Eco-Holiday Prep: Supporting Small Green Businesses

As discussed in “Buycotting the Holidays”, this holiday you have the choice to support economically-challenged green small businesses as you prepare for the holidays. With predictions of a poor retail season, small companies who have devoted themselves to being environmentally friendly are at great risk. Show them your green and buy your holiday preparations here this season:

Solar Powered Light Emitting Diodes (LED) Holiday String Lights: Light your home this year with self-sustained, energy-conserving, environmentally-friendly Ecolites from Eco Geek Living, Inc. The lights recharge during the daylight hours and automatically turn on at night while using as little as 1/50th the amount of energy traditional light bulbs.

Bamboo Ornaments: Bambu has introduced certified organic bamboo ornaments - all hand shaped from a single piece of highly sustainable bamboo. Tied with recycled twine, these ornaments come in four shapes: Tree, Dove, Star, Person. Available at Whole Foods and Greenfeet.

Plantable Seed Holiday Cards: If you must keep this treasured tradition alive, please consider sending a holiday card that can be re-purposed. Green Field Paper Company (a tree-free paper company) offers Grow a Note cards that can be planted to produce wildflowers.

Bamboo Holiday Invitations: Smock makes fun and elegant holiday invitations with antique, cast-iron letterpresses on sustainable bamboo paper. Smock is an entirely wind-powered facility, uses vegetable-oil based and low-VOC inks and low-VOC and citrus based solvents and is a member of Co-op America Green Business.

Green Hostess Gifts:
Hostess Soaps:
- Luxurious triple milled soaps so fragrant and beautiful you will want to share. Bring a box of Earthworks paraban-free soaps which are wrapped in eco-friendly, pulp from fast growing bamboo and mulberry trees.
- Handmade natural soaps from Soap & Paper Factory makes elegant gifts. This pure, natural collection of products for home and body are handmade from start to finish. Founders Lisa Devo, Shannon Burch and Beth Grubaugh join to make traditional handmade and hand-wrapped home and body products in small batches for gifts as beautiful and unique as their packaging. Lisa and Shannon make the all-natural bath and body products by hand with as natural and organic ingredients as possible and then wrap them in Beth’s gorgeous hand-sketched, locally printed recycled paper and boxes.

Gourmet Baked Goods: Who doesn’t want to be in the Brownie of the Month Club? Especially when the brownies are organic and vegan. Or bring the hostess a basket filled with Allison’s Gourmet organic cookies, candies, teas, cocoas and fair trade coffee.

Soy Candles: Ka Nani Essentials and Soy 4M have partnered to create custom, 100% soy candles hand poured in refillable tin containers. These fragrant candles are chemical-free without dyes or preservatives.

Organic Tea: Numi Tea offers a lovely Velvet Tea Caddy. With a classic mahogany finish, glass top, this elegant tea caddy holds premium organic and Fair Trade Certified teas in style. A great gift for any tea lover.


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

Buycotting the Holidays

For many years, I’ve heard the same refrain: “This year, I’m going to cut back on my holiday shopping”. And yet this year, I think people really mean it. Our poor global economy, U.S. recession, high unemployment rates and bleak immediate economic outlook all contribute to increased spending scrutiny.

Not just an expense
But it isn’t likely that most folks will just boycott the holidays altogether. Holiday gift giving is more than just an expense. It encompasses determining the actual gift recipient list and taking the time to find an appropriate gift. It isn’t about how much one spends on the gift. Our time and effort, while valuable, are free. Maybe this is the year to give the gift of time to those on your gift list. Offer to run errands for an elderly person or a night of babysitting to a harried mom.

“Buy-cott”: Buy Green
Now working off the assumption that some holiday gifts will still be bought, wrapped and presented with glee, I propose a “buy-cott”. Let’s make our hard working dollars work even harder by only buying green gifts this year. We know that our holiday dollars are going to go somewhere and we have the choice to use them to support companies who not only provide superior products but also strive to make our environment a better place. If you care about green, now is the time to show it. With many eco-minded small businesses already struggling in today’s economy, these small green companies will not succeed without our support. Remember that 70% of all employed Americans work not for huge multinational corporations, but for small business, like so many of these green companies. They need our help, so in the traditions of our great country, let’s give them our support.

Series of Holiday Green Gift Ideas
So over the next few weeks, I’ll be blogging about more than 20 small businesses where you can find perfect green holiday gifts for everyone on your list. In many cases, there will be special discounts available, and I’ll provide the links so you can buy online to save gas. I invite you to share your own green gift suggestions as well but most importantly, I urge you to put your money where your green is and buy from these companies this holiday season.

- Show them that you appreciate their extraordinary efforts to provide you with sustainable, safe, non-toxic, chemical-free products.
- Show those you love that you care enough about them to give green presents that will enhance their health and well-being.
- Show the world that you care about future generations who will inherit our earth.

In the next Going Green blog - Small Business Green Holiday Preparation Gifts:
- Solar Christmas Tree Lights
- Organic Hostess gifts
- Recycled and E-Holiday Cards