Crowdfunding since 2010

Solving the annual dilemma: honour the christmas tree tradition OR save a tree and avoid waste? Conscious Christmas Tree allows you to do both!

We’ve created the most sustainable cradle to cradle inspired Conscious Christmas Christmas tree, 'Eva Green’. Eva is reusable and looks exactly like a real Christmas tree! To bring Eva to life for Christmas 2021, we need to buy tooling. So, we’ve created 2 fabulous alternative Christmas trees, Fritzi Fischers and Captain Claus that you can purchase now, to start immediately by celebrating Christmas 2020 more sustainably. Our Goal: To create Christmas trees that are kind to people and the planet
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Funding period
10/26/20 - 11/26/20
Realisation
December 2020
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Minimum amount (Start level): 10,000 €

To enable you to have immediate impact by buying a sustainable alternative Christmas tree for Christmas 2020 and fund the prototyping for 'Eva Green' tree.

City
Hamburg
Category
Environment
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What is this project all about?

We have a very simple goal: To produce Christmas trees that are kind to people and planet. Why? Because at the moment, real and artificial Christmas trees are not very kind and this is why:

Did you know that every year 30 million trees are cut down for the german market? At least 90% of them have been grown in monoculture and sprayed with pesticides. This is destroying our soils and contaminating our ground water. The trees are grown for 7-8 years and are used for 1 -2 weeks, which makes them one of the biggest single use items we use! Not very fitting for 2020.

Artificial Christmas trees aren't much better either, even though a recent Life Cycle Analysis by WAP Sustainability Consulting says that if you use an artificial Christmas tree for 5 years, then it's more sustainable to use a plastic one than it is to cut down a real one every year.

However, artificial Christmas trees have their own problems too!
Most artificial Christmas trees are made from PVC, which is the most unhealthy and environmentally damaging plastic. Their bad design makes them unrecyclable. They can only end up in the incinerator or landfill. They also contain inappropriate chemical additives like halogenated/Antimony fire retardants which have been linked to cancer and hormone disruption. And even the color green ‘Pigment Green 7’, which is the most commonly used to 'colour' Christmas trees contains chlorine which has also been linked to cancer and birth defects.

Since 2015, these insights have led me on a quest to create the most sustainable Christmas tree, which is simply kind to people and planet.

I can finally say ‘YEAH! I’ve invented the most sustainable Cradle to Cradle inspired artificial Christmas tree. However, in order to bring Eva to life, I need to raise funds to purchase some tooling for Eva's branches.

The Conscious Christmas tree, “Eva Green’’ with her clever design will certainly bring joy to your home, but she won't bring any harmful chemicals with her. And because of her thoughtful, cradle to cradle inspired design, she can be fully recycled at the end of her long life. And should there be a little accident... she can be easily repaired thanks to the modular design. The first model will be ca. 70cm tall and ca. 60cm wide at the bottom - a perfect table top tree. She will look exactly like a real Christmas tree.

In order to purchase the very expensive tool for "Eva Green", I need your help now! I have developed two alternative, sustainable Christmas trees with which you can use to already celebrate Christmas more sustainably this year! These are "Fritzi Fischer" made from bamboo and fishing net and "Kapitän Claus" made from up cycled sails.

Meet Fritzi Fischer
She's made from Bamboo and used fishing nets.
Why bamboo and used fishing nets? Because bamboo provides us with 35% more oxygen than trees and soaks up CO2 faster too! And, the more uses we find for old/discarded fishing nets the more chance we have that they will be brought back on land and not dumped in our oceans. Fritzi is a wall hanging Christmas tree - great if you don't have a lot of space. She can also be used as an advent calendar before Christmas! Fritzi will make a great gift for the grandparents too.

And now meet Captain Claus: He's made from upcycled sails.
Why old sails? Because when you keep already existing materials in use for longer, you reduce the need to make new materials, which reduces the need for resource extraction. This is one of the reasons we call our trees people and planet-friendly.

We need your support to realize the vision of the most sustainable Christmas tree in the world! You can support our cause by purchasing one of our alternative Christmas trees, sharing this campaign with friends and family or anyone you want to inspire to celebrate a more sustainable Christmas.

