Sweet Charity Gift Guide

Ok Team the holiday season is def underway which you probably noticed the day after Thanksgiving when your local starbucks transformed into a “magical” winter wonderland and started peddling gingerbread lattes instead of pumpkin caramel macchiato. We really got worried when the local outdoor mall that looks like a fake movie set started blowing bubbles in our face and calling it snow. Or maybe that’s just here in LA, but never the less if you need last minute gift ideas you are in luck! We found some fab charities that you can donate to in the name of your loved ones instead of continuing the meaningless commercial cycle of mindless giving.

Perfect for the green gal or guy on the go, check out these express gift option sites:

Offset Gifts

Tickle Me Elmo, IPods and Playstations are a thing of the past. Kids these days are clamoring for… carbon emission offsets! And you don’t have to campout overnight or Give your family or coworkers the gift of offsetting their carbon emissions and their impact on global warming for the coming year.

But, uh, what the heck is a Carbon Offsetting?

A carbon offset zeros out (offsets) all or part of the carbon dioxide emissions of a party, by reducing the emissions -- or increasing the carbon dioxide absorption -- of another party. This reduces net greenhouse gas emissions with the aim of combating global warming. Effectively offsetting the emissions of an activity makes that activity "carbon neutral". (wikipedia.org)

http://www.carbonneutral.com/
Give someone the gift of a clean green conscience for the year. You can pay to erase someone’s yearly carbon imprint for their car, their home or their air travel. Your donations are invested into companies who support green energy. Or dedicate a tree in their name which helps neutralize our energy use (remember trees clean the air of co2). This company is well funded and structured; this is no back yard tree planting operation. They ensure your tree will be forested for at least 99 years. What a lovely gift for someone’s first holiday! For green baby gift seekers, check out this package: they receive two trees in their name and a little pair of monkey booties. Awwww…

http://www.nativeenergy.com/
“With Native Energy, you can help finance and build new clean and renewable energy projects that help Native Americans and Alaska Natives create sustainable economic benefits, and that help America’s family farmers compete with agribusiness. These projects will displace electricity from fossil fuels and reduce other greenhouse gas emissions on your behalf, making up for the CO₂ emissions you can’t avoid.” Can’t argue with that, eh.

CarbonFund.org
This site has a fantastic calculator to figure out your personal carbon “footprint” and then give money to offset your impact.

TerraPass.com
Yet another great site to offset your home, vehicle or flight emissions for the year. Yeah, offsetting!!!!

Trees for the Future

Give 450 trees in someone’s name for $45 dollars. Lovely. Remember it takes four trees to offset one persons CO2 emissions for one month. So for $45 dollars you are offsetting your brother’s/grandma’s/pet pup’s carbon emissions for 9 whole years. Sounds economical to us.

Magazines

Ok, so this isn’t the US Magazine subscription you may have secretly been hoping your roommate would get you, but the upside is you can actually read these in public without being judged.

Greenlight Magazine

We all love to get magazine subscriptions for gifts, check out greenlight. Their mission is curiously like ours; “…greenlight is a magazine for the ordinary person who wants to live well but also contribute to improving the state of the planet. This person doesn’t have a lot of time to investigate what’s good and what’s not. greenlight will let readers know how to make better decisions in their purchases and activities.” We may have to challenge them to a duel.

Good Magazine (**high gloss alert**)

This magazine is as chic as Dwell and has the street creed of Vice. If you like AdBusters you will flip for Good. This mag is for people like you, dear readers, people who “give a damn.” Link to their mission statement for the more eloquent version. When you buy a subscription to this magazine, they donate 100% of your money to a charity of your choice. The greeny options for donations are Oceana and World Wildlife Fund.

Environmental Sustainability

Oxfam - www.oxfamamericaunwrapped.com

Ultra “save the world” gifters, this is your mothership. Give a village a cow for $75 or plant a garden for $115 all in the name of your loved ones.

The Heifer Foundation - http://beta.blogger.com/www.heifer.org

Give a honey bee hive to a family for $30. Your family supplements their income by selling the honey and wax and they get to make really good peanut butter and honey sandwiches. The bee’s pollination can double the fruit and vegetable yield of the surrounding area which helps the entire village thrive. Click Here for Heifer Foundation's Express Giving Link.

Church World Services

For only $15 you can give a family seeds and tools to plant a garden. Or donate to a portion of a deep water well that provides a village with water in times of drought.

World Wildlife Fund

Forget about a pony, you know you’ve always wanted a long distance pet polar bear or a cute little pygmy elephant. Adopt an endangered animal for as low as $25 dollars

P.S. If you don’t know how these endangered animals relate to global warming, call a family member in 3rd or 4^th grade for an explanation.

