Christmas is a time of giving, but it can also be a time of extreme waste.

This is something model and actor Lily Cole has been considering. “I’m a big fan of gifts – I think gifts create community,” she says, “but I also think it’s important our gifts don’t cost the earth – and our gifts aren’t actually, in a way, stealing from future generations.”

With her fiery red hair, the 32-year-old made her name as a model, but now invests most of her time in environmental activism and as an entrepreneur.

As Christmas approaches, we caught up with Cole to find out more about her activism, and why it’s more important than ever to be a conscious consumer…

How Cole became an activist

The model and writer calls her move into activism as an ‘unfolding awakening’. “I do remember quite distinctly as a child not caring about these issues,” Cole says wryly. “I grew up in London, and I didn’t really have a sense of loving nature.”

This changed as she began to travel more and grew increasingly interested in global sociopolitical issues. “It quickly dawned on me just how fundamental the environment is,” she says. “It’s kind of the rug underneath every other social, political, human and animal issue we have. All of those issues will be exacerbated, or are already being exacerbated, by not having a healthy environment.”

Christmas doesn’t have to mean waste

Cole tries to practise conscious consumerism all year round, describing the ethos as “when you need to buy something, buying from a brand that is actually trying to make things in a better way, or buying second-hand”.

This is especially important in December, says Cole: “I guess Christmas is maybe a more heightened moment of the power of giving, and also the power of consumerism, when often gifts are material.”

This year, Cole wants us to be “more mindful about how we give and what we give and what we do with the surplus and waste that may be created through gifts.” She’s teamed up with electrical goods recycling company Material Focus, to showcase a collection of five gold rings made from recycled electricals – an innovative way of breathing new life into cast-offs. “A lot of people will be giving electronics and usually that displaces old electronics,” Cole explains. “Then you have to wonder: what happens to the old electronics? This shows there is a potential afterlife for [them].”

Cole grew up in London but moved to the countryside two years ago and says: “I feel somewhat insulated from the mass consumerism messaging that often happens around Christmas in the city.” This year, she’ll be using December as an opportunity to slow down and spend time with family. Yes, she will be giving presents, but adds: “I tend to give gifts to the children in the family – that’s for me where the magic was as a child.”

Why being perfect all the time is impossible

“It’s better to have a billion imperfect environmentalists than a handful of perfect ones,” says Cole simply. Ultimately, “there’s no such thing as perfect”, she continues. “It’s very hard to be a conscious consumer, because the information is complex and constantly changing. It’s also hard to be a sustainable brand and to try and be a company that’s creating things in a positive way – because it’s not easy to clean up a supply chain.”

Cole lives by the maxim: “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good,” and wants us to be “compassionate to ourselves… keep learning and keep trying to do the best we can with the information we have” – not just this Christmas, but into 2021 and beyond, as well.

Lily Cole models the ‘Five Gold Rings’ collection created by Material Focus, as part of a the Recycle Your Electricals campaign encouraging more people to reuse and recycle their old electricals.