The EcoChic

Today I thought I would share with you some emails that I have received with special holiday savings on cool green products.  These are just a few…I know there are many more and I will post them as I receive them. 

Earth Day Network
Free Shipping in December plus get a Free book with every $50 purchase.
T-shirts, posters, travel mugs, and more.
Don’t know what to get someone…how about making a donation to Earth Day Network to them.  Depending on how much you donate they will recieve some cool stuff like an e-magazine and an Earth Day t-shirt.

www.GiftCertificates.com
Give a truely green gift this season and send it electronically to save shipping.  Now until December 19th there are no service fees for every order over $50. 
Don’t know what they like; give a Super Gift Certificate.  This universal gift certificate can be exchanged for restaurants, shopping and more.  You just decide the denomination and they take care of the rest.  I got a few of these before and they really are great ideas!

Laptop Lunches
Save 20% off all items December 7-16th when you use coupon code holiday2008.

Cottontail Baby – Cloth Diapers and More
BumGenius 3.0 Four Packs are only $59.95 until December 12th.

Happy Shopping and Happy Holidays!

I received an email from www.LetsGoGreen.biz the other day with an offer to share with all my readers.  Lets Go Green offers many home improvement items you can use to help Go Green!  They have some of your favorite green cleaners, paper products, lighting and even a green gift section.  Oh yeah, and if you shop at www.LetsGoGreen.biz you can even save 25% off your purchase by entering the word FRIEND into the coupon box!  I hope you find some items you’ve been looking for; happy shopping! 

I made a trip to Wal-Mart the other day and found a few green products worth blogging about.  First was the dish detergent.  I was out of our traditional Electrosol powdered detergent and had planned on picking up the same product.  However, when I saw a liquid dish detergent by Palmolive called Eco I knew I had to try it.  To my surprise it was a few dollars cheaper too.  So I tried my first load last night and guess what…it worked great!  I didn’t notice any difference from my old Electrosol.  So I guess I’ve found my new product.  It’s phosphate free so it won’t extra nutrients into the water system. 

The next item was a total surprise, especially at Wal-Mart.  They had a display of environmental themed t-shirts.  Not only do they have a good message on them; they are also made from organic cotton.  How cool is that?  And for a total of $6 it couldn’t have been a better deal!  I picked up one that said, “Green is the new black!” for myself.  This adds to my new eco-tee collection.  My girlfriend bought me a cute tee for my birthday that said, “Hug a Tree” that she found at JC Penney’s.  It was also made of organic cotton. 

It’s almost here, 2008!  Looking back at 2007 I have made a good effort to make small changes in my everyday life that will benefit the environment; or at least lessen our impact.  So what are going to be my environmental resolutions for 2008? 

• I’m in need of a new vehicle this year; so I’m going to research hybrid cars and other non-hybrid alternatives to the regular car.  I promise right here to stay with something mid-sized and not but a gas guzzler!
• My first home project for 2008 is to remodel our guest bathroom.  I am going to try to find a reuse for many of the items that I am replacing; at the very least I am going to find a way to recycle things like the tub, toilet, and vanity.  Also when purchasing the replacements I’m going to think green.
• I resolve to use my green bags more often at the grocery store (and other stores as well).
• I want to start a small garden in the back yard.  With that garden I also want to start a compost pile and a rain barrel.  My garden is going to be organic with no pesticides or chemicals used. 
• Continue to replace our incandescent light bulbs with CFLs when they burn out. 

So what small steps can you take in 2008?  I’d like to hear your resolutions for the environment.  Have a great New Years Eve and be safe.

Are you an online shop-a-holic?  Why not help the environment next time you decide to shop online.  There are tons of sites just like this already out there…but not that benefit the environment.  ClickGreener will donate 51% of their referral fee from the purchases made when you click to a vendor from their website to a non-profit partner for the environment.  Right now their non-profit partners include World Wildlife Federation – Canada, Carbonfund.org, Canadian Wildlife Federation and Tree Canada.  Obviously the founder is probably in Canada.  It’s a great idea, I wonder if there are any other websites like this that will benefit other non-profit organizations.  I’m adding ClickGreener as one of my favorites next time I decide to do some online shopping. 

I won’t have time to post tomorrow since I’ll be enjoying Thanksgiving with my family but I wanted to give you some tips for how to Green your Black Friday shopping!  The first time I experienced Black Friday was several years ago while I was working in the retail industry.  I had to arrive at work at 4:30 in the morning to see hundreds of crazy shoppers looking for the bargins.  After 3 yrs of being behind the counter I decided to actually try this one year…as a shopper.  Everyone is in a good mood first thing in the morning, it’s not until later in the day that all the grumps come out.  Anyways…this year I wanted to give you some ideas on how to buy environmentally responsible gifts for your loved ones. 

1.  Consider buying gifts that are made of renewable resources or made from recycled materials.  For the chef in your family consider a new set of bamboo cutting boards. 
2.  Remember when buying those electronics to look for Energy Star products.
3.  Look for gifts that will get used many times, stay away from disposable gifts and cheap gifts that will break quickly.  What about the gift of nature?  Buy a bird lover a new bird feeder.  Buy the gardener some new garden tools or some seeds for their garden.  Think outside of the box this year.
4.  Give a gift to a State Park, theme park, zoo or aquarium this year.  Not only can they use it over and over again, but in most cases the money is going towards conservation.
5.  Give a gift certificate this year for hard to buy for individuals.  This will eliminate the item from being discarded after the holidays if they don’t like it.

Here are some great links to more ideas for everyone on your list:
www.green.yahoo.com
www.treehugger.com
www.earth911.org

And my personal favorite goes to the people over at www.poopoopaper.com.  That’s right The Great Elephant Poo Poo Paper store has the most environmentally friendly gift of all for the journalist on your list.  You have to read it for yourself…I’m not sure my rendition would do it justice.  I’m considering this as a gift for a good friend of mine who enjoys journaling; I know she can hardly wait for me to give her poo! 

Later in the week, I’m going to give you some ideas on how to wrap these gifts while reducing waste.  Remember last year, how much trash did you throw out the next day?  I hope you have a wonder, safe and GREEN Thanksgiving!  Enjoy your GREEN Friday!  Thanks for reading!

Next time you are at the grocery store (or any other store for that matter) why not bring your own bag.  We’ve all seen the green fabric bags that some grocery stores sell for you to tote your goodies home in but how many of us really use them?  I had two friends this week tell me that they brought (and/or bought) their own bags to the grocery store.  I guess I’ve been rubbing off on some people…but I need to try this one myself. 

So what difference will it make?  There are some really neat websites out there that go futher into the debate over paper-vs-plastic and which one is better for the environment however, both choices use natural resources that are intended to be used once and then disposed of.  While many of us have reuse options for these bags (cleaning the kitty litter box, carrying our lunch to work, bathroom trash can liners, etc) I would have to say that most of us have more bags than we have uses.