Oceana

71% of the earth is covered in ocean so we need to keep it healthy and clean. That’s right, those kids from your middle school in tie-dyed shirts had it right all along: Save the Whales! Adopt a dolphin, whale or shark by donating to this site.

Lydia’s personal Charity Giving Recs

If you’re more of a humanitarian than a “greeny”, we won’t be picky about your choice for charity. Both of these two wonderful organizations are run by members of my family or close family friends. So you can rest assured your money is being put to good use.

http://www.manassehschildren.org/

My dad’ best friend, Dr. Jake Sinclair and his wife Lee, founded this charity in Africa. Mannesh's Children helps street children who have lost their parents to AIDS find safe homes with a family. Help stop the cycle of poverty and AIDS in Africa by doing more than wearing a trendy white rubber band.

Ama Ghar (Motherly Home) - http://www.ama-foundation.org/

My dad’s cousin Bonnie Ellison runs this orphanage in Nepal; they have 36 orphans who receive phenomenal care and education. I visited them in 2004 and was so blessed to have met these wonderful children. $500 supports one child for an entire year!

Lyd and Jenuka Check out the other cuties here.

Thanks to all our green readers who contributed suggestions for this post, please continue to post comments to the blog or email us with thoughts and opinions

Happy Holidays from the team at Green is the New Pink!

A good season to be a Jew….

So going along with our December theme of Jolly Green Holiday advice, this week we’re talking about Christmas Trees and Lights. Okay, don’t get all tense and defensive on us already. We know you like your tree. We know that twinkly lights are oh-so-pretty. We know you need these things just to make it feel like the holiday season. Okay. Are you done now?

The truth is the best solution to the Christmas tree debate is to either: A) Convert to Judaism and celebrate Hanukkah with the original eco-friendly holiday accessory: the Menorah (Special note for Jewish friends: Go the extra mile this year—get beeswax Hanukkah candles—many others are made with petroleum and harmful toxins. You can find the beeswax menorah candles at: http://store.gxonlinestore.org/chanukahcandles.html and if you order today, they’ll get them to you by Hanukkah this Saturday), or B) DITCH OUT ON YOUR TREE. Ditch out on your tree? “I’m down with recycled candy-wrapper purses,” you may be thinking, “But no tree on Christmas? You girls have gone too far…”

Maybe we have, but when you consider that it takes 7 to 10 years to grow a Christmas tree, whose useful product life is ends up being less than a month, you might start feeling a little silly. Plus, that magnificent tree you gather around on Christmas morning is most likely grown on a tree farm that use large amounts of pesticides.

It’s no shock that the greenest route to go is forgoing the tree all together. Or, lots of people turn to live potted trees. Then it’s not like you’re killing a tree. You can keep your little tree in your house or apartment for years. (Unless you’re like Jessica and Lydia who once spent $200 on potted plants to liven up their patio and inadvertently killed them all. If so, maybe a wreath in place of a tree, potted or otherwise, is a better suggestion).

But if you (or your pesky un-green family who wield authority on matters pertaining to Christmas trees) insist on some sort of tree, we have advice. Shockingly, ARTIFICAL TREES MAY NOT BE THE WAY TO GO. We were surprised too. An artificial tree might seem like the greener option, since no real tree is being destroyed and it can be reused year after year. But they’re usually made of PVC, an evil plastic substance. From its manufacture to its disposal, PVC emits toxic compounds. During the manufacture of the building block ingredients of PVC, dioxin and other pollutants that cause global warming are emitted into the air, water and land. During use, PVC products can leach toxic additives (YES, that means your tree will be leaching toxins!) Even worse, lead is used to stabilize certain PVC products, which is why you'll see a label on faux trees cautioning you to avoid inhaling or eating any bits of lead dust that may fall from the "branches" on Christmas morning. Finally, when PVC reaches the end of its life, it cannot be recycled. It can be either land-filled, where it leaches toxic additives, or incinerated, again emitting dioxin and heavy metals. Gross.

So are we (gasp!) suggesting real Christmas trees over artificial? We just may be…Christmas tree farms are at least somewhat sustainable. When you cart your tree off, they’ll plant another one to sell a few years down the line. In the meantime it’ll be turning carbon dioxide into oxygen and providing habitats for animals. However, MOST tree farmers use harmful pesticides and other chemicals, so it’s worth it to find a local organic grower. Or a family-run farm that can answer your questions about pesticides. Finally, if you get a real tree, you MUST RECYCLE IT. Simply cut and put it in the GREEN TRASH CANS provided by the city. If you do not have a green trash can, there are several places online in which you can find out the best way to recycle your tree (our fave site: http://www.earth911.org). If you live in L.A., you can call 311 and then ask to get connected to waste management if you would like to get a green trash can for good.

