How to Have an Eco-Friendly Christmas at Your Business

December 12, 2025 by Admin

The festive season is a time for celebration, but for businesses, it’s also a period of increased utility costs, supply chain strain, and environmental waste. As consumer demand for corporate sustainability soars, with up to 68% of Christmas shoppers preferring brands with sustainability guarantees, aligning your business practices with genuine eco-conscious values is no longer optional.

This guide, updated for 2025, provides 12 strategic tips on how to have an eco friendly Christmas at your workplace. By focusing on energy, waste, and procurement, you can boost your brand reputation, lower costs, and make your operation part of the eco Christmas movement.

The 12 Steps to a Sustainable Business Christmas in 2025

 

1. Choose a Rented or Recycled Eco Christmas Tree

The debate between real and artificial trees continues, but the core principle for 2025 is reuse and responsible disposal. If your business already owns an artificial tree, the most sustainable action is to reuse it for at least 10 years to effectively offset its production footprint.

If you need a new one, consider renting a living, potted tree from a local nursery that guarantees collection and replanting in January. This approach directly combats the issue of the 8 million real Christmas trees discarded in the UK each year, noting that a real tree ending up in landfill can result in a carbon footprint of 16kg  CO2 due to methane release.

Ensure your company uses a registered recycling scheme, often provided by local councils, to handle disposal correctly.

 

2. Ditch Glitter and Embrace Recycled Paper Cards

While digital greetings are the greenest choice, if you must send physical cards to clients, ensure they are 100% recyclable.

• The 2025 Approach: Opt for cards made from recycled or FSC-certified paper, and strictly avoid glitter, foil, or plastic laminates, which contaminate recycling streams. Consider seed paper cards that clients can plant.
• The Statistic: Over 1 billion Christmas cards are thrown away annually. Switching to recycled paper dramatically reduces the demand on virgin forests.

 

3. Power Up with Smart Plugs and LED Lighting

High energy consumption is one of the biggest costs of the festive season, with Christmas energy usage potentially spiking by up to 30% in offices due to decorative lights and seasonal appliances.

The 2025 standard is to switch all decorative lighting to energy-efficient LED bulbs, which use up to 90% less energy than traditional incandescent bulbs and offer 25 times the lifespan. Crucially, integrate smart timers and smart plugs into your decoration strategy.

These tools are excellent cost-saving measures and make useful eco Christmas gifts for staff, as they ensure lights and decorations are turned off automatically outside of core office hours, eliminating phantom power draw. To keep your energy consumption down year-round, review your current contracts and explore

 

4. Mindful Gifting: Experiences over Things

Corporate gifting should directly reflect your sustainable values, aiming to reduce the significant environmental impact from unwanted items, which amounts to roughly £1.27 billion spent on unwanted gifts each year in the UK.

For 2025, prioritise high-quality, long-lasting items from certified sustainable suppliers or B Corps, but increasingly, focus on experience-based eco Christmas gifts. These might include tickets, charitable donations in the client’s name, or wellness subscriptions.

Since 65% of consumers now prefer receiving experiences over physical items, citing sustainability as a key motivator for implementing a Secret Santa exchange is a practical way to limit the total volume of gifts purchased while focusing on quality.

 

5. Adopt the Circular Economy for Festive Clothing

Office Christmas Jumper Day is a popular tradition, but fast fashion generates immense waste.

• The 2025 Approach: Encourage staff to re-wear last year’s jumpers, organise an office swap, or source second-hand garments. If buying new, look for jumpers made from organic cotton or recycled polyester.
• The Statistic: Approximately 95% of Christmas jumpers are made from synthetic fibers (plastic) and can shed up to 730,000 microfibres in a single wash.

 

6. Carbon-Conscious Commuting to the Office Party

The company party is a fun tradition, but transportation emissions are a significant contributor to your business’s carbon footprint.

• The 2025 Approach: Organise a group coach or shared transport (coaches/trains emit significantly less CO2 per passenger than individual cars). Offer incentives for staff to use public transport or carpool for the event.
• The Statistic: A shared car lift in a petrol car produces approximately 96g of CO2 per kilometre, compared to 192g for a solo driver.

 

7. Choose Eco Friendly Christmas Wrapping Paper

Addressing the waste issue around gift presentation is crucial, especially since the UK throws away the equivalent of 108 million rolls of wrapping paper annually, much of which is non-recyclable due to foil, glitter, or plastic coatings.

The 2025 standard is to mandate the use of plain, matte, or recycled brown Kraft paper for all corporate wrapping. Encourage staff to adopt reusable fabric wraps, known as Furoshiki, which serve as a beautiful and zero-waste alternative. A simple rule to remember is the “scrunch test”: if the paper stays scrunched into a ball, it’s usually recyclable; if it springs back open, it’s not.

Additionally, always swap out plastic sticky tape for paper tape to ensure the entire package can be recycled.

 

8. Reduce Plastic Packaging and Christmas Accessories

From baubles to ribbons, plastic dominates festive décor.

• The 2025 Approach: Avoid single-use plastic Christmas accessories and decorations. Instead, source decorations made from natural or reusable materials like dried citrus slices, sustainably sourced wood, pinecones, and recyclable paper chains.
• The Statistic: Over 114,000 tonnes of plastic packaging are sent to landfill during the festive season in the UK.

