How to Host a Green Christmas Function

Christmas celebrations are about fun and festivity, but Christmas can also have a huge impact on the world around us. Most of us want to make Christmas as environmentally friendly and socially ethical as possible so we've produced this guide to help you have a green(er) Christmas.

 

Melbourne Venue Guide

Red Scooter (St Kilda) - Australia's first carbon-neutral event venue, with choice of organic menus

100 Mile Café (Melbourne CBD) - A new restaurant, sourcing the finest produce from the local community - within a hundred mile radius`

CERES Café (Brunswick) - a venue where the environmental footprint created is kept to an absolute minimum by way of composting organic waste, recycling, using solar energy, utilising water collection and solar heating for hot water, and feeding all waste water through a grey water system. CERES Café has an amazing selection of menus, able to be tailored to your special occasion, and with the recent addition of a liquor license, has organic beer, wine and spirits to help celebrate. CERES has a huge family of artists, musicians and performers for all ages and tastes, and can even arrange a visit from a special Christmas person.

The City of Melbourne’s Savings in the City program is an innovative environmental program to help city hotels cut energy, water and waste consumption.
The program aims to provide leadership, support, recognition and advice to hotels in three key environmental areas: waste, water and energy. You can see the ratings of 30 hotels in terms of their water, waste and energy management. The Holiday Inn (featuring Sirocco Restaurant & Bar) tops the list.

Mountain Goat Brewery (Richmond) - A Microbrewery open for functions, who are working hard to reduce their environmental impact in a number of ways. They even sell organic beer.

Victorian Food Guide

Present your guests with a great opportunity to experience vegetarian, vegan and organic cuisine with the Vegetarian Network Victoria's catering (and dining) options

Self Catering Ideas

Buy Christmas groceries from local producers or farmers markets to support local businesses and reduce pollution caused by transporting food long distances. You can start by finding your local food organisation on the Australian Community Foods website. You may also want to check the Dick Smith Foods ownership of food brands guide and Greenpeace's True Food Network and shoppers guide.

Buy organic food and drink this Christmas. Organic farming uses no artificial pesticides or fertilizers, reducing pollution and increasing the diversity of wildlife in the countryside. Organic food does not contain pesticide residues and nutrient levels are higher in some organic food, making them better for you. Under organic farming rules, animal welfare standards are higher too.

Sustainability Victoria's Waste Wise Program has been designed to support caterers in meeting the growing expectations for food and beverage facilities to reduce their waste. They provide information assisting businesses to minimise the amount of waste going to landfill and use resources in a sustainable manner.

Gift Ideas

Give a gift that gives twice

Support charities by buying presents from charity shops and shops selling fairly traded goods, such as Oxfam. Buying fair-trade goods means more of the price of the item goes directly to the producer.

Other online gift stores include:

Christmas cards

Buy recycled cards or make your own from recycled card. A handmade card is always extra special.

Also, don't forget to recycle your cards after Christmas. This can be done by picking up a free reply-paid recycling envelope from participating Australia Post outlets, available from Boxing Day until the end of January (while stocks last). The envelope fits approximately 60 cards and is sent to recycling facilities in each state where they are turned into 'SAFE' paper products. You can also go to most Coles Supermarkets and put them in the Planet Ark recycling bins. Since the Cards 4 Planet Ark campaign began 13 years ago, over 600 million greeting cards have been recycled - saving over 115,000 trees.

Some other christmas ideas can be found here:

 

Credits

Information complied by o2 Australia, dvize, and Greenleap Network

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