Week

I had the great pleasure of meeting Governor Jon Hunstman (R) from Utah today. An inspiring man on many fronts (he speaks fluent Mandarin and adopted two abandoned babies from China and India for a start), but I was particulaly inspired by his credible commitment to the environment. One of his most recent initiatives is to transition all state employees to a 4-day work week (4 ten-hour days with Fridays off). This will start full time in July and his team will be measuring the economic and environmental results at the 1-year mark. There are many logistics to work out (daycare for employees, etc.), but the benefits he sees are numerous:

1. With this one chnage, state government buildings in Utah will reduce energy consumption by 20%.
2. The state will be more likely to recruit smart, young people looking for work-life balance jobs.
3. They are more likely to retain staff - it's a perceived "bonus" by most to have three day weekends all year.
4. They will be able to provide better service to their constituants (they are open earlier and later Mon-Thurs, so better able to support working moms and dads).

If roughly 17,000 employees across an entire state can take on alternative work hours, how hard can it really be?

For more info: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25518225/

The 100 Thing Challenge

I’m travelling on business for a couple of weeks and was trying to be efficient in packing up my suitcase. While on the plane, I read an article in Time Magazine, “How to Live With Just 100 Things.” I guarantee I packed more than 100 things for my trip - even just socks and underwear for two weeks bring me close to 30!

This article discusses America’s obsession with consumerism. How many things do we actually need? Far fewer than we have, for certain. Anyone who has moved to a larger office (or home) knows that it fills up immediately with “stuff.” Some of it is necessary or desirable, but a lot of it is just because we have room to store it. When you have a tiny workstation (or apartment), it does make you think twice about what you actually need.

My workstation in the office is 36 SF – pretty tiny by any standards, but it suits me well. I have a pedestal with two drawers, two filing cabinet drawers, and two shelves. It is more than enough, and forces me to regularly recycle or archive my old files.

In the article, Dave Bruno has challenged himself to have only 100 things (personal items) to live successfully. When applying this to business, I wonder if I could do it….despite its small size, my desk still has a good number of things (grouped below by category rather than thing) – I don’t think I make it even close to only 100 things!
1. laptop computer, docking station, monitor, power cord, mouse
2. external hard drive, jump drive
3. files
4. pens, pencils, markers, highlighters
5. notepads, post-its
6. binder clips, paper clips, rubber bands
7. reusable water cup
8. desk phone & headset
9. cell phone & charger
10. books
11. drawer full of personal items (lotion, shout wipes, splenda packets, contact solution, etc.)
12. snacks (mostly diet cokes & granola bars)
13. tissues
14. vendor freebies
15. recycle pile, trash can
16. work bag, lunch bag, gym bag

How does your desk add up?

Getting on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index

Do you ever wonder how companies get labeled as "sustainable" by Wall Street? Well, I did, so I took a look at the The Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Interestingly, it's evaluation criteria includes more than sustainability factors, it also has economic and social considerations in their assessment criteria. Things like corporate governance, risk and crisis management, corporate citizenship, human capital development and talent attraction and retention, among others.

The survey they give companies trying to get on their index has some good questions. Here are the ones related to the environment:

Has your company adopted a corporate environmental policy?

Please indicate whether your corporate environmental policy applies to 1) company's own operations, 2) environmental impacts of products & services, 3) suppliers & service providers, 4) other key business partners.

Please indicate how your environmental management system is verified/ audited/ certified (i.e. ISO 14001, JIS Q 14001, EMAS certification by third party).

Please indicate the percentage of total revenues verified/audited/certified according to these systems.

Please indicate your reduction targets and explain the trend and the performance against the target (for total direct GHG emissions, total energy consumption, total water use, total waste generation).

That's it. That's all of their questions. But you know, as simple as they are, could your company answer them? There's a lot of measurement and accountability embedded in these. If you're thinking of taking on some of the enviornmental issues in your company, these questions are not a bad place to start.