 

10. Consider Your Office Energy Consumption

As your office prepares for Christmas, you’ll inevitably be using more energy for your Christmas lights, office party, or higher heating to combat the winter weather.  In a previous article, we explored Energy Saving Tips For Businesses Over Winter, which includes simple ways to cut your costs and carbon footprint over the Christmas season.

By implementing some of these simple swaps, such as switching to LED lighting, you can improve your office energy efficiency. Not only does this help cut your costs, but helps to reduce your carbon footprint. This is extra important over the festive period, when the additional decorations and appliances in your office increase your energy consumption by an average of 30%.

 

11. Have A Vegetarian Christmas Dinner

According to the UN, the combined climate change emissions of animals bred for their meat accounts for about 18% of the global total, which is more than cars, planes and all other forms of transport put together. Eating less meat lowers the demand for livestock farming, which then decreases the amount of greenhouse gases produced.

Going vegetarian also helps restore the natural balance of oceans and rivers.  Concerningly, nearly 90% of global marine fish stocks are now fully exploited or overfished, presenting huge problems for aquatic ecosystems. Making an active choice to not consume meat or fish products lowers demand, allowing for more sustainable fishing practices.

What’s more, your staff may be more on board with a vegetarian Christmas meal than you’d expect, with nearly ¾ of people in the UK believing that eating sustainably is important. There are a range of plant-based options available in supermarkets and restaurants, making this an easy switch for your office Christmas dinner.

 

12.  Shop Locally

Whether you’re buying a tree, turkey, or gifts, we recommend that you buy from local producers, craftspeople or shops. Driving less means less gas emissions produced by your car, resulting in less air pollution. Although online retailers can be convenient in delivering goods to your door for a few extra pounds, it proves costly for the environment due to the increase in carbon emissions.

Shopping with local producers will ultimately reduce the carbon footprint of your Christmas, as well as bring the added benefits of supporting local businesses, communities, and people! So, no matter how your business plans on celebrating the holidays this year, encouraging your staff to support local businesses is a clear way to spread Christmas cheer, whilst being eco-conscious.

 

Your Greenest Business Gift: Lower Emissions with Tariff

At the heart of a truly eco Christmas strategy is a commitment to reducing your operational carbon footprint. The single best gift your business can give the planet this festive season is demonstrably lower emissions.

At Tariff, our mission aligns perfectly with your sustainability goals: we empower businesses like yours to take decisive, data-driven action against climate change. We don’t just advocate for change; we make it simple and cost-effective.

 

 Simplify Your Sustainability Journey

We know that managing a business is complex, which is why our team of professionals simplifies your energy transition. As an energy switching service, our experts help your business achieve both energy efficiency and cost savings with our proven 5-step strategy.

By guiding you towards reputable providers offering the best green tariffs and energy deals, we help your business to rapidly advance toward meeting the crucial 2050 Net-Zero emissions target. Whether your immediate goal is simply to reduce consumption or to achieve full Net-Zero status, Tariff is dedicated to supporting you throughout the entire process.

Ready to start saving money while cutting carbon? Our team of experts can provide bespoke guidance on the best solutions for your business. Contact us today for a free, no-obligation quote and make this Christmas your most sustainable yet!

 

Frequently Asked Questions on Eco Christmas for Businesses

Q1: What is the most eco-friendly Eco Christmas Tree option for a business?

A: The most eco-friendly choice is a rented, potted, or locally sourced real tree that is guaranteed to be replanted or properly chipped for recycling. If your business already owns an artificial tree, the best choice is to reuse it for a decade or more to amortise its production footprint.

 

Q2: How can we reduce packaging waste from eco Christmas gifts and online orders?

A: Encourage employees and procurement teams to select suppliers who use minimal, recycled, or compostable packaging, and specifically request eco friendly Christmas wrapping paper alternatives like cardboard boxes, tissue paper, or reusable fabric bags instead of glossy or metallic wraps. Implementing a “Zero-Waste Gifting” policy is a clear and effective corporate commitment.

 

Q3: What is “Greenwashing,” and how can my business avoid it when promoting an eco Christmas?

A: Greenwashing is the act of making misleading claims about how environmentally sound a company’s products or practices are. To avoid it, ensure your claims are backed by transparent data (like the statistics mentioned above), third-party certifications (e.g., Fair Trade, FSC), and measurable actions, such as officially switching to a renewable energy supplier.

 

Q4: What is the most sustainable way to manage waste at an office Christmas party?

A: The biggest culprits at office parties are single-use plastic cups, cutlery, and food waste. The best approach is to mandate reusable serving ware (borrowing from the kitchen or renting from the caterer). Secondly, implement clearly labelled, separate bins for recycling, general waste, and food compost. Finally, partner with a local food bank to donate any safe, non-perishable surplus food immediately after the event.

 

Q5: Should our business give physical eco Christmas gifts or donate to charity instead?

A: This depends on your brand and client relationship. Gifting an experience (e.g., tickets, subscriptions) or making a charitable donation is the lowest-waste option, and 65% of consumers prefer experiences. If you choose a physical gift, ensure it is high-quality, long-lasting, sourced from a B Corp or certified ethical supplier, and minimally packaged. This avoids contributing to the over £1.27 billion spent on unwanted gifts annually.