Give a Gift That Matters

From the November/December Issue of Solutions, the Environmental Defense Newsletter

Posted: 06-Dec-2004; Updated: 28-Dec-2006

Does Uncle Bob really need another silk tie?

This holiday season, you can choose from a cornucopia of gifts that will surprise and delight family and friends while helping protect the environment. Most are equally well suited to birthdays, anniversaries and other special occasions. Here are a few suggestions, along with some sources of earth-friendly holiday gifts. Contact these vendors directly or ask your local merchant.

Bird-friendly coffee. Have you wondered why you don't hear as many birds singing lately? Believe it or not, your coffee could be one of the culprits. Most mass-produced coffee today is grown in Latin America on large full-sun coffee plantations, a radical departure from the traditional shade-grown method that preserves rainforest habitat for migrating songbirds. Bird-friendly coffee (which in many cases is also organic) costs slightly more, but its slow-maturing beans produce a fuller, richer taste. For a truly educational gift, consider sending the coffee with a guide to local songbirds.

• Songbird Gift Box for $29.95 contains triple certified (songbird friendly, organic and fair-traded) coffee, organic chocolate and a coffee scoop from Chile. (800) 796-6820 or www.groundsforchange.com.

Sustainable chocolate. The same environmental issues that affect coffee also affect chocolate. Chocolate's main ingredient, cocoa, traditionally has been grown in small-scale plots beneath the forest canopy but now is mostly produced on large, chemical-intensive plantations in Africa and Central and South America. Even more troubling, half the world's cocoa comes from the Ivory Coast, where child labor is used. To counter the dark side of chocolate, environmentally friendly producers have created a variety of organic offerings in charming gift packages.

• Ladybug Gift Box for $11.95 contains 20 pieces of Bug Bites organic chocolate from Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, complete with an insect trading card, from the Endangered Species Chocolate Co.; (800) 293-0160.

Organic flowers. The environment sometimes pays a heavy price when we "say it with flowers." A $16 billion annual business in the United States, cut flowers are among the most pesticide dependent of crops. In Ecuador, the second- largest U.S. supplier of cut flowers, 60% of workers suffer from headaches, nausea or other ailments. But holiday bouquet buyers now have the option of giving organic flowers certified with the Veriflora label, which requires green growing practices and fair labor standards for workers. Ask your flower seller.

• Organic flowers, starting at $29.95, are available from Organic Bouquet, 250 Bel Marin Keys Boulevard, Suite G4, Novato, CA 94949; (888) 899-2468.

Fruit baskets. Organic fruit is now well established in the marketplace, part of a burgeoning natural foods business that is growing 25% a year. A variety of vendors will deliver certified organic fruit baskets in time for the holidays. An alternative is a non-perishable assortment of organic dried fruit and nuts. 

• Organic Extravaganza fruit basket for $34.95 contains organic pears, apples, oranges, kiwi fruit, avocados and grapefruit, from www.proflowers.com (800) 862-9958. 
• Dried organic fruit, nuts and seeds samplers are available from Diamond Organics, Highway 1, Moss Landing, CA 95039; (888) ORGANIC.

Renewable energy. Give the gift of green tags! Also known as renewable energy certificates, green tags pay for the slightly higher cost of generating solar, wind or biomass energy. Customers still get power (and bills) from their local provider, and the cleaner energy is generally produced somewhere else, but its addition into the grid means that an equal amount will not need to be generated from fossil fuels at a conventional power plant. Solar is the most expensive, at 10 to 20 cents per kilowatt hour. Wind power is much cheaper, at 1.5 to 2.5 cents. Least expensive is energy derived from methane gas from landfills at 0.4 to 1.0 cent per kilowatt hour. Since methane is a high-impact global warming gas when released into the atmosphere, your purchase does double duty for the environment.

Green tags (purchased for yourself or as a stocking stuffer for that special electricity user in your life) are available through such national suppliers as:

• Community Energy, 150 Strafford Avenue, Suite 110, Wayne, PA 19087; (866) WIND-123; and
• Bonneville Environmental Foundation, 133 SW 2nd Avenue, Suite 410, Portland, OR 97204; (503) 248-1905.

Guest columnist Jim Motavalli is editor of E/The Environmental Magazine (for subscription information: (800) 967-6572 or www.emagazine.com). Opinions are the author's and not those of Environmental Defense staff. Environmental Defense makes no endorsement of the products offered for sale.