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1. GREEN GIFT GUIDE: For Mom and Dad
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2. Top Ten Hypermiling Techniques for the Masses
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3. Rain-Powered Illuminated 'Lightdrops' Umbrella!
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4. Green Gift Idea: Virtual Volunteering for a Charity – Right from Your Home Computer
GREEN GIFT GUIDE: For Mom and Dad
Bridgette Steffen - 2008 Holiday Gift Guide
Oftentimes the hardest people to buy for in our lives are our moms and dads. They have practically everything, and if they want something new, they tend to just buy it. Most of our parents are becoming hipper and more tech-savvy, possibly with our influence, but sometimes they need a little help becoming greener. We’ve come up with a few items that are sure to delight Mom & Dad while making their lives more efficient and environmentally friendly.
RECYCLED GLASSWARE BY TARGET - $20 to $25
Target is stocking up on green and eco friendly offerings, and these recycled glasses and pitchers are a great example. You can get your parents a whole new set of glassware, or pick and choose which pieces they need. There are wine glasses, tumblers, margarita glasses, bowls, and pitchers. Prices range from $19.99 to $24.99 for sets of four. If you are looking for some higher end glassware, both Green With Glamour and VivaTerra offer some very beautiful glassware as well.
SALAD BOWLS BY BAMBU - $24
These beautiful bamboo salad bowls make the perfect gift for sharing warm holiday meals. Each elegant bowl is handcrafted in China using socially and environmentally sound labor practices. Composed of organically grown bamboo, non-toxic adhesive and finished with food safe natural oils, they make a stylish and sustainable addition to any table.
ECO WINE CLUB FROM ECOVINE - $39 to $74
Whether your parents are connoisseurs of fine wine or just like to have a glass at dinner, a monthly wine subscription for eco friendly wines is sure to be appreciated. The EcoVine Wine Club offers lots of different delivery options - including monthly, bimonthly, seasonal (4 times a year), No Sulfite Added, and Organic Wines. This club claims to be the first and most widely recognized eco wine club, and has added benefits for members like a newsletter with tips, recipes, articles about winemakers and vineyards, and special wine offerings to members only.
$39 to $74 per shipment at EcoVine Wine
TRANSGLASS RECYCLED WINE BOTTLE VASES - $44 to $60
If your parents are wine-lovers (see above), give them a beautiful, eco-friendly, recycled-wine-bottle vase that they are sure to treasure. Designed by Emma Woffenden & Tord Boontje, each Transglass vase is handcrafted to exacting standards—produced in a fair-trade manner, by women in women’s co-ops in Guatemala. These beautiful vases are as green as can be: produced using recycled materials, eco-friendly production methods, and promoting manufacturing processes that are environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable.
$44 to $60 from the Inhabitat Shop
GARDEN IN A BAG HERB KITS - $9
What moms & dads don’t like a little greenery in their homes? Bring out the inner green thumb in your parents with a super cute and easy ‘Garden-in-a-bag’. Sprouting your own little herb garden has never been easier, with soil, seeds and growing instructions all included in this handy little kit. You can choose from nine different herbs: dill, cilantro, basil, lavender, thyme, parsley, sage, oregano and chives.
Top Ten Hypermiling Techniques for the Masses
khallgeisler - Bikes & Cars
The New Oxford American Dictionary has chosen “hypermiling” as its 2008 word of the year, beating out such other neologisms as “staycation” and “frugalista.” The word was apparently coined in 2004 by Wayne Gerdes, who runs the web site CleanMPG.com.
In honor of hypermilings achievements as both a word and a lifestyle in 2008, here are the top 10 hypermiling techniques:
- Do not idle. Shut the engine off if you’re going to be waiting for 30 seconds or more.
- Do not accelerate quickly. You’ve heard it before: no jackrabbit starts from stop lights.
- Properly inflate your tires. Keeping air in your tires reduces friction and increases fuel economy.
- Take ‘er easy. There’s a reason the feds set the speed limit at 55 during the gas crisis of the 1970s — it’s the best speed for the best mileage on the highway.
