While a pat on the head and a bowl full of food are enough to send your pet into a frenzy of happiness, you can still show them just how much you love them by gifting them a little something extra this holiday season. Whether your best friend is furry, fluffy or feathered, we’ve rounded up a bounty of green and sustainable gifts that they’ll love. From fleece hoodies for Fido to a cardboard cabin retreat for your favorite feline, check out all of our green gifts for pets ahead!
With bottled water and potable tap water both so readily available in developed countries, it’s easy to take clean drinking water for granted. But when natural disasters strike, one of the first things to sell out on store shelves is bottled water, and running water may be either turned off or compromised by pollutants. Domestic water purifying pitchers and faucet filters are perfectly fine for every day use, but most of them simply weren’t designed to filter untreated water like the kind you may need to drink in emergency situations. Unlike those other off-the-shelf, refrigerator-sized water filters, Big Berkey water filters were actually made to purify water from untreated sources like remote lakes, streams and stagnant ponds and are used by relief organizations such as UNICEF, the Peace Corps, and the Red Cross. They use a much more powerful filtration system that removes harmful pathogenic bacteria, cysts, parasites, and unhealthy chemical contaminants such as chlorine to levels higher than 99.99%, a capability that would be invaluable to your family in a disaster situation where you were unable to secure clean water. Big Berkey water filters can be a lifesaver in emergencies, but they’re also a smart, elegant and beautiful green product to use in your home on an everyday basis (as a great alternative to bottled water or a refrigerator water filter) because they filter water so powerfully, and the high-tech filters last for 3-5 years as opposed to a few months.
Do you wish you had more fair trade clothing in your closet? Head on over to Ecouterre and enter our latest giveaway for a chance to win a $200 gift certificate to Indigenous Designs! We’ve teamed up with the fab eco-fashion company to give one lucky reader a chance to add some beautiful, organic clothing to their wardrobe – or to use the shopping spree to spoil friends and family this holiday season! Click ahead and enter to win now!
TODAY IS THE LAST DAY TO WIN $150 to spend at ModernGreetings.com!
The holiday season is nigh, and it’s time to start thinking about gifts and greeting cards. Get a head start on all of the hoopla by creating your own customized family holiday cards and personalized photo books with the help of Modern Greetings. We’re giving away a $150 gift voucher to be redeemed at the savvy site, where you may fashion your holiday cards and photo book gifts via easy to use online templates that are available in an array of designs to suit every sensibility. After you enter to win, head to ModernGreetings.com to redeem 20 FREE greeting cards!
Have you already started to become a bit stressed about all the Christmas shopping you have to do? Do you feel pressured to shop with money you don’t have, rather saving it or using it for something more substantial? While we enjoy giving and receiving gifts with some sensibility and social-responsibility, with so many people (yours truly included) wishing for a job this Christmas the concept of Black Friday seems frighteningly distasteful. But here’s an organization going against the grain and asking you to do the same. Buy Nothing Christmas is a non-profit organization initiated by Canadian Mennonites several years ago, inspiring people all over the world to say no to excess consumerism. With a website offering plenty of ideas, big and small, you’ll get the low down on how you can give gifts freely without money being an issue.
Photo of a blacked out Lower Manhattan by Iwan Baan
When Hurricane Sandy reached the eastern United States in late October, it wasn’t a surprise visit – meteorologists had issued warnings about the storm’s approach for almost a week. Although residents and businesses did their best to be ready, the superstorm caught many cities off guard as it attacked the American northeast with heavy flooding and powerful winds that destroyed homes and left millions without power. New York City and parts of New Jersey got the worst of it. Still, the Big Apple is one of the largest cities in the world – a metropolis of a similar size and sophistication as London, Tokyo and Paris. So why, weeks later, is New York City still a muddy mess? Why are there still scores of Americans without electricity, heat, and the ability to return to their homes? Many say that it’s a crumbling infrastructure brought on by years of under-funding and neglect that has been the biggest barrier to post-Sandy recovery. The question is, what are we going to do about it?
If you’re looking for a beguiling homemade gift that will enchant your favorite plantophiles, look no further than this darling DIY terrarium necklace! You’ll be surprised at how easy it is to make one and when you’re done, you might not even want to give it away anymore. Read on for our easy tutorial and make one for yourself or as a present today!
When the weather outside is frightful, the last thing you want to do is pry your fingers from the warmth of your gloves just so you can text or check some emails. Luckily, with our easy texting gloves tutorial, you can have your cake and eat it too! We’ve seen touchscreen compatible gloves for the iPhone and Droid phones going for upwards of $40, but our DIY tutorial will only cost you about $5 – and you can even recycle gloves you already own. They make a great home made gift too! Read on to see how to make ‘em.
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