Giving conventional physical presents is already a bum-out for the buyer who has to brave the Christmas crush – and that’s before we get into the wrapping, packaging, not to mention the ethical hangover.

In contrast, the more conscientious among us are getting creative or giving each other gifts in the form of innovative, pro-social ‘nudges’, which put a smile on our faces whilst also doing some good in the world.

Leading the charge is Abundance Generation. This crowd investment platform was the first in the UK allowing internet users to put small amounts of money into large-scale renewable energy projects. These micro-investment gifts start from as little as £5. You don’t have to be a millionaire to give a gift that does good in multiple ways:

1. Earning the receiver a decent rate of interest (typically 6-7%)
2. Taking money away from banks who invest it unethically (e.g. arms companies and big oil)
3. Putting money into renewable energy projects (supporting alternative energy companies, bringing energy bills down and responding to climate change)

These Christmas gifts are an exciting new frontier in the drive for the Clean Energy Revolution. The potentially positive outcome is not just financial – the receiver of the gift will have their curiosity piqued: what are these products? Why are they good? What are the benefits of citizens co-owning distributed renewable energy assets?

As they learn more, they may be inclined to add more money over time and to tell their friends about it. What started as a fun Christmas surprise may seed a new understanding that the money we spend on our energy bill, like our choice of bank, is a vote for the kind of world we want.

When tens of thousands of us take our money out of banks and invest in renewable energy projects we will see very rapid change in our world. Everywhere, wind and sun will drive electrons through wires adding credit to our accounts. Banks and large energy companies will cede power to networks of citizens, and resistance to action on climate change will gradually ease.

The shift in energy ownership – and who profits from it – will help the world move consciously forward to new and better ways of living on our planet earth.

It is a massive buzz to see positive change happening in the world. Right now, switched on citizens are beginning to harness the power we share when we choose to link up and collaborate to make a difference

This new innovation from Abundance gives us the opportunity to pass this on as a Christmas gift, putting a huge dose of magic sparkle back into the festive season.

Lets do this.

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The original Santa is still the best

A new campaign has been launched to resurrect the original green Father Christmas. ‘Green Father Christmas’ calls for the festive icon to once again embrace his green coat, abandoning his allegiance with big global consumer brands. Launched by crowdfunding platform Abundance Generation, the campaign stands for a Christmas less focused on consumption.

Green Santa was last spotted in the 1920’s, before a well known drinks company expanded his waistline and donned him in red to promote its brand. Far removed from his modern image, Father Christmas once dressed in green, cut a slim figure, assisting children and those in need.

Abundance Generation, as well as helping Father Christmas find a healthier image, is suggesting its ‘Green Energy Investment’ as a meaningful gift this Christmas.

Bruce Davis, cofounder of Abundance Generation said: “Yes, we’re stealing Father Christmas from the drinks industry. We’re reuniting him with his green coat because, once again, Christmas is about far more than acquiring ‘things’. There’s a fast growing shift away from giving material goods, to buying gifts with meaning. We’re pretty sure Father Christmas would approve of our Green Energy Investments. A gift that’s helping to create a clean energy future, as well as a secure return for people.”

Modern Green Santa

In a rare interview, Father Christmas said: “The holidays are coming and I agree it’s time for a change. Representing a drinks brand was fun for a while, but the thrill of the ride has grown thin – unlike my waistline. Last year, the elves and I delivered fewer throwaway presents than ever before, this year we want to give better gifts and embrace the move towards a greener Christmas. I haven’t worn my green coat for decades but it feels great. It is, admittedly, a little tighter than it used to be.”

He continued: “Some of the elves at Abundance Generation have come up with a gift of a ‘green energy investment’, perfect for those boys and girls who already seem to have everything! Over the last few years I’ve received an increasing number of letters requesting less disposable ‘stuff’. I’m relieved really, I get great joy from making people happy but was really beginning to worry about the environment. All these things are being shipped around the world before arriving in Lapland, and millions of presents end up as clutter or in a hole in the ground.”

