It’s a great time to think about your Christmas footprint, so why not figure out how you can sustainably sidle into the New Year? As we approach 2024, our team have put together a advice for the perfect IES-inspired Christmas and New Year.

Source an FSC Certified tree, the smell of which might conjure images of Spring with the newly-named CEDHEs blooming, the luscious FOREST of Risk, and birdsong, which you may be able to hear in surround-sound quality thanks to the rise of ecoacoustics in bird monitoring. Decorate with low energy lights.

Opt for handmade or sustainable low-cost gifts, to prove you aren’t addicted to growth. This will also help the wallet, as average real earnings have fallen in the past two years.

Skip lighting up your log fire whilst you get ready to cook, as it may spread warmth and joy… but also particulate matter. Your guests may complain, but at least you’ll be able to explain yourself with eloquence and contrition, having attended the IAQM public speaking workshop earlier this year, and the weather outside isn’t that frightful.

Roast the vegetables - at the advice of the FWR Technical Panels you should be reducing water use. This also means Turning the Tide on the usual tradition of instant mash; put it down. Yes, the instant grEIAvy too.

If you think you have invited too many guests, console yourself that you are not serving 6,000!

Keep Christmas debates with your uncle factual and festive; you can draw the line between science and activism, or go deeper by telling him there is more than one way of knowing.

Try to stave off the inevitable new-year existentialism, which makes you wonder how global megatrends will shape the future, and ponder how you can seek justice for the wrongs inflicted upon you on in 2023. Set your New Year’s resolutions, letting these optimistic theories of change keep you resilient to the current polycrisis. Don’t worry, next year will be EPIC.

Merry Christmas from all of us at the IES!