‘Tis the season of giving, and while we all want to be generous with our loved ones, it’s hard not to feel like the Grinch when you find out that more than $8.3 billion may be wasted on unwanted gifts each year, according to a survey by the Center for Biological Diversity. And to make matters even worse, when those gifts are returned, they’re likely to end up in a landfill instead of back on the shelves.

Yet there’s an easy solution to this dilemma: sustainable gift giving.

“Gifting sustainability means you broaden the lens of the many ways you can be intentional and thoughtful in your gift giving,” says Sandra Goldmark, associate dean of the Office of Engagement and Impact at Columbia Climate School and professor of professional practice at Barnard College. “For instance, a gift can be an act of service. My husband has done that for Christmas: one year he fixed my mom’s broken cabinet, and for me, he organized all of my passwords! And kids can make coupon books of things they’ll do for people, like cooking dinner on a random Thursday.” 

The point of sustainable gift giving is not to add another layer of stress on an already harried season, says Goldmark, “but to flip the script and ask yourself: What can I give that’s meaningful, even if it may look a bit different or be unexpected? If you do that, in the long run, it’ll make the giving easier and less stressful—and the receiving of the gift more meaningful to the person on the other end.”

Here are some additional ways to keep our climate and planet in mind this holiday season.

Donate to a climate nonprofit in someone’s name

Donating to an environmental cause in your loved one’s name is a zero-waste gift that can actually help affect real change. Whether that’s saving rainforests, protecting our oceans or rescuing wildlife, you’re sharing a way to help defend the planet they care about. There are a wide range of reputable nonprofits to consider, like the Home Planet Fund, which supports local and Indigenous communities working to stop climate breakdown in their areas; Opportunity Green, which works to reduce emissions in air and maritime travel via pioneering regulations, clean fuels, greener fleets and reduced demand for air travel; or Columbia’s own Climate School, to support the training and research that will evolve into cutting-edge climate solutions in the future. 

Regift or buy secondhand

The instinct during the holidays is to buy something sparkly and new, but more people are discovering the joy—and generosity—of giving secondhand. The Center for Biological Diversity found that 56 percent of survey respondents said they were open to gifting pre-loved items—a choice driven not only by savings but by a desire to curb waste and shrink their environmental footprint. If you can’t find what you’re looking for at your local resale, vintage or used bookshop, which would have the lowest climate impact, online stores like the North Face and Anthropologie now offer the option to buy gently used items from their collections. 

And if you have a closet full of unused gifts you’re not sure what to do with, now’s the time to regift. About 1 in 3 Americans not only say regifting is an acceptable practice, they enjoy doing it themselves (especially with unwanted holiday presents), according to a recent Bankrate survey. Just make sure the item you choose looks new and is something you know the recipient will love.

Give the gift of an experience

An indoor bumper car might be a hot-ticket item amongst the 10-and-under set, but how much more fun would it be to gift them a day at a local amusement park, where they can try a real one out? Gifting a real-life experience over an object not only reduces waste and consumption, but research has shown that people get more long-lasting happiness from them as well. According to this study from Cornell University, interest in objects, even desired ones, tends to wane in time, but the joy or delight one feels after a memorable life event lasts much longer. Not only that, research has found that recipients feel more strongly bonded to a gift-giver who offers them an experiential gift over a material one, due to the more positive, intense emotions the former typically evokes.

Start local and see what your loved ones might enjoy—perhaps a membership to their nearby botanical garden or a class pass to a workshop on urban gardening. If you want to cast a wider net, consider supporting this country’s natural ecosystems with a year-round pass to your state’s or the National Park systems. 

Find cozy gifts that also reduce energy consumption

Here’s a holiday hack with real-time, at-home climate impact: give gifts your family will love that also help your household use less energy. Unless your home runs on renewables, every degree you nudge the thermostat upward burns more fossil fuels—and money. Turn it back down a bit, and you’re saving both on your energy costs and your carbon footprint. Thoughtful, cozy gifts like colorful thick socks, plush wool sweaters or a lightweight puffer vest that maintains core warmth can help you do that without any complaints from your crew. For an added sustainability benefit, choose items produced locally, made with 100% recycled content (or close to it), or sourced from companies investing in credible, science-based emissions-reduction efforts.

Bring the natural world to them

Birds, bees and other insects are essential to the health of our environment. Yet pollinators worldwide are decreasing in number at an alarming rate, thanks to stressors like climate change, habitat loss and pesticide use. Consider a gift of a small bird feeder that attaches to a window, or seeds to create their own pollinator garden in a window box or yard outside their home. The Xerces Society partners with the native seed industry to produce wildflower seed mixes that are endemic to your area. These mixes are locally produced by independent farmers, without pesticides, and are designed to include widely adapted, non-weedy species. 

Gift a bicycle

Swapping even a single daily car trip for a bike ride can cut an individual’s annual carbon footprint by roughly half a tonne over the course of a year, according to a 2021 study in Global Environmental Change. Gifting a bicycle—whether it’s a membership to a local bike-share program, a refurbished hybrid or a new road bike—will help spread that low-carbon impact. (If you feel you need to buy new, look for companies that use predominantly U.S.-based suppliers and do in-house assembly, which means shorter supply chains and less embedded emissions.) Plus, cycling not only supports climate action, it boosts our mental and physical well-being—and what better holiday present can there be than one that moves them, and the planet, into a happier, healthier place.