Green Buildings Pay

I was recently introduced to a CoStar report that got me very excited. http://www.costar.com/partners/costar-green-study.pdf It compares LEED certified and Energy Star buildings against those that are not across the US real estate market. The results of the study are astounding... they show that green buildings achieve higher rents, higher occupancy, have lower operating costs and achieve higer prices per square foot. Now what developer or building owner in their right might would choose anything but a green building!

That said, it turns out that one of my esteemed colleagues used this study in a recent presentation to pension real estate leaders and they were not so happy with the methodology used. They felt the analysis was not consistent in grouping unlike buildings together and the conclusions should not be drawn across all regions.

They did provide her with a bunch of additional articles that had similar findings. Here's a excerpt from a UBS study, How Will Green Construction Affect REITs?, they liked.

According to a survey done by McGraw-Hill, there is a 2% higher initial cost to go green, but over the long run, the benefits will outweigh the initial higher construction costs. These benefits include:

Operating costs: Average expected decrease of operating costs between 8% and 9% across the industry.

Building values: Average increase in values expected around 7.5%.

Return on investment (ROI): Average ROI expected to improve 6.6%.

Occupancy ratio: Occupancy rate expected to increase by 3.5%.

Rent ratio: On average, rents expected to increase by 3%.

Please comment and share other good studies you've found.

Climate Counts is Cool

I heard about this tool from a fellow tree-hugger: Climate Counts is a nonprofit organization that ranks companies based on their environmental track record. It’s a very cool site – I’ve been playing around on it this morning and found out that some of my favorite companies are doing really well and others could use some improvement.

For more information, check out their press release:

Climate Counting More with Consumer Companies
84% of Companies Show Improvement in 2nd Climate Counts Company Scorecard
Transparency is Critical to Consumers
(May 7th, 2008) Climate Counts' second annual Company Scorecard shows scored companies making climate improvements across most industry sectors. 84 percent of the scored companies —among them some of the world's largest -- made improvements in their efforts to reduce greenhouse gases and to make information about those actions actions easily accessible to consumers. The Scorecard, first released in June 2007, scores 56 major corporations in well-known consumer sectors – from apparel to electronics to fast food – on their commitment to reversing climate change.

"Business is being pushed by consumers to do their part to solve the climate crisis," said Gary Hirshberg, chair of Climate Counts and CEO of organic yogurt maker Stonyfield Farm. "The Scorecard allows consumers to make good climate decisions in their everyday purchases,and it's having an impact."

Google, Anheuser-Busch and Levi Strauss had the largest score improvement among those scores, each jumping over 20 points. Improvement was broad however, with the average company score improving 22 percent over last year. Nike passed last year's high scorer, Canon, to as the top scored company.
"Company transparency is critical to allowing consumers to make good decisions," said Wood Turner, Project Director. "The time for companies to just say 'trust us, we're good on climate' has passed, consumers want to see the proof behind the green claims. They want to know it's not just marketing talk, but real substantive action."

It wasn't all good climate news. Five companies scored one or zero points: Jones Apparel Group; and four companies from the Food Services sector, Burger King, Darden Restaurants (which owns popular restaurants Red Lobster and Olive Garden), Yum! Brands (parent to Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC) and Wendy's. The Food Services sector has the lowest average (11.5 out of 100) of any of the eight sectors measured with smallest overall improvement. There were a total of ten companies – down from 18 last year – scoring in the lowest tier of companies, or under 12 points overall.

"We're excited by the level of interest in the Scorecard by both consumers and business," said Turner. "In order to expand our reach and applicability, we'll be expanding the number of companies we monitor later this year."

The companies were scored on a scale from one to 100, based on 22 criteria that fall within four benchmarks: whether they measure their carbon footprint; what efforts they have made to reduce their own climate impact; whether they support or oppose global-warming legislation; and what they disclose to the public about their work to address climate change. Consumers can review all the company scores and download a pocket-sized shopping guide at http://www.climatecounts.org/. Consumers will also be able to look up companies' rankings by texting "cc company name" (for example, "cc Nike") to 30644 from their cell phones so they can make climate-friendly consumer decisions while they shop. An expansion of Climate Counts' mobile phone activism program is planned for later this summer.

