Gift Guide 2009

This time of year seems almost completely dedicated to the buying, wrapping and giving of gifts. This Giftcember, try dreaming of a Green Christmas by thoughtfully spoiling your loved ones without spoiling the Earth. Can’t make a sweater? Make a difference instead. Check out some of our favorite eco-friendly gift ideas and gift-giving tips to help keep the planet in your holiday planning.

Flip and Tumble Bags
Oh you cute little bag you! These colorful bags remind us of a Popple (remember those stuffed animals when you were a kid?). You can stuff itself into a little pocket on the inside and flip the pocket over to create a squishy pouch. The ripstop nylon is durable enough to hold up to 25 lbs, and the long strap comes with just a little extra cushion right where your shoulder needs it. When the bag is full-sized, you can use its stuffing pocket to hold your keys or coins. Brilliant!

Mix My Granola
We know that green is sexy, but being green is often referred to as “granola” too. We’re not exactly sure when granola and the green movement became joined at the hip, but we love granola and the personalized mixes from MixMyGranola.com give you exactly what you crave. Just log onto the website, pick your granola base then add different fruits, nuts or other extras (chocolate covered pretzels, perhaps?) to the mix. The company whips up a batch just for you and ships it to you in a sleek, recyclable tube. Many of the 60 ingredients offered on the site are organic too.

Soy Undies
Just when you thought you’ve seen it all: soy panties are here! The fine folks at Uranus Apparel alerted us to their line of undies recently and we just had to share. Manufactured from the by-products of soy foods like tofu and soybean oil, soy as a fabric choice is a soft, comfortable and biogradable alternative to cotton or silk. Nothing goes to waste as these by-products are fully used, to be worn by you. The fabric is also more durable and dries more quickly than cotton.

Beeswax Hanukkah candles
If part of your Holiday tradition includes lighting a Menorrah, consider what’s being lit. Most candles are made with parffin, a petroleum by-product, which is unhealthy to burn for you and the environment. Celebrate the Festival of Lights with long-burning, hand dipped, 100% beeswax Hanukkah candles from Big Dipper Wax Works. Beeswax is a 100% natural, renewable resource and actually cleans the air when burned by emitting purifying negative ions. Beeswax is the purest of all candle waxes; the simple filtration of beeswax is a natural process that uses no chemicals and very little energy. An added benefit? Keeping the bee industry thriving helps bees, which is always sexy.

Cargo Plant Love lipstick
Looking for a great stocking stuffer for the lady in your life? Pick up a tube of Cargo’s Plant Love lipstick. We love how the pretty shades look and wear more like lip stains than lipstick, so they last longer and hold up well under gloss. Btw, Plant Love isn’t just a great beauty product, it’s also eco-friendly! Each tube comes in a compostable lipstick case made from corn. (Yes, corn.) This revolutionary bio-plastic is not only made from a renewable resource, it’s also greenhouse-gas-neutral, which helps fight global warming. Even the box the lipstick comes in is sexy; it’s embedded with tiny flower seeds, so your favorite gal can simply moisten the carton and plant it to grow wildflowers. Great lipstick, a blooming pot of flowers and zero waste? We call that a stocking stuffer to be proud of.

Preserve Toothbrushes
If all you want for Christmas (or whatever) is your two front teeth, be sure to take care of them by brushing regularly. Toothbrushes make fantastic stocking stuffers, and we have a favorite brush to stuff: Preserve toothbrushes are made from recycled plastic (mostly yogurt cups) and are 100% recyclable themselves. When your Preserve toothbrush is ready for retirement, the company sends you a postage-paid mailer to return it to them for recycling. Preserve converts your old toothbrush into plastic lumber, which is used for things like picnic tables in parks! For more info on Preserve toothbrushes, including where to buy them, go to the Recycline website.

Egg Planters
Always wanted a window garden, but only have a windowsill? Shrink your plantlife down a bit with one of these chic egg planters. If you’ve ever tried growing a wee seed in an egg or wanted to, here’s an egg that will last forever. Anyone can start a “starter” plant with these little pots – and they’re really quite “chick” as well.

Equal Exchange Retail Store
Give and give back right away. This shop offers fair trade organic coffee, tea, chocolates, and more, making it easy for you to give directly back to small-scale farmers who are working to preserve the earth.

