A New Year's Resolution on Thanksgiving Day

Tomorrow is the biggest shopping day of the year. If you're interested in sustainable living, make this resolution to ask yourself when shopping:

1) Does the recipient really need it? Looking through the phone-book sized Thursday morning paper with all of its circulars, you notice that there are too many one-purpose appliances. This year, I've seen a tabletop s'more maker, a whip cream maker (as if stirring was too hard), and an inside-the-egg scrambler. These are gifts that will be used once or twice and then shelved indefinitely. Yet, the packaging alone requires a substantial resource commitment.

2) Can it be gotten second-hand, and can it be re-used after the recipient has finished with it? Close the loop. If you're getting a computer for your youngster, this person may only need it for low-resource activities like web-surfing and email. Most three-year-old computers can handle this, and it will be much, much cheaper.

3) Can it be obtained from a closer source? Global supply chains require a tremendous expenditure in transportation costs, especially if you're talking about agro-products.

Happy Thanksgiving. For so much, we should be thankful.

-MB