The Green Party online store features t-shirts with two different designs for Greens on your list. The shirts are made by union and cooperative workers on organic cotton with PVC-free ink. They're a bit above the $15 limit I've set for most of the gifts I've posted about, at $20 each. You can buy smaller and less expensive items on the online store, such as peace flags, buttons and bumperstickers.
I found some cute fair trade Peruvian Sterling peace symbol earrings for $14.95 at the Rainforest Site, which will preserve rainforest land with each purchase[note: there's no info here on the mining practices used].
There are pages after pages of Fair Trade items that can be found on the Rainforest Site -- you need to be sure to click on the Fair Trade category on the left hand side of the page. Other interesting items that I found here are Tibetan Prayer Flags for $9.95, a Nepalese Recycled Silk Shoulder Bag for $14.95, and Guatemalan Catnip Mice ($9.95) for the cat in your life that also provides "funds for a children's clinic and other health and education projects in La Esperanza, a poverty-stricken area on the outskirts of Guatemala City."
Rawganique has a large variety of hemp oil soaps in with such flavors as: Heavenly Mango & Eastern Tea, Lemongrass & Paprika, Simply Peppermint, Citrus Lover, Lavender des Jardins, Balms of the Garden, Nourishing Patchouli and more. Soaps are $4 each.[Most progressives know that hemp is versatile, sustainable, renewable and is good for the planet in many ways. Rawganique has many more hemp products that would make wonderful gifts including hemp paper products, hemp clothing and accessories, and items for the home. All items are made "in house" and some tend to be a bit pricey.]
Blogs have been a great way to find good gift ideas. I found the following on TreeHugger by way of reading City Hippy:
Better World Traveler's Club, besides offering roadside service for cars, also offers roadside bike service for $39.95 for a full year's coverage (other household members can get covered for $15)." Better World Club, Inc. is dedicated to balancing economic goals with social and environmental responsibility. Better World Club supports a cleaner environment and alternative modes of transportation. " It's a greener version of AAA.
You can give the gift of giving to charities in a loved one's name. To better navigate charity gift giving, check out Charity Navigator.
Garden-in-a-bag is available for parsley, chives, oregano, lavender, strawberries, basil and more for $8 - $10 each.
More places to find great gifts:
Heartbeats Catalog: "Networking Women, Developing World and Minority Artists"
Pangea: Vegan and Cruelty Free. "Pangea Sells Only Goods Made in Countries Where Labor Laws or Unions Are in Place to Protect the Workers! We Don't Sell Any Products Made in China or Other Countries Known for Sweatshops."
Alternative Outfitters : An "online resource for fashionable leather alternatives and cruelty-free products for a compassionate lifestyle."
As for money-less options, you really can give nothing this year (or at least trim down your list) if you download and print this Gift Exemption Voucher from the folks at adbusters.
I've had some comments and emails with additional gifting ideas:
Liz wrote to me about GreatGreenGoods and Chad commented about Justice Clothing Co. which has sweatshop free clothing.
Here are other blogs that are posting great gifting ideas for the season:
I'm compiling a green shopping and gifting resource page which can be found on the links at the right of the page, or click here. I'll be updating it as I get more info.
Our Buy Nothing Day anti-consumerism caroling went well yesterday, other than a not having a very big turnout. Deanna of Dee's 'Dotes has photos her husband took here.
We weren't the only ones protesting at the Gateway on Black Friday. Animal rights activists were protesting J.Crew's use of fur and there was a Christian fundamentalist street preacher passing out literature there with his two kids. He agreed with our message of toning down consumerism for the holidays, but someone that had talked to him said that he was a big supporter of Bush since Bush's such "a good Christian."
The Gateway is an outdoor mall/condos/offices project in Salt Lake City built by the Boyer Company. It was a very controversial project of mostly middle to high end retailers and restaurants that is likely responsible for helping to drain the life out of downtown's Main Street.
What was interesting at the protest was finding out what part of the multi-block project we could legal protest on. It seems that the sidewalks that run through the Gateway are private property, which leaves the narrow streets that run through it and a few feet at the corners as the only public property. That puts pedestrians not wishing to walk around the huge complex at a disadvantage if they do anything that mall security would find disagreeable.
Salt Lake isn't a stranger for selling away public property rights, as it sold the Mormon church a whole block of Main Street back in 1999 for $8.1 million. The church built a plaza on the site disrupting traffic flow and restricting behavior to Mormon standards for pedestrians who don't want to add to their walking time and distance by walking around it.
I find the trend to privatize sidewalks in Salt Lake City to be a bit disturbing. There may not be too much of it going on right now, but this trend could lead to very little rights for pedestrians in the long run. I hope we never see the day where we have to pay tolls or have shopping validations to walk through these privatized zones.
