After reading your tips for going green, I thought the following “Green holiday tips that will keep you out of the red” would be of interest to you to share on your blog and with your readers.

Millions of consumers don’t think they have the time or money to go green, ESPECIALLY during the busy holiday season.

With the help of Elizabeth Rogers, co-author of New York Times bestseller THE GREEN BOOK and author of the upcoming SHIFT YOUR HABIT: EASY WAYS TO SAVE MONEY, SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE, AND SAVE THE PLANET (March 2010), your readers can save money AND save the planet.

Here are 10 earth-friendly shifts to save more than $1000 this holiday season:

1. Skip the invites and e-vite! Savings: $20 per year on invitation and stamp costs, not to mention conserving trees, energy, water and waste. Take it one step further and replace your holiday cards with an animated e-greeting, saving you another $50 if you typically buy 15 cards per year.
2. Forget the flame. Use LED tea lights and candles. Paired with LED holiday lights, you’ll save $50 over their 20-year lifetime, and eliminate a carbon-emitting fire hazard.
3. Get real! Ditch the plastic tree and buy a live one. Savings: $100 or more over six years. You’ll rid your house of PVC plastic, and plastic trees contain nearly 70 grams of lead. Yuck!
4. Use your own washable dishes, glasses and silverware instead of disposable plastic plates, cups and cutlery. Save more than $25 and reduce plastic waste.
5. Use cloth instead of paper napkins and save $50 a year. If every person used just one fewer napkin per day, we’d keep 150 million of them from the trash each year.
6. Hit iTunes or check out Pandora.com to create your holiday party playlists. You’ll save up to $300 per year if you buy an average of three albums per month.
7. Buy high-quality, reusable holiday and party decorations instead of disposable ones, and save $100 per year! For example, buy a reusable advent calendar. Or if you’re feeling crafty, buy an inexpensive canvas over-the-door shoe organizer and create a homemade advent calendar with your kids.
8. Go vintage! Give a fashionable antique or collectible. Locate a hard-to-find toy, album, movie, book or piece of art. Reusing things that other people discard keeps them out of the waste stream and can save you $100 or more.
9. Don’t shred the gift wrap! If you re-use just half of it next year, you’ll save more than $15. Even better, get creative when wrapping. Use a scarf, comic book, newspaper, scrap fabric or personally decorated brown paper bag.
10. Finally, leave the car at home. When headed out for that much needed holiday vacation, take a shuttle service to and from the airport, and save up to $100 per trip. To be even greener, pack your presents in vintage or used luggage as opposed to new suitcases and save another $500.

TOTAL SAVINGS: More than $1000

And this is only the beginning! For an additional $50,000 worth of tips, check out http://www.shiftyourhabit.com. If you’d like to find out more about Elizabeth Rogers and the SHIFT YOUR HABIT movement, please contact me directly.

Karlyn Nelson
Freud Communications
6500 Wilshire Blvd Suite 1900
Los Angeles, CA 90048
t: 323 866 6063
f: 323 866 6093
karlyn.nelson@freud.com

Hi Stephen, We met while briefly doing a cab pool across Toronto at the Planet in Focus film festival. Pity this question isn’t being addressed better at government level. I’m not against growth per se but we need better measurement tools to define that growth. GDP is not helpful as a barometre of a nation’s quality of life – but it is the touchstone (or some might stay) millstone by which most progress is measured. I’d introduce at least one other measurement tool – perhaps the Ecological Footprint or Genuine Progress Indicator that would take into account social and environmental progress, not just economic growth.