Onto lights….Each year holiday lighting generates 885,000 tons of carbon dioxide, 4,800 tons of sulfur dioxide and 2,800 tons of smog!! California Independent System Operator, the nonprofit agency that oversees 75% of the state's power supply, estimates that in California alone Christmas lights draw an extra 1,000 MW -- enough energy to power 1 million homes. And we wonder why there’s so much carbon dioxide running rampant in our atmosphere.

Must you use those lights? Can’t you just put some eco-friendly ornaments on the damn thing and call it a day (P.S., there are some great recycled glass ornaments at http://www.3rliving.com/category_s/49.htm )? We hope the above stats have made you feel a bit more obligated to ditch out on the twinklies, but again, if you insist, there are a little something called LED Christmas lights. They use much less electricity (about 1/10 the amount of the average string of lights), reduce pollution from power plants and last longer. They do cost more than traditional strings of lights, but the electricity savings easily make up the cost difference within a season or two. Where can you buy them? Surprise, surprise…AMAZON was one of the best we found. They have tons in every color. (Please remember that if you go to Amazon through our site, a percentage of your purchase will go to Green is the New Pink). In the name of fairness, you can find some at Home Depot, Lowes and many other hardware stores), but the selection is wider at Amazon and the prices are better.

Whether you quit Christmas trees and lights cold turkey this year or can’t seem to part with your X-mas traditions, we hope you all will at least REDUCE your waste in some way. If you’re going home for Christmas and your mom insists on a tree, don’t get one for your apartment, too. Bring her home some LED lights, too. Or cut out the lights. So, go ahead, do something, whatever it is you feel you can sacrifice in order to give the earth a little present this holiday season, too.

A Very Green December: Our Gift Guide 2006

It’s the holidays, yay! Time to start thinking about that perfect present for your mom, you dad, your best friends, your co-workers, your dry cleaner, your brother’s wife sister’s cousin, your waxer (maybe that’s just us?) In any case, this year consider giving “green”. No, not cash (though we assure you that’s always appreciated!), but cool, chic gifts that are made of more sustainable materials. Or gifts that give back to the people who actually grow or make its materials.

Not only did we comb magazines, websites and stores to find the hippest holiday gifts possible, the gifts listed below are incredibly satisfying to give and receive; they “help minimize social & economic inequalities, reduce the impact of our consumption on the environment and help create a better and sustainable world.” Tiny Tim would be so proud. So here they are....

GREEN IS THE NEW PINK GIFT GUIDE 2006

COFFEE, CHOCOLATE and OTHER GOODIES
Instead of the usual, try sending organic honey and cashew nut package or a pound of coffee from growers in Mexico who are being paid a living wage to grow and harvest the coffee beans. The following companies all practice FAIR TRADE, an alternative system of trade which counteracts this system of international free trade, corporate control and global policies by giving the farmers and workers a living wage for their work, which can sustain them and also create opportunities for social and economic development . In other words, you (and the lucky recipient of your fabulous gift), don’t have to feel guilty as you snack on these items.
www.agreatergift.org – This website has tons of gift ideas, but what we love most is their fabulous and chic selection of fair trade gourmet chocolate, as well as their wide selection of fair trade coffee. We highly recommend the line of “Just Coffee” that they sell. The motto of “Just Coffee” (aka Caffeine with a Conscious) is “Pure organic Arabica coffee that is grown, harvested and marketed in a spirit of Justice”. Hard to argue with that!

www.wholefoodsmarket.com – An amazing market devoted to environmental issues. They sell gift cards and gift baskets and most of their products are organic or free trade.

www.worldcentric.org/store/index.htm -- Oooh! We love this site’s fair trade gourmet gifts, especially their teas, honey, dried fruit and cashews. Yum!

CLOTHING
As we only recently discovered, cotton is actually not an easy crop to grow. It depletes the soil, takes lots of land and releases many toxins into the air (and don’t even get us started on sweatshops…) Organic cotton is the first step; it helps reduce the amount of toxins in the air and soil. However, hemp and bamboo are a better alternative fiber for clothing and they are very soft and have great shape. The hemp and bamboo shirts we tried were even better than a cotton tee, even a C & C. We swear. Here are our top picks:

www.btcelements.com – All types of organic and hemp clothing, and lots of it very trendy (they even have an organic cotton bubble dress). But what is especially exciting are their sexy organic denim jeans

www.satorimovment.com – Instead of shopping at Urban Outfitters, try this site. Great printed tees and sweatshirts for girls and everything surfer bra on your list.
www.noenemy.org – The best stuff is for guys, we especially like the cool hoodies. Buy one for your little bro.