The Impact of Green Blogs

Do you ever wonder… What impact do blogs have anyway? Aren’t they really just the rantings of a few socially insecure people who sit in their basement with nothing better to do? Aren’t they just for tweenies who don’t have a car yet? It’s not like bloggers are real reporters, I mean, it’s not like they provide real news like the New York Times.

I don’t think the NYT will go away (though, don’t quote me on that), but I do think we’re starting to get pretty savvy in figuring out how this world wide web thing really works. Whereas you cannot predict what the NYT will write, blogs, blogrolling and blog feeds allow users the ultimate customization of their information access. Good bloggers become known and read because their stories are legitimate, well researched and relevant (and many of them are reporters too). Major media outlets scroll through favorite blogs every day to find stories and ideas from blogs they trust.

This Pew Foundation study is a year old, but gives a good breakdown of the folks writing and reading news and stories through the blogosphere. http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP%20Bloggers%20Report%20July%2019%202006.pdf As of 2006, eight percent of internet users, or about 12 million American adults, keep a blog. Thirty-nine percent of internet users, or about 57 million American adults, read blogs. About 54% of all blog users are under 30 – this is the group that everyone is busy recruiting.

But how much blog content is out there related to real estate, buildings, sustainability, etc? We hear a lot about those crazy political blogs, but what do they have to do with our industry? I did some analysis recently and used a Google analytical tool. This tool tracks key words and tells you how many times your word has been referenced on a blog (not just the internet at large). Take the word LEED. In 2005, there were 8,200 blog entries mentioning LEED, in 2006 there were 17,000 and in 2007 over 52,000. For the first three months this year, there were 18,000 mentions of the word LEED (extrapolating out for 2008, that’s 72,000+). Too specific and trendy you say? Then try the words “green buildings.” 2006= 1,700 mentions; 2007=6,000 mentions, 2008, just Q1 = 10,700 mentions. Still not convinced? Try “General Services Administration.” 2006=3,000 mentions; 2007=8,500 mentions; 2008 just Q1 = 15,000 mentions.

From what I can see, the building industry has taking to blogging like fish on water and blogs have become a very legitimate form of news. We can find out the latest in design, technology and building techniques almost as soon as they are invented. With global reach, trusted blogs can be extremely powerful resources.

Setting Trends in Kansas?

“There’s No Place like Home, There’s No Place like Home”….Sound familiar, well Dorothy isn’t headed to the Emerald City anymore; there’s another kind of Green in her future.

Do you remember hearing this news on May 4th, 2007? “The town of Greensburg Kansas was destroyed in a matter of 15 minutes by an EF-5 tornado, the strongest of 25 tornados’ that night that broke out over Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas and South Dakota.” (http://abcnews.go.com) I don’t know about you, but hearing this sent shivers up and down my spine. Coming from a small town in Kansas myself, this news hit too close to home for me. With all of the devastation, many homes and businesses were entirely demolished. The community decided to approach rebuilding with a very different outcome in mind.

Well…. now almost a year later there is much HOPE, this amazing town is trying to make their dream of helping to protect the environment from future destruction come true. After this tornado destroyed 95% of their town and depleted all of their resources they have the chance to create an entirely sustainable town. The people of Greensburg have decided as a community to promote a highly sustainable enriched society. Their mission is to provide the residents with the resources, information, and support they need to rebuild as “The Greenest Town in America, named Green Town” (http://www.greensource.construction.com/) The Greensburg City Council has approved a motion that all city building projects will be built to LEED Platinum level standards as updated throughout the years to keep its LEED Certification. There is also a development called the Model Home Project. Tourists would receive a guide books for touring the different Sustainable sites and building to learn about the process of building green. There is also an opportunity to stay in eco-friendly, energy efficient homes while visiting this amazing new town. “Money made from renting the demonstration homes, will go toward maintenance and possibly other green initiatives within the town’s location.” (http://www.greensburggreentown.org/) "If we are going to build a community from the ground up, it is our responsibility to think about the future," said city administrator Steve Hewitt
What this tiny community is doing will hopefully change the views of all towns and cities across the county and help others see the significance of making changes that will impact our future generations……

“I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore, Toto.”

