Putting more green into your holidays means more than leaving less impact on the planet. It’s about choosing gifts that are made with durable, quality, non-toxic materials. Luckily, this often leads to quirky, one-of-a-kind items that say as much about your creative leanings as your Earth-friendliness. Giving green can mean everything from reusing gift wrap and gift bags (or do-it-yourself stenciled paper bags or comics pages), to putting all-natural lotions and beeswax candles in stockings and solar-powered electronics and vintage jewelry under the tree. Of course, if you choose to actually give green — as in plants! — that’s OK, too. (In that case, we recommend philodendron, Boston fern, peace lily and English ivy, all of which are known for their air-cleaning qualities.)
Want more? Brita Belli from E-The Environmental Magazine has a list of gifts to appeal to all the personalities on your shopping list, no matter what their shade of green.
For the gadget geek: The eco hard drive
Most of us regular computer users still haven’t solved the simplest of computing dilemmas — when to shut the thing down. Lots of people, following vague rumors, have decided that leaving a computer on indefinitely is the most energy efficient decision. (It’s not.) The Kanguru Eco Drive makes deciding easy by deciding for you. This hard drive is designed to go into idle mode after three seconds of inactivity, standby mode after three minutes, and power-down mode after five minutes. By cutting your computer’s energy output by 75 percent, the Kanguru drive is not only planet-friendly, it also helps keep your laptop battery from running out when you’re on the road. And with a 2.0 hard drive, the Kanguru Eco Drive adds needed memory, it’s consistent with PCs, notebooks and Macs, and it’s lead and mercury-free. Starts at $94.95,
For children: Non-toxic toys and games
Old-fashioned toys and games are coming back into fashion, but not just for nostalgic reasons. Frightened by the glut of recalls from Chinese-made toys (which included lead paint on Thomas the Tank engines and mind-altering toxic chemicals in Aqua Dots), parents are looking for the handmade wooden toys and organic materials that ensure that a toy can go into a kid’s mouth and withstand countless hours of play without causing any harm.
In the board game category, Blue Orange Games makes skill, strategy, memory, party games and puzzles from sustainable, nontoxic wood that are designed to develop young minds. And the company plants two trees for every one used to make its games ($15.95-$29.95). Another site is Planet Happy Toys, which sells a wide variety of natural wooden toys from German company Haba, from adorable animal teethers ($12.95) to wooden fruits and veggies for a toddler’s play kitchen ($1.95-$19.95). We especially like ImagiPlay’s rubber wood Arctic and rainforest figurines ($23.95). Grown for their sap, rubber trees are cut down at the end of their productive life, and this gives creative use to their hardwood. Finally, Folkmanis Puppets sells some of the most realistic (and nontoxic) animal puppets we’ve ever seen. Check out the Sierra Club puppets that include an armadillo, a boa constrictor, a hedgehog, a wooly mammoth, a peacock and many, many more ($20-$40).
For the outdoors enthusiast: Sustainable skis and snowboards
Winter sports companies are finally realizing that they’ve been contributing to global warming — and the downfall of the very season they depend on — through unsustainable production practices. And they’re starting to do something about it. Movement Skis uses all Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) or PEFC (Program for the Endorsement of Forest Certification) certified wood for their cores — meaning they’re not clear-cutting old forests to make their skis. Colorado-based Venture Snowboards chooses wood close to home, farmed in Pennsylvania, to reduce transportation emissions. And the snowboards (and skateboards) from Arbor, a California-based company, are made from farmed aspen and poplar and renewable cork, oak and bamboo. In addition, all their factory machines are wind-powered. Most recently, New Zealand-based Kingswood Skis has become the first carbon-neutral ski manufacturer, and is investigating ways to make its products truly organic.
For the chief household officer: Creative kitchenware
There are countless creative ways to bring natural beauty to the kitchen, starting with sustainable serving trays that are likely as artful as the food being served. The company Bambumakes contemporary kitchenware from renewable bamboo, including serving trays, cutting boards and gracefully curved natural utensils. Bamboo (a species of grass) is one of the world’s fastest-growing plants, requires no fertilizers or pesticides and releases 35% more oxygen than its timber equivalent. (Read about more bamboo products here.) It’s also one of the most durable materials on earth. Another beautiful gift option comes from Transglass, which makes jugs, carafes and drinking glasses from recycled bottles. With finished lines and a watery green translucent look, the pieces are reasonably priced ($24-$47), but have the look of modern art.
For the hipster/fashionista: Reclaimed bags and accessories If there’s a manlier way to make a bag for guys than to stitch it from tractor trailer tires, we haven’t seen it. The Passchal Man Bag ($170) is a sleek black shoulder bag for guys made from recycled truck tire inner tubes with a thick seatbelt strap. The bag gives use to tires that would clutter landfills, comes with an interior light and is completely durable. Seatbelts have found new life in bags for ladies, too. Ting makes small and large seatbelt cosmetic bags ($20-$40) that are as simple and practical as they are fun. They come in bold colors like orange and hot pink, and subtler shades like camel and black.
And if you want to give jewelry to the free-spirited woman in your life, there are several brands that will make a definite eco-impression. Chicago-based designer Melissa Kolbusch of the company [wired]has found an ingenious way to recycle industrial materials like alternator wires, steel cables and rubber washers. Kolbusch makes turns these materials into cutting-edge, one-of-a-kind jewelry, from dangling earrings to cuff-like bracelets ($22-$155). Meanwhile, designer Sarah Hood uses everything from pine cones and spice seeds to Chinese lantern pods and eucalyptus leaves in her striking jewelry. Her “living rings” ($800) feature tiny terra cotta pots with actual live plants!
For the eco-economic (under $25): The waterproof wallet
Whether you’re doing a little shopping for the tech geek who has everything, the sports enthusiast who’s always losing her credit cards while clearing a jump, or a college student who tends to forget his ID, the Jimiis your go-to gift. It’s the perfect environmental (and economical) solution to holding everything from your money and credit cards to your memory cards and Nintendo DS game cards. The Jimi wallets and cases ($8.95-$15.95) are made from 100% recycled materials in clear, bright colors like orange, magenta and aqua, and they are slim enough to fit comfortably in back pockets and fully water-resistant. The company also donates 1% of its sales (through www.onepercentfortheplanet.org) to environmental initiatives.
Brita Belli is the managing editor of “E–The Environmental Magazine,” America’s largest independent nonprofit environmental magazine, which was founded in 1990. For more coverage on national and international environmental issues, please visit www.emagazine.com.