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Eduard Vinyamata, Director of the Campus for Peace, encouraged people to check out the catalogues from charitable shops and to choose gifts that aid sustainable development and fair trade: “This Christmas can be different with just a small gesture. Let’s be original and give ecological and charitable products. Our work is twofold: on the one hand, we pass on values to the people we love and, on the other, we know that we are helping to make the world a better place to live in and more sustainable.” Nonetheless, according to Vinyamata, “we should extend responsible consumption throughout the year”.

Many products to choose from

The Campus for Peace portal has collected some of the most important charitable catalogues. For example, La Virtual, the UOC consumer cooperative, offers the University’s students and members the chance to buy ecological champagne, fruit, vegetables and eggs.

The Red Cross shop has charitable gifts that are handmade or fair trade. Intermón Oxfam has food and natural and handmade cosmetics produced by fair trade cooperatives. It also has charitable books and merchandising.

Other organisations fund their projects thanks to the profits they make from sales. This is the case of Greenpeace, where the money made goes to funding campaigns to stop climate change, protect biodiversity, reduce the use of nuclear energy and weapons, and to promote peace. Survival also invests the money it makes in projects to support the most threatened indigenous populations in the world. Buying any charitable product from the Vicente Ferrer Foundation helps underwrite the wide-ranging development project it is carrying out in Anantapur, India.

Another option recommended by the team from the Campus for Pace is to sign up for your energy from Som Energia, a non-profit green energy production consumer cooperative that proposes a change in the energy model: “Consume 100% renewable energy. That is the best way to start 2012,” said Eduard Vinyamata.