Green Gifts for Your BFF

With the holidays starting this week, the mad rush to get those last minute presents begins. Making a list and checking it thrice to make sure you have gifts for everyone naughty and nice. Especially those who have loved you all year long regardless of how busy you have been. Those who wait patiently until you come home and then welcome you with loving kisses. Those who don’t care if you have brushed your teeth before they snug you and those who jump to bring you your slippers. Yup, the pup. Your BFF. And here are a few safe, eco-friendly ways to share your joy with your furry best friends this season.


Planet Dog:
Please your pooch with safe, non-toxic chew toys from Planet Dog. Their toys are adorable and festive as well as a great way to save your furniture and ornaments from being nibbled. You can also feel good about supporting this environmentally friendly small company of just 44 employees who are joined at work by their 30 dogs every day. Planet Dog was recently named 2nd Best Employer of its size (under 50 employees) in the country, awarded America's Best Places to Work in 2008 and the founder Alex Fisher recently accepted the 2008 Maine Governor's Award for Business Excellence, which recognized the company's corporate sustainability and community initiatives.


Simply Fido:
This eco-friendly pet toy company makes cotton pet toys like a beautiful cream colored Holiday Moose with red accents and a soft (and removeable) squeaker. Simply Fido’s certified organic cotton pet toys help to provide a safer alternative for your pup to chew. Free from harsh chemicals and harmful pesticides, their fun designs for big and small dogs are sure to please you while they preserve our planet.

And now my friends, I hope you have enjoyed this blog series on Green Holiday Gifts. Please share your own ideas for how you are going green this season. Merry Christmas to you all.


Mary Beth Gonzalez
http://www.gonzalezgoinggreen.blogspot.com/

Green Stocking Stuffers: From Small Green Companies

Whose eyes don’t light up at the sight of a stuffed stocking on Christmas morning? So this year, why not power that delight with green, eco-friendly gifts that are sure to bring smiles of glee. There are many small green items from small eco-business that need our support this holiday season. I’ll play Santa and suggest my Green stocking stuffer list for all ages:

- Pharmacopia: Lavender Hand Cream (all natural and organic) with yummy shea butter. The 1.7 oz size fits perfectly in your purse, desk, backpack or car so you can re-apply throughout the day.

- To-Go Ware: Organic Bamboo Utensil Set, a fork, knife, spoon and chop sticks wrapped in a holder that ties closed, travels easily, and is a genius way to avoid using plastic utensils when eating on the run.

- Ecolips: Tis the season to protect your pucker…Ecolips provides a wide variety of certified organic lip balm. Try their new Pure & Simple line, a 99% organic lip balm that is completely edible in Grape, Coconut and Kiwi-Strawberry. Plus cool accessories such as an Eco Clip (a carabiner clip), an Eco Leash (a neoprene balm holder), an Eco Key Ring (a rubber overcap with key ring) and an Eco Lanyard (a lip balm necklace).

- Josie Maran: Very glam lip kits in fabulous colors housed in a sleek, recyclable compact with a commitment to using non-toxic ingredients such as paraben. Perfect to layer or wear alone.

- The Solution by Envision Beauty: The perfect all-in-one stocking gift for a harried green mom as it replaces her day cream, night cream, eye cream and anti-aging serum. Her face will instantly radiate with this miracle cream. A moisturizer with antioxidants (Goji, Grapeseed, Açai, Centella Asiatica) plus anti-aging ingredients (DMAE, Alpha Lipoic Acid, NaPCA, and vital nutrients (Vitamin A B5, C, and E). Free of parabens, ethyl alcohols and harsh synthetics.

- Gourmet organic chocolate bars from Shaman Chocolates: More than just a sweet, certified organic treat these chocolate bars also offer a socially responsible alternative. All profits from the sale help support the Huichol Indians, a tribe living in central western Mexico in the Sierra Madre Mountains, who are said to be the last Indigenous Tribe in North America to have maintained their pre-Columbian traditions.

- Personalized refillable water bottles from H2ox2.com: Get one for everyone on your list. The Sierra Club reports we are discarding over 30 million plastic bottles a day…totaling over 10 billion a year. Take a step towards protecting our planet and a sip towards safer drinking water for your loved ones.

And finally, be sure to fill those stockings with a dash of luck, a sprinkle of joy, a pinch of giggles, a whisper of hope and a pound of patience as we all face the challenging year ahead.


Mary Beth Gonzalez
http://www.gonzalezgoinggreen.blogspot.com/

Green Holiday Gifts for Babies, Kids and Teens: All from Small Eco-Businesses

As a savvy auntie, I feel especially qualified to cover this topic. Never a mom but nine times an aunt and even more times a FONM (friend of a New Mom), I’ve shopped for babies, kids and teens more often than I can remember. I know how hard it is to find just the right thing – not too scratchy, not too babyish, “in-the-know” and trendy but not trying too hard…So I’ve decided that this holiday season, the right thing is the green thing. Bringing kids up to be eco-friendly is a gift they will appreciate forever as you introduce them to the more natural, more sustainable things in life. Here are a few great green gifts to start them on a greener path (all from small eco-companies who need our green during this tough retail season).