I'm continuing on a series that I wanted to write on gifts that give on many levels. You can read part one here.
Syracuse Cultural Workers 2006 Peace Calendar has a lot to offer: it's practical, educational, decorative, and it's union printed on 50% post-consumer recycled paper. We've had this calendar in our home each year for the past 3 years and I love all the bits of history that I've learned with it. For $1 more, you can purchase the teacher's guide that has "more than 90 activities, background and resources connected to each month's topic and to the people's history annotations." The Peace Calendar is $12.95 with discounts starting when you buy 3 or more.
At the Syracuse Cultural Workers website you can also purchase some wonderful holiday cards.
Global Exchange has it's own fair trade online store. Here's a few items that I found there that won't break the bank:
To go with the fair trade coffee and tea I mentioned in part one (or you can buy some fair trade coffee at Global Exchange as well), you could give a fair trade coffee press mug or tea infuser mug which can help save on filter and tea bag waste. Both mugs are $15 each.
You can get a chocolate gift box for $12.95 with chocolate that is 100% organic (which also means it's better for the planet) and each box comes with a collectable recycled art card. Even the wrappers are made from recycled paper! As if all that isn't wonderful enough, 10% of the profits go to benefit non-profits.
These fair trade hemp wallets are another item that combines practicality with environmental and social responsibility. A tri-fold is $11 and the checkbook wallet is $17.
At the Global Exchange store you will also find sweatshop free "Declare Indepence from Oil" t-shirts for $15, a sage smudge 4 pack for $7.50, and tree free notebooks (made from kenaf fiber) starting at $8.
Check back for more ideas soon!
(This is part one of a multi-part series that I'll be doing for the next couple of weeks.)
As I've mentioned here before, Buy Nothing Day will be celebrated the day after Thanksgiving. Buy Nothing Day brings some awareness to our holiday shopping orgy. It's all too easy to ignore where the gifts we buy come from, who makes them under what conditions, and what the manufacture of the gifts do to the planet.
I've been doing some research to find alternatives or alternative gifts that give on multiple levels, and I thought it would be great to fun to share what I've found. Most of the gift ideas I will post here will cost $15 or less.
One of my gifts this year will be non-toxic cleaning supplies. This gift gives on multiple levels because I will be giving this type of gift to someone who usually buys cleaning products with synthetic chemicals that aren't so good for the planet. So I will reduce the amount of the bad stuff they buy replacing it with the good stuff. Begley's Best cleaner (yes, that's actor Ed Begley) is made with all natural stuff, like "citrus fruit, pine extract, olive seeds, maize root, fermented sugar cane and palm". To make this gift idea even better, 100% of the profits are donated to non-profits. You can get a spray bottle for $6 and the concentrate refill (that should last nearly forever) that you dillute with water for $16 from REAL GOODS.
I hate the expense and toxic waste of batteries. The REAL GOODS catalog has lots of battery chargers (even one that's solar) and rechargeable batteries. They can get a bit pricey, and since I'm on a budget, I love the idea of this clock and calculator that are water powered . You just refill the little vials with water once every two months. The clock is $12 and the calculator is $14. You can reduce the amount of polluting batteries someone uses, and give them a practical gift that will save them money. The downside to this gift is that it's made in China which generally means that it's not fair trade and there's not any information as to the treatment and wages of the workers that manufacture it.
For the last few years I've given Equal Exchange coffee, tea, and hot chocolate as holiday gifts. You can buy from their website, but they do require a minimum order amount, so unless you are buying this for a lot of people, I recommend trying retail. I've found the coffee at Wild Oats, and the hot chocolate and tea at Ten Thousand Villages (which is a non-profit store dedicated to fair trade items). I also bought a box of Equal Exchange Earl Grey tea last year for our family and I can say that it was the best Earl Grey I've ever tasted.
For a humorous and yet still practical gift, CODE PINK is offering Karl Rove NeoCondoms in their online store. These bright pink condoms have a picture of Karl Rove on the wrapping with the text "Some things should never leak". Encourage safe sex, help support a great cause and and give someone a good laugh all at the same time. A package of 12 cost $12. I haven't yet found any information on where they are manufactured.
( click here for Karl Rove NeoCondoms photo )
I'll be adding more holiday gift ideas posts in the next few days.
Less than 2 weeks until Buy Nothing Day, the counter culture answer to the busiest shopping day of the year, the day after Thanksgiving.
Buy Nothing Day is a great opportunity to reflect on our consumption and consumerism, and even just possibly the true nature of Christmas (despite the cliche).