Threadless Tees
Ever heard of Threadless tees? Threadless is an online design community where users can score designs, offer comments and critiques, and post about whatever is on their minds. Anyone can sign up, download a tee template and submit ideas, which are then evaluated by the Threadless community. Shirt designs are selected from the pool of the most popular designs as scored by the community. There are lots of eco and nature-themed shirts to choose from on the site, and right now, most tees are $9-$12. Check them out!

TOMS Shoes
TOMS was created with a singular mission: To make life more comfortable. TOMS accomplishes this through its ultra lightweight shoes and the company’s commitment to match every pair purchased with a donated pair to a child in need. Not only are these shoes comfy, stylish and produced using environmentally respectful methods, each pair purchased means a pair is given to a child in need. That’s right: one pair for you, one pair for someone else. How cool is that? Not sure what size or style to buy for your loved one? Purchase a gift pack, which includes the DVD of the documentary film, “For Tomorrow: The TOMS Shoes Story” and a gift card redeemable online for a pair of TOMS.

Bonterra Wine
This time of year finds many of us headed to the liquor store to pick up a bottle of wine (or two or three) for a special dinner, a hostess gift or simply to toast the season at home. Consider picking up a bottle from Bonterra the next time you’re in the market for some vino. We’ve tried lots of organic and biodynamic wines, and Bonterra is our favorite! Hailing from the Russian River in California, the Bonterra ranch is an excellent example of fine farming leading to fine wine. Bonterra is certified organic and biodynamic meaning a diverse portfolio of plants, animals and bugs are used to get the best juice.

Ecojot
Have you kept a paper planner for years? Never quite understood how to import your contacts from your cute black book to your BlackBerry? Can’t give up your addiction to chic wrapping paper by replacing it with newspaper? We feel you. Sometimes a paper habit is hard to break. Enter freedom from your paper-guilt with the cute products at Ecojot. Ecojot creates a stylish array of 100% post-consumer recycled paper products which are perfect for today’s eco savvy user.

Amazing Grass
On the very first day whipping up a concoction of Amazing Grass, swilling it like a tequila shot and then schlepping off to work, we could feel the difference it made in our energy. Some say wheat grass helps them study; others swear it helps them fight off colds. And then there’s this other bonus point: it’s made with all organic materials, from organic wheat grass to organic barley grass, organic alfalfa, organic spirulina, organic chlorella, even organic broccoli. Amazing indeed.

Flip-Flop Floor Mat
Bring a little summer into your home with a floor mat made from flip-flops! When flip-flops are stamped out of their material the remnants are left to waste away in landfills. Instead of heading to a dump, that flip-flop rubber is made into these floor mats using galvanized metal wire to connect the rubber pieces. Durable, colorful, unique and inexpensive, these indoor/outdoor mats are fun and practical – they’re also a great example of reuse. Get footsie in your kitchen with a squeaky green mat!

The Eco Starter Kit
You’re sexy, but are your friends? Change can be scary and makes some folks uncomfortable. This holiday season, why not create a “Green for Dummies” gift basket for your loved ones? Used baskets are easy to come by, so try to avoid using a new one. We like to use big, low baskets that can easily fit under a kitchen sink or in a cupboard for reuse later. Stock the basket with your favorite eco-products: non-toxic cleanser, a grocery tote, unbleached paper towels, a reusable coffee filter, rechargeable batteries, a tire gauge, CFL bulbs, vinegar and baking soda… The options are endless! Tuck in a book like “The Armchair Environmentalist” for extra help conveying your message. Feeling ambitious? Use the tips on this site to write little notes you can stick to each product in the basket. For example, stick a note to the Preserve toothbrush that says, “This toothbrush is made from recycled yogurt cups and will be recycled into plastic lumber for picnic benches when you’re through brushing.” Not only will this basket make it easy to convey why green is sexy, it will also help you reduce your impact this season by giving a gift that can be used and used up, instead of just taking up space. Now aren’t you clever?

As a planet, we consume over 500 billion (that’s with a B!) plastic bags each year. Stop the madness! Stock up on totes to help schlep your groceries or Holiday gifts without the plastic. Here are some of our favorites:

Reuse Bags
Reuse Bags from Everybody Green appear to be no bigger than a pack of Trident gum, but are actually deceptively large. Each bag unfolds from its sack to hold two times more than a regular plastic grocery sack. Available in six different colors at a cost of less than $5.00, you’ll want to stock up on these little buddies for your car, your desk and your favorite small purse.

