This Christmas season we launched our “Make a Little Change” campaign across Aberdeen by asking businesses to take Dot the Dolphin wooden decorations and donation jars for their counters and front desks. Dot is a cute and fun decoration for the festive season that extends beyond a great gift idea to one that inspires people and organisations to make little changes for the environment, sustainability and the community.

Dot the Dolphin represents how our community has been inspired by Greyhope Bay’s  practice of looking for alternatives to plastic and reducing our waste footprint through making their own little changes.

Dot is the brain child of David Drage (Scott Sutherland School of Architecture) who laser etched our Skippers fundraising stories onto wooden boards and thought a wooden dolphin would be a great addition to Greyhope Day for our volunteers and stall holders as an alternative non-plastic lanyard. And a hit she was, both because she’s cute and because of her message of making better choices for our seas.

One way we’re working to share Dot and her message far and wide is by asking businesses hosting Dot decorations to supply their own glass jars to house our dolphins and your donations, making use of materials we all have in our cupboards to avoid buying or making something new.

Finally, and what we’re most excited about, is asking everyone to give their Dot the Dolphin to someone they know making a little change for the environment/sustainability/community, or committing to making a little change themselves and sharing their story with us. Our goal is to inspire lots of people making little changes that together make a big difference.

“We want to create a ripple effect of little changes that will collectively have a big impact ”

Carole Monnier, Greyhope bay lead project coordinator and circular economy ambassador

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Be part of the change! It’s easy to share your “make a little change” story with us. You can post on Facebook , Instagram or Twitter using #greyhopebay #makeachange #dotthedolphin, or send your story to hello@greyhopebay.com

Ten Little Change Ideas for Christmas:

1. Be creative and reuse materials to wrap your gifts (scarves, cloth bags, newspaper, jars….)
2. If you’re hosting a big party, use compostable plates, cups and cutlery and afterward put them where they belong… in the food compost!
3. Switch to LED fairy lights and only light them up after dark
4. Buy gifts made from environmentally friendly materials
5. Make your own Christmas decorations from recyclable and/or natural materials
6. Consider buying gifts, decorations, and Christmas jumpers second-hand
7. Bring your own coffee cup to the Christmas Fair for hot chocolates and mulled wine
8. Spend oodles of special time with loved ones instead of showering them with gifts
9. Make donations to a cause you care about in people’s name instead of a buying them a knick-knack that will go to the junk-drawer, or back of the cupboard
10. Get or make a reusable advent calendar that you can take out each year