How Green is your Christmas Tree?

How Green is your Christmas Tree? PR Newswire LONDON, December 21, 2012 LONDON, December 21, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Trucost research finds that artificial Christmas trees are six to ten times more environmentally costly than real Christmas trees. The time has come to buy your Christmas tree, but for the conscientious shopper which is better; artificial or natural? As it turns out the answer is not straightforward; depending largely on how long you own your artificial tree. Using Trucost analysis, the environmental costs of natural and artificial Christmas trees were determined and screened for materiality. Greenhouse gases and water were found to be material, and further calculations using more product specific factors were made. According to the research, artificial trees have an impact between 6 and 10 times higher than that of a natural tree - but then you may have many natural trees throughout the lifetime of a single artificial one. The only accurate way to compare is to think of the comparison in terms of impact per year - a natural tree will be replaced each year and is therefore the same regardless, while an artificial tree will have a progressively lower impact for each year you use it. Download infographic Download infographic Of course, comparisons here are based on 'typical' tree impacts, with real life products produced under good or bad practice, for both type of tree.