Babies and Kids personal care kits:
California Baby: Green moms love these safe, non-toxic, personal care baby soaps, creams, lotions and bubble baths. Baby gift sets can be completely customized and come with a non-toxic bath toy and product samples.

Burt’s Bees kits: Try the Baby Bee Getting Started Kit…all SLS and paraban-free creams and lotions made with soothing buttermilk and coconut oils.


Clothing:
Sagebabynyc.com: A true green treasure full of environmentally-friendly baby and toddler gifts from an organic fleece cape to sustainable nursery cribs to organic cotton baby sun hats, unstained wooden rattles and my favorite…a plush organic monkey toy.

Stewart & Brown: A wide range of fashionable eco-hats, sweaters, dresses and scarves made from yak down, hemp, organic cotton and Mongolian cashmere. You are sure to find something here to please any fashion conscious young lady.

Tees for change: Channel your sage wisdom to a tee shirt for teens. These sustainable, eco-friendly tee-shirts make a statement with words such as “Laugh Often”, “Today Matters”, “Choose Dreams”. Here’s a fashionable way to inspire young minds eager for change.


Toys:
Overthemoon.com: Locally made, Vermont Maple Landmark toys are beautifully crafted wooden, sustainable toys bringing us back to basics and sure to become family heirlooms for years and years to come.

Green Toys: Adorable play toys: tea sets, gardening tools, cookware and beach gear…all made locally here in the USA from recycled plastic milk jugs. Safe. Fun. Local. And winning all the parenting awards…


School stuff:
To-Go Ware: So cool and yet functional, the stainless steel Sidekick is the new green lunch box. With separate compartments for cold and hot foods, this is a great daily solution for anyone who carries their lunch every day (and is tired of that same, soggy peanut butter and jelly sandwich).

Ecogear bags: Bags for every age…these organic cotton, hip bags use toxic-free dyes and sustainable wood fastenings. Check out their messenger bags, laptop carriers and backpacks.




Makeup/skincare:
Afterglow Cosmetics: Their Glow Kit is a glam gift for a teenage girl just starting to experiment with makeup. This starter kit includes organic mineral foundation, concealer, blush, vegan brushes and powder. All packaged in a fabulous silver makeup bag.

Juice Beauty Any teen will love their gift kits full of eco-chic organic skincare goodies – especially good for those with sensitive skin. They also have special lines for men which are great for teenage boys (who all seem to be learning much earlier about “using product” than the teenage boys I dated.)


Coming next: Green Stocking Stuffers from Small Eco-Businesses


Mary Beth Gonzalez
http://www.gonzalezgoinggreen.blogspot.com/

Eco-Holiday Gifts for Men: Supporting Small Green Businesses

This holiday you have the choice to support economically-challenged green small businesses as you select holiday gifts for the special men in your life. As discussed in “Buycotting the Holidays”, I’d like you to show small green companies your green and buy your holiday gifts here:

Green Gifts for Men:
· Shower Water Timer: Zwello.com’s Blue Star Digital Shower Timer from Ripple Products. They promote water awareness and water conservation thru inventive bath-time products like this easy to use digital shower timer. This is a real clock with a simple, programmable countdown timer. Battery operated, steam proof and water proof.

· Men’s Grooming Products:
o Pangea Organics has many organic personal care products for men (and women) and to celebrate their 7th anniversary their festive holiday gift sets come in plantable boxes to grow a Spruce Tree! Embedded in the gift boxes are spruce seeds which can easily be planted to reforest our planet.

o Burt’s Bees Natural Grooming kit: this small black dopp kit includes a range of natural products to keep him looking great including beeswax lip balm, body wash, aftershave, shave cream and soap. All specially formulated for him with a natural, clean fragrance with sunflower oil.

o Organic Man “Sock-it-to-him” Beauty Bootie: Beautorium has designed a “stocking” made out of certified organic cotton and bamboo and filled with organic, 100% vegetarian, men’s personal care items from Logona Mann. These products are certified natural and don’t contain petrochemicals, paraffin, parabens, silicone, synthetic fragrances or colors, ethoxylated ingredients or GMOs. Includes shampoo, shower gel, face & body lotion, shaving cream and after shave lotion.


· Green Car Wash Kit: Lucky Earth makes an eco-friendly, waterless car wash kit. This gift saves water and money by enabling folks to wash their cars themselves. This exceptional, completely non-toxic, organic soap product cleans, polishes and protects cars without the use of additional water. Just spray the product on a car, wipe it off with a microfiber towel and lightly buff to shine. Traditional car washes can waste between 40 and 120 gallons of water per wash and pollute our local waterways and beaches with toxic run-off. This is a great no chemical suds, no fumes, no water solution.

· Bamboo Grilling and Cooking Accessories: Bambu makes sturdy, sustainable and contemporary designed bamboo cooking tools. I think any man who cooks would appreciate their stainless and bamboo cooking utensils and range of bamboo cutting boards.


Mary Beth Gonzalez
http://www.gonzalezgoinggreen.blogspot.com/