Valentine's Day 2022: How to Celebrate Valentine's Day Sustainably

Valentine's Day offers the world an opportunity to express love but many a time, the hyper commercialisation of the day deflects from its true meaning. If love also means being kinder to the planet, we offer you some gifting options that actually won't end up in a landfill and will also gladden the heart of a loved one.

Plant a tree: How about memorialising love forever by planting a tree? Head to Grow-Trees.com, where anyone can donate or gift trees to honor a cause or a loved one. When you do so, Grow-Trees.com will carry your greetings via an eTreeCertificate™ to your loved one and make them feel truly special and honoured to be a part of a massive green initiative intended to repair and heal India's biodiversity. You can also join local tree-planting initiatives to mark an anniversary or a special day and show that true love is evergreen and eternal.

Gift soy and beeswax candles: Unlike conventional, smoke-inducing paraffin candles, soy and beeswax candles are more sustainable, last longer, and are better carriers of scents and fragrances. Take a candle-making class, safely melt soy wax or beeswax, add a favourite scent and pour in upcycled, small glass jars. Don't forget to put a wick in the middle. Use a marker or stick a label to add a message of love and watch your significant other's face light up!

Gift a hobby: Does your loved one want to play an instrument? Start a kitchen garden? Learn calligraphy or pottery or baking or macrame crafting? Well, you can gift them an online or offline hobby class and make them realise just how closely attuned you are to their dreams. Or you can handcraft something they will always remember you by. It could be an embroidered hoop panel, a dedication video, hand-painted wooden coasters, pottery, or an especially screen-printed, sustainably made T-shirt.

Cook a meal: Nobody knows your loved one better than you so why not stir up their favorite meal, surprise them with a picnic basket or create a restaurant-like ambiance right at home and pamper them as only you can? Memories like these will any day outlast gifts that will be cast aside sooner or later. Gift them an experience to cherish like a day dedicated to experiences they most enjoy and give them undivided attention devoid of phone calls and social media notifications. The intangible gifts often cement relationships more strongly than a box of chocolates.

Choose sustainable gifts: If you are pressed for time, you can always go online and choose sustainable gifts like organic, bamboo bed sheets, cruelty-free beauty hampers, sneakers made from recycled materials, reusable water bottles, cane knock-knacks, upcycled lamps, thrift goodies, papier-mache objects, solar chargers and succulents for their home office.