FEED 1
FEED 1 bags are a product of the United Nations World Food Programme, which helps feed hungry children in school around the world through WFP’s school feeding program. The bags, which are produced fair trade, are made from organic burlap. Burlap, in case you didn’t know, is made from raw jute fibers, which are a rain-fed crop that grows best organically without fertilizers or pesticides. Fabrics made of jute fibers are carbon dioxide neutral and naturally decomposable. Jute can be grown in 4–6 months, making it a rapidly renewable resource. While this sturdy shoulder bag is a favorite of ours for it’s sustainability, we think it’s extra sexy because the proceeds from each FEED bag sold will provide a school year of meals for one child in need. How cool is that? By purchasing a FEED bag, you will be minimizing your footprint while helping to feed one of the 400 Million hungry children of the world. To buy a FEED bag, or to learn more about the program, visit their website.

Chico Bags
Chico Bags are a great option to help you pass on plastic. Chico bags are tiny when stuffed into their little sack, but open up to hold more than 25 pounds (that’s more than 3 gallons of milk!). Chico bags cost about $5.00 each and come in dozens of colors and designs. Chico bags are also available for fundraising opportunities, so instead of pedaling chocolate bars or wrapping paper, your school or organization could sell sexy green bags instead. How cool is that?

The Gift of Experience
For a truly low-impact Holiday gift, consider giving an experience, such as a concert, sporting event or performance instead of a manufactured product. If your mother-in-law is impossible to please, but loves Strauss waltzes, see if the local symphony or chamber orchestra is scheduled to play Strauss this season. Tickets to the local Children’s Theatre might be a great gift for your neighbors, while passes to Paramore’s latest tour might be the absolute coolest way to tell your favorite babysitter just how much you appreciate her. Not sure what to get someone on your list? Lots of venues offer gift certificates, as do both Ticketmaster and LiveNation, so the recipient of your generosity can pick and choose the best show and time for them.

Bring the library to you
If you’ve got a voracious reader on your gift list, consider buying them a BookSwim membership – it’s like Netflix for books! BookSwim is the first and only national online service that rents paperback and hardcover books, including new releases, bestsellers and classics, without the need to purchase. BookSwim ships the books to readers, who can keep them for as long as they like with no late fees. After a book is returned, the next book is sent – with free shipping in 100% recycled plastic bags both ways. For every gift card sold, BookSwim, in association with Eco-Libris, will plant a tree to offset the environmental impact of producing paper for books. Remember, Over 20 million trees are cut down every year for US book consumption alone, so reducing the amount of books you purchase will help save trees!

Give a class
Feel like the holiday season is all about materialism? Here’s a gift that will do far more than sit on a shelf and look pretty: give a class and give the gift of knowledge! It can be a lesson in cooking, pottery, snowboarding, foreign language, photography, rock climbing, web design, scrap-booking, surfing, knitting, wine tasting, or anything in between. Pick the area that you know your loved one loves most, and look for courses offered at community centres, colleges and local businesses.

Oxfam Unwrapped
Oxfam works worldwide to alleviate poverty and make communities self-sufficient and sustainable. They offer a great selection of ethical and green gifts, from livestock to community training courses, clean water to whole crops, tree planting to tools. There’s a gift for everyone’s budget: $40 buys a dozen chicks for an HIV/AIDS afflicted family to provide them with eggs and income; $20 can irrigate a farmer’s land for two months and a $50 goat provides milk and money for someone who needs it. Buy a water purifying kit for $35, or plant 50 trees for $30. Feeling extra generous? You can rebuild a primary school for $1500. Oxfam gives you the option to download a pdf card to print yourself on your own stash of eco-paper, or to go paperless and send an e-card.
In Canada, the UK or the US.

World Wildlife Fund
Shop online at WWF and buy toys with a meaning and a message. Adopt an orangutan, polar bear, snow leopard, elephant, tiger, panda or many others and your dollars go toward important conservation work worldwide. Packages range from $25 to $100 and include information on the animal and what WWF is doing to help protect it and its habitat, plus a photo and a plush toy. Kids (and parents) learn about conservation and feel cool knowing that they’ve adopted their very own tiger, killer whale or penguin. Visit the WWF in Canada or the US.