Holiday shopping can be headache-inducing for some, but several online green retailers are making it easier by offering countless ways to turn consumer-driven holidays into a chance to give creative and eco-friendly gifts. Online retailers like Eco-artware.com, specialize in gifts from reused and recycled products, such as trendy notebooks, bags, and bracelets that are made from reused album covers. The website also offers jewelry made from antique typewriter keys and allows you to personalize the gift by choosing the initials or first letter of the gift recipient’s name. For fashion-conscious men, Eco-artware.com offers cleverly designed cufflinks made from subway tokens, scrabble tiles, and even buffalo nickels. Pangaya, another notable online retailer, saves time and trouble by offering an impressive range of clothing for men, women, and children, as well as housewares, that are carefully pre-selected for their aesthetics and eco-friendly features.
For a pampering gift, try the Nature Girl body care product line, whose fresh design and playful product names, like ‘Nature Groupie’ body wash, will please even the most discerning recipient. For hip, urban-dwellers, try the sleek black rubber handbags and wallets made by Vulcana, a company that takes car tires from landfills, and through a patented process, creates sheets of rubber that are cut and stitched into stylish and heavy-duty accessories. For your office, or for the coffee-lover on your holiday list, try gift baskets made with organic, fair-trade coffees and teas. Online retailers like Cafe Campesino, Equal Exchange, and RocaMojo offer a wide assortment of eco-friendly and fair-trade coffees and allow you to design gift baskets for individuals or groups.
Green giving can also come in the form of charitable donations to local or national environmental organizations. For instance, the National Arbor Day Foundation offers a ‘trees in celebration’ program which, for each $10 donated, 10 pine or fir trees are planted in National Forests, and you receive a certificate in the name of the recipient, stating the number of trees planted and the occasion. For those who want to give the gift of clean air, try organizations like the Carbon Fund, which buys carbon credits with donated funds and retires them, effectively taking CO2 emissions that are up for grabs off the open market. Using the Carbon Fund’s online calculator, you can calculate your ‘carbon footprint’ and donate an amount equal to your environmental impact. For children, give the gift of an ‘adopted’ endangered species. Several environmental organizations like World Wildlife Fund and Defenders of Wildlife, offer a chance to ‘adopt’ pandas, gorillas, and sea turtles, and with a donation, provide adoption certificates in the child’s name, stickers, and even screensaver graphics. Endangered and threatened species up for adoption include baby tigers, pandas, gorillas, wolves, and black bears ($25-100).
Finally, after selecting the perfect gift, bestow it in green style by choosing eco-friendly gift wrap, ribbons, and tissue paper from companies like Paporganics. Similarly, Lagniappe Gift Wrap offers reusable fabric bags with ribbon-ties and gift tags for presents of all sizes.
Kimberly Wilson
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