We are not only here to think about Christmas trees and sustainable materials. We are also here to awaken creativity in people and help them create a special time with family and friends and to let you know that YOU ARE NOT TOO SMALL TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE!

So, this year, let's leave our real trees in the ground where they belong, and together let's care to celebrate differently.

TTFN!

What is the project goal and who is the project for?

Conscious Christmas tree has two fabulous goals:

1. To offer those who 'care to celebrate differently' the chance to purchase one of our fabulous alternative Christmas trees so they can already start celebrating Christmas this year in a more sustainable way. This funding will also enable us to prototype our Eva Green tree in early 2021.

2. The second goal is to purchase the tooling needed to bring Eva Green, the World's most sustainable (life-like) artificial Christmas tree to life. She is the first Christmas tree that is built to support a circular economy. Eva will be made from a high quality recycled material and carefully selected additives (thanks to the advice from cradle to cradle experts) that don't harm people or the environment. Eva Green is the true answer to the international Christmas tree sustainability tree debate that's being going on for over 20 years.

Our Christmas trees are for anyone who wants to have a guilt-free Christmas tree! You can enjoy our trees year after year without killing any trees. This allows Christmas trees/forests to stay in the ground where they can continue to clean our air and give us oxygen. A bonus for everyone who breaths!

If you can say to yourself ‘I care to celebrate differently', then join us.

Why would you support this project?

If you want to create positive change, then support our project. You will contribute with 'immediate effect' to a more sustainable world and maybe even prevent that one more tree is cut down this year. If we reduce the demand for pesticide infested trees, we will reduce the number of trees needed. The area used to grow Christmas trees in Germany is now 40,000 hectares, on which these highly contaminated single-use decorations are grown.

Our project enables you to continue the Christmas tree tradition, but to do so in a way that is kind to people and planet.

By supporting this project you enable us to bring "Eva Green" to life. "Eva Green" is the result of a project that has been continuously developing since 2015 to create and offer you the most sustainable artificial Christmas tree in the world. Together we can make it happen! With your help we can purchase the tools needed to produce "Eva Green" so that we can offer this beautiful Conscious Christmas Tree in time for Christmas 2021.

How will we use the money if the project is successfully funded?

If we reach the first goal it will enable us to offer you two fabulously sustainable alternative Christmas trees. This will let you have an immediate positive impact on the planet this Christmas and leave one tree firmly planted in the ground. This will also enable us to complete the prototyping for the Conscious Christmas Tree. 

Second phase
This is the super exciting goal because if we reach this we will be able to purchase tooling which will being Eva Green, the Conscious Christmas tree to life.

Who are the people behind the project?

Hi, I'm Hayley from Wales. I am a wife, a mother, a wannabe entrepreneur and a Christmas nutter, who simply wants to live and thrive in a safe and healthy world now and in the future. I just adore the Christmas season and ... planet Earth. These two passions are very conflicting and prove pretty testing around the Christmas period.

When I was 23 years old (that's a long time ago now ;-) I remember sitting looking up at my newly decorated artificial Christmas tree (I come from the UK and most of use use these) and realized that when the Christmas tree eventually broke the only place it could go was the the skip (Landfill or incinerator). They were as unrecyclable back then as they are today. So, fed up of waiting for someone to make a better version, I decided 4 years ago to give it a shot myself. And, here I am :-)

Even though I'm currently a one-woman-show, I always refer to the Conscious Christmas Tree as 'we'. And that's because I've never actually felt that I have been working on this project alone. Over the years I've made many good friends and acquaintances and have been supported by many people who believed in what I was doing.

I'M TRULY GRATEFUL TO EVERYONE WHO HAS SUPPORTED AND GUIDED ME ON MY JOURNEY. THANK YOU!!!!!!

The crowdfunding project has been successfully completed. Supporting and ordering is no longer available on Startnext.

  • The processing of orders placed will be handled directly by the project owners according to the stated delivery time.

  • The production and delivery is the responsibility of the project owners themselves.

  • Cancellations and returns are subject to the terms and conditions of the respective project owner.

  • Revocations and cancellations via Startnext are no longer possible.

What does this mean? 
Legal notice
Conscious Christmas Tree
hayley burke
kronprinzenstr,, 36
22587 hamburg Deutschland

Conscious Christmas Tree

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