UCSF Sustainability Stories
Deborah Fleischer, Green Impact, February 2018
5 Ideas for a Greener Valentine’s Day: Ensure Your Gifts of Love Reflect Your Love for the Planet
Yes, the holiday season is over, but the next big consumer-oriented holiday is upon us: Valentine’s Day. Don’t get me wrong, I am a romantic at heart, but the tradition of celebrating love with chocolate, roses, and jewelry leaves a wake of environmental destruction that is not so romantic. Greenhouse gases, unfair labor practices, and waste are left in the wake of shipping roses from Ecuador, sourcing chocolate overseas, and mining for minerals. According to TerraPass, Americans spend about $2 billion on flowers for Valentine’s Day and purchase over 35 million heart-shaped boxes of chocolate (75% of them sourced from Africa).
Over 80% of cut flowers are imported, creating a carbon footprint of over 20 million pounds of CO2. According to The Guardian, “The majority of those flowers will come from Colombia and Ecuador, two of the world’s leading producers. But these countries, and their flower industries specifically, have troubled records of abusing workers or hiring children, and your well-intentioned roses might go toward supporting some of these practices.”
Show the planet some love this Valentine’s Day and consider these five ideas for a greener day of love.
1. Make Your Own Card

- Give a massage (add a few drops of organic essential oil to sesame oil);
- Take some time to answer the New York Times’ 36 questions, known to cultivate love and intimacy;
- Make a homemade meal from local, fresh ingredients;
- Plan an activity to do together; or
- Write a love letter.
5. Eat Ethical Chocolate
If you can’t resist buying your sweetie something sweet, take a moment to pick an ethical brand. According to an article in Grist, for the world’s biggest chocolate makers, practices like child slave labor, rainforest demolition, and heavy reliance on GMOs are just a part of doing business. When it comes to chocolate, it is not so simple as looking for organic or fair trade label. A great resource is Rainforest Alliance, which certifies chocolate that’s better for the environment and that ensures cocoa farmers have good living and working conditions. Grist recommends a visit to San Francisco-based Dandelion Chocolate, which exemplifies an ethical brand.
Chocolate is also fueling climate change. The HuffPost recently stressed, “Your afternoon chocolate bar may be fueling climate change, destroying protected forests and threatening elephants, chimpanzees and hippos in West Africa, research suggests.” Deforestation-linked cocoa has entered the supply chains of some of the biggest players in the chocolate industry; A report from Mighty Earth, Chocolate’s Dark Secret, found that a large amount of the cocoa used in chocolate produced by Mars, Nestle, Hershey’s, Godiva, and other major chocolate companies was grown illegally in dwindling national parks and reserves in Ivory Coast and Ghana.
The good news is that 22 major chocolate companies recently made a promise to stop destroying forests in West Africa, a huge step to save our planet’s rainforest. But this is just the start. Please consider signing the petition to tell Cadbury and Ferrero to commit to no new deforestation for cocoa worldwide.
Story: Written by Green Impact: Making Green Happen
Collaborative Artwork in Make Your Own Card: Check out Janice’s Zero Point Collaborative work HERE.