HOME
Everyone loves getting pretty things for their house, especially moms, aunties and couple-friends.

www.bambuhome.com/html/products.html -- Tons of colorful bamboo bowls and platters that we really want for ourselves!

www.btcelements.com – Gorgeous blue and cyan glass goblets and tumblers, using glass 100% reclaimed by wine bottles.

www.branchhome.com – Lots of cute home stuff like organic wool pillows.

www.earthtechproducts.com/gifts-for-special-occasions-gifts-for-treehuggers.html - Great home decor including chic sea glass plates and platters, vases and trays

http://www.re-modern.com/accessories.html - Modern style Bowls and vases, great for mom or grandma or your newlywed pals.

BABY
For all the fashion-forward, eco-chic tots on your list.

www.hipandzen.com - simple, colorful baby gear
www.btcelements.com – cute dresses, ruffles bloomers and other holiday outfits

BATH/BODY PRODUCTS
Yes, believe it or not, chemicals in your hair products, soap and facial products are bad for you!

www.natures-gate.com – The most comprehensive line of anything and everything bath and body related. Their products are all ecologically safe, environmentally friendly and cruelty free. They even wrap their products in 100% recycled packaging.
www.organicselections.com – Don’t let the crunchy green granola website deter you, they have a great selection of organic lotions, soaps, moisturizers and makeup

BAGS, TOTES, WALLETS
Who can’t use another bag?

www.ecoist.com - SUPER GLOSS ALERT!! We love, love, love the clutches, wallets and yoga bags on this website! They are all made from recycled gum wrappers, movie posters and other fun stuff, and they plant a tree for every purchase. (FYI, Jess wants the hot pink sparkly gum wrapper purse, Lyd wants the Keira Knightly Pride and Prejudice yoga bag)

www.organicselections.com – Simple, but very functional hemp tote bags

www.alchemygoods.com – GREAT SITE FOR GUYS. Their motto? “From junk to Funk”. They have 100% recycled (they use everything from inner tubes to seatbelts from cars that have been junked) messenger bags, wallets and business card holders that actually look hot and manly.

JOURNALS, STATIONARY, PAPER GOODS
Great for friends, party hostesses and co-workers.

www.branchhome.com – We love their recycled gift paper cards and stationary
www.2kh.com – If you want to get someone a journal, this is THE PLACE to get it from! Beautiful and hip recycled leather journals (they also have glossy passport holders and luggage tags) that aren’t too pricey (only around $26).


OUTDOORSY
Much to Jessica’s confusion, we have included outdoors apparel for the people who don’t live in LA and actually experience weather.

www.patagonia.com – A very socially and environmentally conscious company.
www.ibexwear.com - Beautiful wool wear for the chilly winter weather

FOR THE PERSON THAT HAS EVERYTHING
www.tenthousandvillages.com - An amazing website which acts a virtual marketplace for artists all over the world. You’ll find tons of one-of-a-kind, handmade gifts from almost every country. And because of the site’s extensive fair trade policy, you can rest assured that when you buy something the artists are being fairly paid with safe working conditions.

AMAZON
This Internet giant sells more than just books. It tons of holiday gifts, including music, stuff for the house, electronics and more. If you want to make your Amazon purchases MORE GREEN, start using the “Search Amazon” link on our website—a portion of whatever you end up buying gets donated to our Green is the New Pink non-profit organization. (P.S. you can do this all the time, not just during the holidays!) Also, remember, An Inconvenient Truth, Al Gore’s documentary about stopping global warming is available on Amazon and makes a great gift!

IF YOU LIVE IN L.A.:
We scoped out some amazing, trendy eco-conscious stores that are great for holiday gifts.

Natural High. 2400 Main St., Santa Monica, CA 90405. (310) 450-5837
Soft, luxurious men and women’s clothing made from hemp, organic cotton and bamboo material.

Regeneration. 1649 Colorado Blvd., Eagle Rock, Ca 90041. (323) 344-0430
We know what you’re thinking. Eagle Rock? That’s not L.A.. Oh, but it is, and this funky store which offers eco-conscious clothing, furniture, home décor and cosmetics is worth the drive.

Thrift Stores. Obviously, vintage is re-using at it’s best. Expert Lydia’s favorite thrift haunts:

The Way we Wore. 334 South La Brea Ave., L.A., CA 90036. (323) 937.0878
A bit pricey put it has all the vintage Valentino, Escada and Balenciaga a girl could ever hope for (La Brea),
Jet Rag. 825 N. La Brea, L.A., CA 90038 . (323) 939.0528
Very reasonable prices and great gifts for angsty teens (La Brea)

Whole Foods and Trader Joes. Multiple locations.
From gourmet organic foodie gifts to their eco-conscious lines of bath and body products to gift cards, these markets, which are both so committed to environmental causes, are always a great place to shop for gifts.

Green Charities and Philanthropies
Always a great gift idea. Watch out for our next posts for our ideas on the best ones around.

So besides doing your part to be green this holiday season, with these gift suggestions, you may not have to step foot in one over-crowded, stuffy, fighting with mean moms in minivans over parking spots, MALL this whole holiday season!