Green Your Office Holiday Party

Parties are already a major bane to the environment; they produce mountains of waste. Holiday parties are even worse, what with all the discarded wrapping paper and packaging. Considering the current economic conditions, many office parties will likely get scaled down this year from frou-frou corporate dinners to casual disposable tableware-laden get-togethers.

As usual, Grist.org has an excellent set of tips for making sure your company’s office party is as green as it can be.  Here are a few of our favorite pointers:

Work the pretty. When it comes to decorations, keep it simple. Buy a few plants, gather up some others from around the office — yeah, even the half-dead ones — and cluster them for an outside-in décor (just be sure you know whose desk they go back to). Ask staffers to contribute a favorite holiday item or their kids’ artwork to brighten up the scene (just be sure you know whose kid they go back to). Or use food as decoration — it’s pretty, it’s colorful, and when it all gets eaten, your Decorations Clean-Up Subcommittee will be happy. For lighting, try LED strings or candles (the non-yucky kind) — or have your party in the daytime so lights aren’t necessary.

Cut the crap. Don’t give out pewter pens or umbrellas stamped with your company logo to every staffer — it creates waste and inspires frustration. Instead, if you have that money to spare, put it into the next paycheck or a gift card. If staffers are pushing to uphold gift-giving traditions, consider a white-elephant exchange, and make it the kind where you bring an item from home, not purchase something new. And if custom dictates that you absolutely must give something to your (greedy, planet-fucking) clients, look into green options geared toward corporations (see Resources, below).

Get the rest at Grist – ‘The Frill is Gone: How to Green Your Office Party‘.

Link [Grist.org]

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