Carbon-neutral wedding popular among young Chinese
The October 1st National Day is a holiday that Chinese young people like to choose for their weddings, as the early autumn weather is good for activities. This year, carbon-neutral wedding went popular among young couples. It is very different from the traditional wedding ceremony and gradually being accepted by parents and relatives of new couples. Again, Chinese young people are leading the social change and their pulses are beating together with other young peoples in the world toward a climate-friendly future.
A couple wrote down the whole process of their preparation. They calculated all the carbon emission of the wedding, including transportation, electricity, material things and food. They use as more as possible recyclables and reusables. According to the amount of carbon emission that can not be avoided, they reached the carbon-neutral goal by buying the CCER -- the China Certified Emission Reduction, a carbon credit that can be traded under the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism.
The carbon-neutral wedding is quite different with traditional ones. As it is a once in a life experience, Chinese new couples used to spend a lot of money to have a luxury ceremony with excessive food and long, noisy wedding activities. It is common that a traditional wedding leaves a lot of leftover food, single-use plastics, and many other wastes that have impact on environment.
The couple, who wrote down their carbon-neutral wedding preparation, sent e-message instead of paper invitation cards. They encouraged guests to come by public transportation or e-cars. They chose a beautiful garden as the venue, to avoid much decoration. And, the banquet has only vegetarian food.
It is a very lovely wedding that surprised all the guests, as the couple put their love into many special details. For example, the menu was made of paper with flower seeds inside. After the dinner, guests can bring it home and put it into moisture soil to see sprout coming out. About a week after the wedding, many guests sent them photos of the sprouts of the flower seeds. It is another happy moment!
“We love each other, as well as the nature!” The couple said. Sixteen years after China announced the Ecological Civilization Construction, the society is continuously changing. ###