Going Green: ​Find that perfect gift for your dad on Father’s Day

Father’s day is Sunday June 15 and it’s a wonderful chance to celebrate your Dad. However, he won’t measure your love by the amount you spend on him or the number of gifts he receives. The good news is there are plenty of sustainable and ethical gift ideas you can choose.

1) A gift of words and pictures

While this may take a bit longer than a quick click online, compiling a selection of photos and words that highlight some of the fabulous times spent together with family is a unique and treasured present that is also relatively inexpensive. There are also various websites to print these gifts if you want a more professional look to your story book.

2) Wind up torch

With increasing extreme weather having a torch that doesn’t rely on batteries is a great gift for camping and in case of blackouts that are increasing with extreme weather.

Visit https://www.smartgreenshop.co.uk/light?srsltid=AfmBOopDWwKOn5SX5QQ6xp8xejpCz3v2nQK_ogkoIqUOeWVc80py9PdEwebsite.

3) A plant-based family picnic

Eating together is a wonderful celebration and being outdoors makes food taste better and a stunning but free venue to add an instant sense of specialness. There are so many great vegan recipes that you can prepare in advance that are both delicious and meat free so they are affordable and less worry about food spoiling in hot weather. Added bonus is you avoid the crowds fighting for tables in local restaurants.

4) Solar powered and wind-up radio

We received one of these as a wedding gift and it’s still one of my favorite presents ever. You can take them outdoors and they don’t rely on mains power so again perfect in case of a power loss and some models have a wind up option as well for the evenings.

Visit https://www.bestproductsreviews.co.uk/solar-powered-radios-uk?targetid=dsa-19959388920&matchtype=&device=c&campaignid=18652782371&creative=629317821735&adgroupid=139508048621&feeditemid=&loc_physical_ms=9194976&loc_interest_ms=&network=g&devicemodel=&placement=&keyword=$&target=&aceid=&adposition=&trackid=uk_all_top_11_1&mId=407-132-4411&trackOld=true&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=18652782371&gbraid=0AAAAACWZmZkWtaPy0cVemm4lBHoBUoJGW&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIipiBpvzUjQMVuJKDBx1i5AgIEAAYAiAAEgIO7vD_BwE website.

5) Dress to impress

There are enough clothes in the world for six generations so buying good quality, pre-loved clothes through a local vintage shop or online is a great way to buy ‘brands’ but at an affordable price. It also helps protect the planet as avoids the need for producing yet more fabrics and chemicals for new garments.

Visit https://onlineshop.oxfam.org.uk/category/donated?N=1044990953&Nf=sku.listPrice|GT+0&Ns=product.creationDate|1&Ntk=&Nr=AND(product.active:1,NOT(sku.listPrice:0.000000))&No=0&Nrpp=30 website.

6) Present of your presence

Giving a gift of time to enjoy activities together, is a precious way to secure more fun moments together as a family. These can be dinners, shows, bike rides or sporting events. Whatever experiences your dad likes, this is a way to share a day of entertainment without adding to the clutter in his home.

7) Gifts that keep giving

There are so many incredible organisations that support good causes where your money can really matter for social or environmental initiatives. Some ideas include Social Stories Club, who specialize in food hampers, ethical super store has very cute ideas, as does Good Things.

Visit https://socialstoriesclub.com/collections/gift-collection?_gl=1*ga2ggl*_up*MQ..*_gs*MQ..&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIyfvRh_HUjQMVI5JQBh2TCx7xEAAYAiAAEgKStPD_BwE&gbraid=0AAAAAC6tsMwReyTtX3mIXW7Yr0rwQqJ-4 website.

Visit https://www.ethicalsuperstore.com/ethical-gifts/for-him/ website.

Finally, not everyone has a dad in their life so if this is the case, it’s always worth remembering you are not alone. Either through bereavement or family breakdown, there are lots of people who will struggle on Father’s day so be kind to yourself, arrange something fun with friends or consider volunteering that day and perhaps making new friends, as well as helping a good cause.

Celebrity spot

Harry Holding, who is an award-winning garden designer, said at Chelsea Flower Show: “The majority of the plants are drought-tolerant and resilient for a changing climate. That’s really significant because our studio’s ethos is to design for the future. There’s a really nice synergy with the fact that we are designing for children. You can't think about children and not think about the future.”

Visit https://www.harryholding.co.uk/news-item/an-interview-with-harry-holding-rhs-chelsea-flower-showwebsite.

Green swap

Swap buying imported food and instead buy British crops this summer, as so many delicious fruit and vegetables are in season, such as delicious strawberries. As well as supporting farmers, it avoids fruit flown in from South America or Africa and taste better too.

Green fingers working at Chelsea Flower Show

Gardening is a pastime enjoyed by so many people, as demonstrated at the Chelsea Flower Show. This ranges from the King and Queen to a host of celebrities out in force from David Beckham to Cate Blanchett.

No matter how big the space available, seeing flowers bloom and seeds grow brings great joy and is a great opportunity to slow down, get outdoors and to be aware of nature in all her glory.

The Chelsea Flower show this year focused very much on sustainability, which is very appropriate, particularly given the extremes in weather that gardeners are facing. It included tips for garden balconies, where wind is often the biggest issue to manage and highlighted many gardening trends to ensure your plants can thrive no matter the weather.

It focussed on sustainable materials, such as timber and pre-loved furniture for features such as raised beds or sheds, and avoided concrete, cement and steel structures that have high carbon footprints. Producing renewable energy from solar power was very popular, as was designing climate resilient gardens. These are all about being ready no matter the British weather. Features include holding back water to try and slow surface-water flooding and, in addition, this provides a free source of grey water during dry spells so wildlife and plants can thrive in the hot weather. The simplest version of this is a water butt, which start in price from around £28 but there are other ways to capture rain from ponds to discarded troughs and maximizing soft permeable designs rather than hard surfaces such as patios and block paving.

There were also tips on switching from traditional favourites to plants and trees to choosing shrubs and seeds that can grow in a warmer climate. Drought- tolerant plants, learning from mediterranean gardens were popular this year such as cistus, rosemary, santolina and artemisia.

And, of course, ensuring nature thrives by planting species that bees, butterflies and other pollinators love, so not everything is precisely manicured but there are more wild spaces and softer landscaping.

With erratic weather here to stay as global warming increases we have to rapidly cut pollution, but also adapt every aspect of our lives to this new challenging reality. Monty Don said: “We are all dealing with climate change. And I think that whether it’s this Chelsea, or whether it’s just gardening in general, we are having to adapt to very wet winters and then dry periods, and also some pretty wet summers too.”

So no matter your budget or garden size there are plenty of fantastic ideas to transform your outdoor space into a green sanctuary for you, your neighborhood and animals big and small.

Fact or fiction

We produce more than 200 million tonnes of plastic each year.

FICTION.

More than 450 million tonnes of plastic are made a year and it takes more than 400 years to breakdown. Even then it’s not gone from the environment and creates smaller pieces of plastic that birds and fish then eat mistakenly for food.