The radical cheerleaders and other activists and like-minded folks will be participating in a Buy Nothing Day carol singing at the Gateway shopping center in Salt Lake City. Anyone who will be in or near Salt Lake City is invited to participate. Details can be found here. At that link you can also download the carols we'll be singing, but if you don't we'll have handouts with the lyrics on them at the event.
I participated in this a couple of years ago and had a blast. I love participating in creative protest and this one is especially fun.
Buy Nothing Day events are happening around the world. Adbusters has a lot more info here on the why and where.
The first Carnival of the Green is today, hosted this week by City Hippy. Looks like a lot of great stuff to read for those interested in protecting our environment, sustainability, and Fair Trade.
I will be hosting the Carnival on December 12, and I'll be posting links to each carnival host each week.
Local
A Couple of Local Green Businesses
Gift Ideas
Giving gifts that give on many levels, Part 1
Giving gifts that give on many levels, Part 2
Dee's 'Dotes -- Socially Responsible Holiday Gift Ideas
Cafe a la Green from Dee's 'Dotes -- more socially responsible gifts
TreeHuggerMum's natural toy ideas
Green/Fair Trade (or both) Shopping
GreatGreenGoods: a shopping blog devoted to the green, eco-friendly, consumer. They comb the web looking for products to help you live a greener life! (almost all products featured are made out of recycled materials).
Justice Clothing Co: "You can help stop the destruction of communities at home and abroad by buying clothing made by workers who are treated fairly. If you don't mind buying clothing made by slaves, children, indentured servants, or workers who are paid pennies a day, we are not your kind of store."
Global Exchange Fair Trade Store: "All of our Fair Trade Stores set an example of working responsibly with world craft producers. We generate income for thousands of artisans and their families in over 40 countries, by operating according to Fair Trade Criteria. "
Syracuse Cultural Workers: "We see cultural work as an essential part of and support for political and economic change. Many of our materials celebrate movements for social change and their leaders, thus helping to legitimize history that is largely ignored or trivialized by commercial media and school textbooks. SCW also helps to unite socially concerned artists with a growing audience hungry for meaningful artwork."
Real Goods: "Recognizing that the world's dependence upon fossil fuels has invariably led to the degradation of our atmosphere and environment, we have strived to demonstrate the need and practicality for renewable energy technologies that are clean, cost-effective, and non-polluting."
Equal Exchange Coffee, Tea and Chocolate: "Equal Exchange's mission is to build long-term trade partnerships that are economically just and environmentally sound, to foster mutually beneficial relations between farmers and consumers and to demonstrate, through our success, the viability of worker cooperatives and fair trade. "
Code Pink Online Store: Sweatshop free clothing items available. Support peace, Code Pink and sweatshop free clothing manufacture.
No Sweat Apparel: "Our gear is produced by independent trade union members in the US, Canada, and the developing world. We believe that the only viable response to globalization is a global labor movement. "
Ten Thousand Villages: "Since 1946 Ten Thousand Villages has supported the work of literally tens of thousands of artisans in over 30 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East, making us one the largest fair trade organizations in North America. Working with more than 100 artisan groups, we purchase fine pieces from craftspeople with whom we have longstanding, nurturing relationships…helping to bring dignity to their lives."
Ecomall.com: "Shop With A Consciousness in EcoMall's Green Marketplace"
Pangea: Vegan and Cruelty Free. "Pangea Sells Only Goods Made in Countries Where Labor Laws or Unions Are in Place to Protect the Workers! We Don't Sell Any Products Made in China or Other Countries Known for Sweatshops."
Alternative Outfitters : An "online resource for fashionable leather alternatives and cruelty-free products for a compassionate lifestyle."
Rawganique : Organic Cotton, Linen, & Hemp Clothing & Home Products. "Please consider our website of sustainable products a quiet, old-fashioned retreat from the hecticness and rampant chemicalizations that are characteristic of the modern, conventional world -- we at Rawganique.com wholeheartedly embrace the Slow Is Beautiful Movement (slow living, slow food, slow cities, slow islands). May love, peace, purity of mind and spirit, happiness, goodwill, mindfulness, health, light, and sustainability prevail. "
Organinc Cosmetics from By Nature
Non-Shopping
Freecycle.org: "It's a grassroots movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns."
Resources
Fairly Informed Blog: "Fairly Informed is dedicated to fair trade. It seeks to promote it and defend it from detractors, but also challenge it to grow into something deeper and broader than it is today. "
Articles
Support Fair Labor Standards -- Buy Cambodian
"How Toxic Are Thy Branches?" - Blue Voice's organic holiday tree guide.
Eco Electronics Buying Guide from Urban Eco