- Clear out the car. Every pound counts, so clear out anything that isn’t needed, especially if it’s on the roof, where it can create drag.
- Keep it in tune. Oil changes, regular maintenance, and the like will keep your mpgs as high as possible.
- Ride the ridges. In bad weather, drive with your tires on the higher center of the road and the white line to stay out of the rain- or snow-filled ruts. Be careful with this one.
- Make a trip chain. Don’t run six separate errands; do one trip with six stops to keep the engine warm.
- Make right turns. Do like UPS does: plan your route to have as many right turns as possible to minimize idling time while waiting for traffic to clear for your left turn.
- Hybrids only: Maximize the electric motor. Start slow and keep the car running under electric power for as long as you can, usually up to 35 or 40 mph.
Rain-Powered Illuminated 'Lightdrops' Umbrella!
Daniel Flahiff - Energy
Umbrellas that light up with integrated LEDs are nothing new: from Instructable’s DIY illuminated umbrella to patio umbrellas available at Lowes, LED Umbrellas have been around the block. But here’s a brilliant idea we’ve never seen before: an illuminated umbrella that is powered by rain! Designer Sang-Kyun Park has taken the illuminated umbrella idea to the next level with Lightdrops, an umbrella made from polyvinylidene fluoride [PDVF], a conductive membrane that powers LEDs with energy from falling rain.
Green Gift Idea: Virtual Volunteering for a Charity – Right from...
susan - Sustainable Ideas
Looking for a way to save money on gifts — who isn’t? Give the best gift of all – and it won't cost you a penny. Volunteer to help a green charity of your choice. And you can do it right from your home computer.
“Virtual volunteering” is on the rise. And a wide range of groups need your help. You can pitch in with groups devoted to the environment, human rights, disaster relief, animal protection, and more. As a virtual volunteer, you provide skills these organizations need, such as contacting donors or writing letters or grant proposals or other materials they need to publish or post on the Web.
Good Green Charities
To find great environmental charities, go to The Charity Navigator web site, a great guide to intelligent giving, and they will provide you with a list of the best charities in all kinds of categories. You can even break it down by location, if you'd rather volunteer the old-fashioned way – in person.
· Click here for a list of the Top 100 four-star-rated environmental charities recommended by the Charity Navigator:
· Sierra Club, devoted to preserving the environment for the next generation:. Their motto says it all: “Explore, enjoy and protect the planet”: http://www.sierraclub.org/
· The Nature Conservancy, which has protected more than 119 million acres of land and 5,000 miles of rivers — and operates more than 100 marine conservation projects globally.: http://www.nature.org/
Good Charities
Here are some others to consider that were listed by Bottom Line newsletters as willing to engage virtual volunteers. If your favorite charity is not among them, contact them and propose helping out virtually – and start a new trend.
· Network for Good, founded by America Online, Cisco Systems and Yahoo (866-650-4636, www.networkforgood.org).
· Points of Light Institute, a Washington, DC-based organization that recently merged with a similar group, the Hands On Network (202-729-8000, www.pointsoflight.org).
· Taproot Foundation, which puts together teams of working people who want to help charitable groups (415-359-1423, www.taprootfoundation.org).
· ServiceLeader.org at the University of Texas at Austin (512-232-7062, www.serviceleader.org).
· VolunteerMatch, my organization, with volunteer opportunities from more than 55,000 nonprofit organizations (415-241-6868, www.volunteermatch.org).
· UN Volunteers, an arm of the United Nations that can be contacted by E-mail at information@unvolunteers.org and by phone in Germany at 49-228-815-2000. Its Web sites are www.onlinevolunteering.org and www.unvolunteers.org.
· Wisconsin and Minnesota-based Nibakure Children's Village (612-578-6560, www.nibakure.org) recently needed three volunteers to work online two hours a week on fund-raising for an orphanage in Rwanda.
· Family-to-Family (914-478-0756, www.family-to-family.org), an organization that helps feed families in needy communities nationwide.
(Illustration credit: Sierra Club)
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