The Christmas party is a yearly mainstay for most of us. From cracker hats to secret Santa, it doesn’t get better than this for feeling festive. Unfortunately, our festivities haven’t been quite as good news from an environmental standpoint.
In fact, the damage caused by sometimes excessive Christmas partying is a major contributor to the fact that Christmas alone accounts for 3.8% of our annual carbon footprints. Luckily, there is a solution, and it comes in the form of the virtual Christmas party. Virtual alternatives like our fantastic online cocktail masterclasses here at Boozy Events are certainly increasing in popularity this year. Here, we consider why the environment could benefit from you hosting your very own eco-friendly Christmas party this time around.
# 1 – Cutting back on travel
Christmas travel is a prime environmental offender, especially with as many as 175 million trips happening for the attendance of events at this time of year alone. Long-distance flights for this purpose certainly factor in the 2.4% annual air travel emissions, while individuals who also need to take taxis or trains only add to that onslaught, with even car journeys to relatively ‘local’ Christmas events, say Liverpool to London, creating as much as 6kg of CO2. By comparison, virtual events streamed directly into attendee’s homes remove the need to travel at all, reducing both the efforts people take to attend and the damage they cause by doing so.
# 2 – Reducing party waste
The average household produces 5 extra sacks of waste over the festive period, and an extra 1.4 tonnes of CO2. Christmas parties that involve excessive amounts of food, drink, and decorations significantly add to that number, but that needn’t be the case. Of course, you’ll still want to provide a few festive treats, but virtual parties that involve the sending of specifically selected packs to each guest (now sent with the benefit of our EU road service to reduce that travel footprint even further!) ensure that you’re far better able to provide what people need, without going overboard.
# 3 – Minimising your electrical output
While virtual parties do require electricity, this alternative can also significantly reduce your contribution to the £66 million of electricity used throughout the festive season. Holiday decorations, alone, have been proven to use as much as 151kWh of electricity, a number that’s guaranteed to soar when you bring excessive decorations together with sound systems and more to furnish your in-person event. With a virtual event, however, those festive touches come only from the decorations that your attendees already have up at home, allowing you all to get in the mood without burning the grid, and the environment, out as you do so.Virtual Christmas parties are an undeniable step in the right direction for the environment at a time of year when we need to take action more than ever. Speak to a member of our team here at Boozy Events today to book up, or discuss virtual party ideas, for a Christmas event 2021 that your guests are guaranteed to remember.