Green-Collar Jobs

I get lots of emails from lots of listservs…sometimes to the point that it is so overwhelming that I simply file them away. Today I had a bit of time, so I opened USGBC-NCR’s newsletter and actually read through it. I was glad I did because I found a link the following article and subsequent report: Green-Collar Jobs in America's Cities: Building Pathways Out of Poverty and Careers in the Clean Energy Economy

The movement for sustainability throughout the US is wonderful in that it is helping save the world, but it is also a great economic driver – particularly in terms of job creation and innovation opportunities.

Green jobs are available throughout the economy, but this document focuses on jobs in energy industries offers guidance on how cities can link residents to green-collar jobs.

Not into junk mail?

So I got this really good tip from my friends Jenny and Adam in LA. Jenny emailed me a link to a Palo Alto, California company called GreenDimes http://www.greendimes.com/ . For $20, they reduce your junk mail by up to 90% and plant 10 trees on your behalf. They also have a petition on their site that you can sign to help stop junk mail for good. It’s targeted at the consumer who doesn’t want to deal with junk mail and who cares about the environment. It would make a fantastic gift for clients and customers.

What you Pay For:

· For $20, the GreenDimes team does all the work to get the entire household off dozens of direct marketers’ mailing lists

· GreenDimes eliminates only unwanted catalogs – members identify only catalogs they wish to stop through the Catalog Screener

· Free Me! includes monthly monitoring of direct marketing lists

· 10 trees are planted on behalf of each member

· 24-hour customer support response time

· A quarterly progress report and “The GreenDimes Monthly” is sent to members detailing GreenDimes’ successes, upcoming partnerships, ventures, and each member’s personal contribution to the environment

GreenDimes Tree Planting Partners:
- American Forests
- Sustainable Harvest International
- Trees for the Future

Trees are planted in: North America, Central America, South America, India, Senegal, Haiti

Also, check out the impact counter that gives all kind of interesting real-time stats like "Trees Saved" and "Catalogs Stopped".

Unpackaged

A new shop called Unpackaged has just opened down the road from me in Islington, London, and I think it's such a good idea that I should tell you all about it...

Unpackaged believe that most packaging is unnecessary so they're doing something about it. The shop is the new way to shop safe in the knowledge that you’ve not created any waste that’s going to end up in a landfill.

Unpackaged sell organic wholefoods and environmentally friendly products such as eco-cleaners for the home. You take along your own containers along for the products and the lovely people at Unpackaged fill them up for you with your favourite products. They also sell reusable containers that you can bring back next time in case you forget to bring your own with you.

Unpackaged have received some excellent press coverage here in the UK, so let's hope the idea catches on worldwide! See the Unpackaged website for more information.

Corporate Social Responsibility Pays

If you need proof that paying attention to corporate social responsibility creates value in your company... look no further! Two studies have just come out that prove just that.

The Economist Intelligence Unit's report, "Doing good: Business and the sustainability challenge" [PDF], surveyed 1,254 senior business executives to find out how, if at all, stock performance correlates to CSR performance:

"There is a link between corporate sustainability and strong share price performance. In our survey, companies with the highest share price growth over the past three years paid more attention to sustainability issues, while those with the worst performance tended to do less. Causality is difficult to establish, but the link appears clear: the companies that rated their efforts most highly over this time period saw annual profit increases of 16% and share price growth of 45%, whereas those that ranked themselves worst reported growth of 7% and 12% respectively. In general, these high-performingcompanies put a much greater emphasis on social and environmental considerations at board level, while the poorly performing firms are far more likely to have nobody in charge of sustainability issues."

