Holiday Loot - My Thank You Notes

Posted on December 29th, 2007 by Zach.
Categories: Sustainability, Pop-Culture.

So with holidays winding to a close I am sitting around trying to digest the incredibly delicious turkey dinner and feeling slightly ill. To avoid the waves of bloating that have overcome me this year, I have been surveying my little pile of loot. It is quite a great haul this year - not a ton of stuff, but things I am really excited about.

Thought I would share some of the cool stuff that came my way:

Green Roof: A Case Study

There are so many books out there about green, but so few of them go into the details of the process. This book talks about everything from design, to the plants they used in the project. As it happens, the project was in DC, so all the info is especially relevant for me.

Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century

I have coveted this book for a while, and oddly had never bought it for myself. Such a great look at the lifestyle shifts that are upcoming for us all. Love it.

Cool Green Stuff: A Guide to Finding Great Recycled, Sustainable, Renewable Objects You Will Love

There are a lot of books like this on the market, but this one is nice because it gives you a URL for each product. Some very cool products, though they have the wrong solar bag. Nuff said. Thanks JS.

REI Mojave Polo Shirt

Eco Fashion, is something that is often tough to buy for someone. The high end is either too expensive for gifting, and the low end often looks like the giftee is wearing a burlap sack (this can be worse than the awful christmas sweater). But I got this excellent polo shirt smack dab in the middle, making it a totally successful gift in my opinion. An organic cotton/Recycled PET blend. Thanks CS!

Brookstone Hand Crank Flashlight/Radio

I have developed an obsession with all things hand-crankable. Bring on the antique ice cream maker of my youth! In the meantime, I got this sweet flashlight/radio. It is unclear to me why all flashlights aren’t built this way. I suspect a battery and flashlight manufacturer collusion. Ten minutes of crank leads to all the light you could possibly want. Pretty sweet radio, and a great Nokia phone plugin for charging the device! Hand-crank phone charging, now that is slick. Thanks RF Dos.

OLPC’s XO Laptop

The One Laptop Per Child concept is a Media Lab project run by Nicholas Negroponte. It used to be called the $100 laptop project. These things are so cool, Check out Laptop Magazine’s review. Until the end of the year if you donate a laptop to one of the education sites around the worls, they give you one as well. I am so psyched to try out the laptop, it looks awesome.

Er, and as it only needs 5 watts of electricity to charge, I am DEFINITELY hooking it up to my JuiceBag…You Rule RF.

The TerraPass

RF Dos, offset my whole house’s carbon consumption for the year. For someone who cares about enviro stuff, think this is a great gift. It also comes as a little gift pack with a CFL Lightbulb and a couple other things. These are the kinds of things that I mean to do, but don’t get around to. So great to get.

The LED Lightbulb Pack

I have been meaning to play with LED lightbulbs forever. With this swanky mixed pack I get to decide wich style I really like before investing in a bunch. So cool, I can’t wait to get home! Thanks C+BF.

On the stocking stuffer/hanukkah gift level, I also got some great stuff:

Bamboo Cooking Utensils

Dagoba Chocolate

Cedar Chips Sachet (Full disclosure, I did not know what these were until I get ‘em, but apparently mothballs are super toxic and these solve the moth problem)

Bamboo Toast Tongs I think we all get things we don’t really need, how about something biodegradable and of sustainable materials?

There was some other great stuff as well, but these were some of the highlights. What also ruled is that there was not a huge pile of packaging this year, it really was pretty minimal. Minimal travel, minimal packaging, great useful gifts - who really could ask for much more?

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