The gift of a Green Energy Investment includes Abundance Generation membership and a handful of their green energy debentures. You can gift an investment of £5, £10, £50, £100 or £1,000 in solar or wind power projects across the UK, helping friends and family be part of the shift to clean energy. This offers a fixed return of 6.65% IRR over a 19 year duration. Ideal as a gift for children, the investment can put into a bare trust until a child reaches 18 years of age. Gifting a Green Energy Investment is very simple and can be set up via the Abundance Generation online Christmas store.

It is important to note that, as with any investment product, there are risks. Part or all of the original invested capital may be at risk and any return on investment depends on the success of the project invested in. All products from Abundance are long term investments and may not be readily realisable (and their value can rise or fall). Estimated rates of return are variable and estimates are no guarantee of actual return.

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Fifty veiled figures dressed in black carried out a performance art installation entitled ‘Parts Per Million’ throughout a series of rooms in the ‘BP Walk Through British Art’ at Tate Britain during the art gallery’s official re-opening (Saturday 23 November 2013). The piece critiqued the role that Tate is playing in exacerbating climate change by bolstering the public perception of BP through its long-standing sponsorship relationship.

The art at Tate Britain was reordered chronologically this year. The Liberate Tate performance began in the ’1840′ room, when the industrial revolution started to significantly impact emission levels, to the present day room with contemporary art created as carbon dioxide levels reached an all-time high of 400 parts per million (ppm). Leading climate scientists consider 350 ppm to be what must be returned to in this century for earth to be safe for human life for generations to come. In each room the Liberate Tate performers arranged themselves in a different configuration and counted aloud en masse the increase in atmospheric carbon ppm during that time period.

‘Parts Per Million’ is the tenth performance at Tate by Liberate Tate: a group that has become internationally renowned for artworks aimed at ending the relationship of Tate and other cultural institutions with oil companies. One of the performers, Fiona Edwards said:

“Any celebration of British art that prominently bears the BP logo is also endorsing that company’s business model which explicitly involves the destruction of a safe, liveable climate. Tate Britain celebrates with a ‘House Warming Party’, but the presence of BP, one of the companies data shows is most responsible for climate change due to its carbon emissions, makes it more of a ‘Global Warming Party’.”

The national collection of British art housed at Tate Britain – art owned by the public – was rebranded the ‘BP Walk through British Art’ in May: in the very week it was announced carbon dioxide levels had reached 400 ppm. A report published earlier this week estimated that BP was responsible for 2.5% of global historic emissions.

Terri Fletcher of Liberate Tate said: “Tate’s vision statement says that it will ‘demonstrate leadership in response to climate change’. Yet oil companies like BP are actively looking for ways to expand their markets and find new reserves at a time when the world needs to be dramatically reducing the amount of fossil fuels that are being burnt. By actively promoting BP, Tate is positioning itself on the side of the fossil fuel companies that are actually creating dangerous climate change.”

There is growing alarm from artists, Tate members and visitors that Tate is providing support to a corporation creating climate chaos and forcing climate-conscious gallery visitors into an uncomfortable position if they want to enjoy art at Tate (the mission of the art museum is to promote public enjoyment of art). Last year Tate said in a reply to a freedom of information request that it had received more representations raising concerns about BP’s sponsorship than any other issue since the oil company became linked to the gallery in 1990.

Since 1990, when BP first attached itself to Tate and its collection, much has changed: the scientific evidence of climate change due to burning hydrocarbons and the negative social and environmental impacts of oil companies, BP in particular, is now clear and far more widely known amongst the public, including art lovers.

Tate has placed BP sponsorship “under review”. BP has dominated the Tate Members Annual General Meeting (AGM) for years. In 2012 Tate Director Sir Nicholas Serota promised Tate members ethical alternatives would be explored so that Tate trustees had a choice not to continue BP sponsorship. A progress report is due at the 2013 AGM on 6 December.