IBM's "Attaining Sustainable Growth Through Corporate Social Responsibility," surveyed 250 business leaders and found that 68 percent of them are currently engaged in CSR practices, and shows that they can be potentially revenue-enhancing operations.

"A growing body of evidence asserts that corporations can do well by doing good. Well-known companies have already proven that they can differentiate their brands and reputations, as well as their products and services, if they take responsibility for the well-being of the societies and environments in which they operate. These companies are practicing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in a manner that generates significant returns to their businesses."

The CSR Value Curve (pictured above) shows how IBM is tracking organizations as they learn to integrate social responsibility into their value chain. It just makes sense! Organizations that think more holistically about risk avoidance and are open to new means of value creation are going to be more successful. Period.

Commuting Comfort

As I was flipping through the Sunday Washington Post today, I ran across an article on adding "comforts" into cars: When Home Seems To Be on the Road.

This article discusess how auto manufacturers are adding more perks into cars as Americans are spending more and more time on the road.

Having very recently had the worst commute of my 8 years in Washington,DC (2 hr, 31 min to go 11 miles), I can appreciate why people would want more amenities in their cars. I certainly could have used a fresh beverage or a TV.

Of course, on the flip side, as a gal who is concerned about the environment, I was horrified to think of all the people who may be encouraged to spend even more time in their cars.

I think that auto manufacturers are missing the mark: while packing cars with perks may add short-term profits, the long-term business plan should first be focused on increasing fuel efficiency/reducing reliance on fossil fuels, and secondly on getting people out of single-occupant cars and marketing transportation solutions.

Greenest Presidential Canidate?

Make your plug for Super Tuesday (Feb 5)! Who do you think will be the strongest on environmental issues? Tell us why and leave your comments below.

Here's what others have to say: Grist, Low Impact Living, CNN, The NY Times

And Treehugger gives advice on what we should be asking the candidates (or all other politicians for that matter):

1. How would your administration plan to reduce global warming emissions?

2. How will your administration work with other nations to reduce global warming pollution worldwide?

3. How would you balance federal funding for public transportation and road construction?

4. How do you respond to industries who try to argue that we have to choose between jobs and clean energy?

5. What are your policies on new coal fired power plants and new nuclear power plants?

Free Patents

And when I say free patents, I do not mean patent-leather shoes or accessories (though wouldn’t that be nice?). I recently learned from the fostering sustainable behavior listserv that IBM, Sony, Nokia & Pitney Bowes have partnered with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development to introduce Eco-Patent Commons.

This service will offer the rights to eco-friendly technologies for free, using a service similar to Creative Commons. These services play to the idea that innovation occurs more quickly when more people have access to troubleshooting and improving. Some other places you can see this principle at work are Wikipedia or the open source computer operating system Linux.

Patents include those that address eco-friendly business practices, such as procurement, and those that address sustainable manufacturing processes. Already the aforementioned companies have donated 31 patents to the public domain. Some of those patents include:

• A shock-absorbing cardboard tray that would replace the need for Styrofoam peanuts
• A way to recycle cell phones into new devices
• Use of a natural coagulant to purify wastewater

Check out some articles on this great idea:

• San Francisco Chronicle
• Bloomberg
• CNN Money

The Greenest City on Earth... in Abu Dhabi?

My firm does a tremendous amount of work for oil companies in the middle east and in the UAE in particular. Much of it consists of very tall air-conditioned skyscrapers. We do what we can to push green ideas, but these concepts are not always embraced. So you could say it was a great surprise to me that WWF and Abu Dhabi’s Masdar Initiative (Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company) unveiled a plan for world’s first carbon-neutral, waste-free, car-free city. It sounds spectacular...

"Masdar City’s electricity will be generated by photovoltaic panels, while cooling will be provided via concentrated solar power. Water will be provided through a solar-powered desalination plant. Landscaping within the city and crops grown outside the city will be irrigated with grey water and treated waste water produced by the city’s water treatment plant.

