Sheffield Renewables has the perfect gift for a more ethical, green and local Christmas present; we are very excited to announce that shares in the organisation can now be bought as presents (shares start at £250 with an option of paying in monthly instalments.)

Around £1.7 billion is spent on unwanted Christmas presents each year, if all that went in to local renewable energy projects, communities and Britain’s energy market would be transformed. Along with these unwanted presents 4,000 tonnes of products arrive from China each year, creating a large carbon footprint. Buying locally and supporting smaller businesses and organisations can give the local community a real boost. Not only does it show a pride in the local community, it makes financial sense too. Buying locally (this can include your energy) means more money stays and circulates in the local community, which then gives rise to more job opportunities. The more products available locally, the less a community is dependent on the national and international economy. This means that the community is a lot more resilient to national and global financial problems, such as the current recession. Sheffield has a wealth of industry making it a very good candidate for a strong, local economy.

By supporting Sheffield Renewables you can go some way to supporting the local economy. As an organisation set up to benefit the local community, profits will go back in to the community to benefit local projects, while creating a greener and cleaner city for our and future generations.

A share as a present can also help to reduce the massive amount of extra waste created at Christmas. Households create nearly ¾ million tonnes of extra waste each Christmas, according to Waste and Resources Action Programme, generating the equivalent of 1.4 million tonnes of carbon. Finding presents that have little or no packaging can help to reduce the massive amount of extra waste created; our Christmas share offer certificate will be presented in stylish hemp envelopes (environmental bonus points here!). Hemp is a brilliant environmental produce, it naturally grows like wild fire, produces four times more pulp than timber, no damaging bleaches are needed in processing and it can be recycled more times than timber pulp (seems pretty perfect!). The envelopes chosen come from the cleanest mass production paper mill in the world. It’s not local unfortunately but I think we can be excused thanks to its great environmental credentials.