Liberate Tate

Liberate Tate, Parts Per Million, Tate Britain 2013 Credit: Kristian Buus

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Running counter to the more-is-better mythology of a continuous growth economy is the actual real-world evidence around us: most of the systemic economic, social and environmental problems of our time are in fact to do with surpluses, inefficiencies and hoarding – not scarcity.

Cities are congested, polluted and dangerous because energy has been cheap and widely misused. Giant tentacles of private cars crawl in and out every day wasting both energy and space that could otherwise be put to better use as urban farms, community energy resources or simply as recreational parks for kids to play in.

Public transport moves far more people on far less fuel. Human-powered transport does the same whilst also saving the NHS billions (from treating the obese) and contributing to friendlier neighborhoods by encouraging lifestyles in which we do more locally.

Outside of cities, rural communities are in spiraling decline – houses are empty and shops are shutting. Out in the fields, lonely farmers spend days crisscrossing fields, spraying fossil-fuel-based herbicide and fertilizer onto barren land, much of which will leach into river and sea creating eutrophic dead zones.

Using less energy is presented as the end of civilization, but think it through: rural life was far more appealing before fossil-energy-intensive agribusiness took over temporarily replacing the need for people, biodiversity and the skillful application of farm craft.

If we were to implement a phased energy reduction in agriculture we would achieve a stunning array of economic, social and environmental goals. By using less fossil fuel (directly in tractors and indirectly via petrochemical inputs), we could reverse a decade-long trend and start to increase the labor intensity of working the land. This translates into more jobs and resurgent rural economies.

Farms could once again be vibrant places, surrounded by busy communities, in which skilled laborers work the land and spend their money in local markets, pubs and post-offices.

If we divert the fuel we currently burn in the vast container vessels that ferry products manufactured in Asia by workers pushed to the limits of human tolerance we might even find (dare yourself to go there) craftspeople making things once again in the English countryside.

At the moment we flush nearly all the nutrients from our crap out to sea, a ludicrous and gratuitous waste. There are new (and ancient) technologies that allow us to give this back to the crops either via composting or, as in the case of Loowatt – also whilst creating energy.

Next up are homes. Why would we risk our fresh water supply – and even geological stability – by powering them with fracking before we have made the existing housing stock as energy efficient as possible? If there is a leak in your bathtub the solution isn’t to turn another tap on – you fix the leak!

Winter will soon be with us and as people turn their heating on boilers will draw on pipes that stretch back to North Sea gas fields and the Russian ones too. A large proportion of the heat released from burning this gas will pass immediately out of the windows, lofts and walls. We don’t need to dig up more gas and pump it faster when we can simply use much less gas.

Living in highly efficient homes is pleasant. Companies like Parity Projects show how making the existing housing stock perform better offers huge potential for creating jobs and driving local economies. Whilst this newly trained workforce is adding insulation and lagging, they can check for south facing roofs and install solar panels and ground source heat pumps. Many homes can start generating their own energy too.

This government’s support for fracking is a clear signal of the kind of world they want us to live in; a world in which we remain bound by increasing monthly bills to the energy mega corps that sponsor politicians.

We escape the servitude of the circle-jerk by shifting to self-reliance. Getting there requires not be scared by bogie stories about the lights going off. There are a million ways to keep them on.

I would rather live happily and healthily using less energy, than be bullied into accepting a world in which nature is increasingly violated so that the majority of humans can live stupid, wasteful lives that continue to line the pockets of the fossil energy elite. People like Bush, Putin, Blair and Osborne.

The post Switching on low energy lifestyles isn’t scary appeared first on EcoHustler.

DAMOCRACY: A documentary that debunks the myth of large-scale dams as clean energy and a solution to climate change. It records the priceless cultural and natural heritage the world would lose in the Amazon and Mesopotamia if two planned large-scale dams are built, Belo Monte dam in Brazil, and Ilisu dam in Turkey. DAMOCRACY is a story of resistance by the thousands of people who will be displaced, and a call to world to support their struggle. More info at http://www.damocracy.org

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