The city is part of the Masdar Initiative, Abu Dhabi’s multi-faceted investment in the exploration, development and commercialisation of future energy sources and clean technology solutions. The six-square kilometre city, growing eventually to 1,500 businesses and 50,000 residents, will be home to international business and top minds in the field of sustainable and alternative energy."

For more news, go here.

Charge it Green

For some time now there have been several credit cards out there that make donations to nonprofit organizations and charities everytime you make a purchase using their card. In most cases the amount donated is based on a percentage of the purchase, usually half a percentage point and many of these cards target a specific orgnaisation such as The Humane Society, the global fight against AIDS, Defenders of Wildlife, etc.

Working Assets Visa Card gives donations to a platform of 50 organisations; Civil Rights, Peace & International Freedom, Economic & Social Justice and the Envioronment. The cardholders vote every year for the organisations that will recieve donations and they donate 10 cents with every purchase!

here is a link to the Ideal Bite article on these cards http://www.idealbite.com/tiplibrary/archives/whats_in_your_wallet/

Just Recently there has been several financial institutions that are offering cards that are specifically going GREEN!

Bank of America has teamed up with Brighter Planet to offer a credit card that will buy carbon offsets; they will offset a ton of carbon for every thousand dollars that is spent using the card.

MetaBank issued a Green Mastercard, consumers earn a new account activation bonus equivalent to 10,000 pounds of CO2 offsets and then for every net dollar spent, five pounds of CO2 will be retired and for every net dollar spent on gasoline and household utilities, 10 pounds of CO2 will be offset.

GE's Money Earth Rewards Platinum Mastercard contributes one percent of their card purchases to buy greenhouse gas emissions.

Wells Fargo will buy 6000 kilowatt hours of green power for every 5000 points earned using it's credit card.

Read the November article in Environmental Leader
http://www.environmentalleader.com/2007/11/30/bofa-teams-with-brighter-planet-on-green-credit-card/

But if you really want to dig to the truth behind the "Mega-Banks" that issue these credit cards (and we all should), what kind of activities and political organisations their money support then read the RealMoney article.
http://www.coopamerica.org/pubs/realmoney/articles/creditcards.cfm

How far do you have to walk?

Check out Walk Score. It's a site that helps determine how "walkable" your neighborhood is, i.e. how close it is to stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc. A great quick and dirty way to pick your home or office location (with your real estate advisor). My office in Georgetown rates a 98% - we have several options for restaurant options or places to run errands during lunch.

What would happen if my office was located in a place with a low walk score? We're a 120-person office. I predict that our carbon footprint would increase by at least 5 tons of CO2 per year. What is worse than all that CO2? Having an office far from amenities really puts a damper on productivity! Assuming all of us run 1 errand per week in our cars that we could have walked to at another location. That's 120 employees x 1 hour x 52 weeks x $75 per hour... close to $500,000 a year driving to TGI Fridays, Walgreens or the bank. Now those are some expensive errands.

Green Elephant Gifts

I realize that I posted an entry about sustainable gift-giving a couple of weeks ago, but my coworkers and I had a brilliant idea.

Our group has decided to do a "white elephant" exchange (where everyone puts a gift into the pile and then take turns either selecting a wrapped gift or stealing a gift that has already been opened) - with a sustainable twist.

We're calling it the "green elephant exchange." The rules are that you have to give a gift that is not purchased (either something from your home, a found object, or a regift) and that it must be wrapped in a sustainable manner (reused gift bag, fabric bag, reused newspaper/gift wrap, etc.). I can't wait to see what the gifts are!

In a related exercise, at an old job, my coworkers and I used to regularly have "swaps" where everyone brought in nice things that they no longer wanted and traded for new things. Some of the items exchanged included candles, notepads, holiday decorations, etc. Anything that wasn't taken by the end of the day was donated to charity.

Please suggest other good ways to reuse/regift great items!