Got a greenie on your shopping list this year, someone who’s yearning for a composter or a bat house? Here are a few gift ideas for the newly minted or entrenched ecoist.

A Chlorine Filter for the Shower.

Rainfall Showerhead filters out the chlorine and other chemicals

Give the gift of soft skin and hair with this High Output SHower Filter. It will collect the chlorine from your city water before it gets a chance to dry your skin, and seep into your pores. It can be used  with your own low-flow shower head, which some people are quite attached to. Buy a replacement filter when you order and you’re covered for two years.

Or get a spa-like Rainfall Showerhead with a built in filter, a gift of luxury and good health, it contains a filter to get out chlorine and a variety of other chemicals and meets federal guidelines for 2.5 gpm.

($58 and $78 at Gaiam, respectively.)

Envirocycle Composter

Envirocycle composter

Even the earthiest among us can get discouraged turning giant mounds of earth and grass with a pitchfork. This spinning Envirocycle Composter makes it easier to collect and reprocess  organic matter. Instead of turning a large mound over, you just spin. Not only can you produce fine compost, this contraption collects compost tea in the the base. The tea makes a great foliar treatment, and the solid compost can be spread on flower and veggie beds at any time. This particular composter may not accomodate a large household, but can handle conservative amounts of organic waste from the kitchen. It could be used in tandem with a compost pile. Enclosed it helps keep odor down, and it’s reasonable. ($126.50 at Greenfeet.)

Chicago’s Greenheart Shop is declaring that Black Friday will be Green Friday this year at their store, which sells Fair Trade, eco-friendly and socially conscious gifts, food, clothes and accessories.

Greenheart, a non-profit cultural exchange and storefront (at 1911 W. Division) will be serving free Fair Trade wine, cocoa and snacks to shoppers. Visitors can also see a make-your-own gift wrap demonstration. The event, on Friday, Nov. 27, when shoppers traditionally swarm the stores keeping retails in the black, will run from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Those who can’t attend can still buy Greenheart products online.

The goodies sold at Greenheart benefit disadvantaged workers, coops in developing nations and support ecologically sound growing methods, like shade-grown cocoa. They include:

• 

  Clutch made of recycled saris.

  Purses and clutches made from recycled saris, such as this one made by a family of artisans near New Delhi, India, through WorldFinds, a Chicago-based organization that partners with fair trade organizations, women’s self-help groups, and small families of artisans in India, Nepal, and Indonesia.

• Beeline Honey, an all natural raw honey produced by (bees and) Sweet Beginnings, LCC, a social enterprise and transitional job program of the North Lawndale employment network in Chicago. The program helps people who face barriers to employment, particularly those with histories of criminal conviction. The Beeline enterprise helps workers establish a work history and learn productive work habits.

• Eco-friendly gift wrap that is 100 percent tree-free. Made out of recycled cotton rags, each sheet of gift wrap
  

  Wrapping paper made of recycled rags.

  offers unique colors and patterns. Customers can specify a color preference for these 22 x 32-inch sheets of wrap made by Artisans at the Eco Friendly Papers workshop in Rajasthan, India, who collect cotton waste, such as rags, and turn it into a pulp.

The shop also sells soy candles, women’s dresses, baby accessories, reusable water bottles, Fair Trade cocoa and more.

To read more about Greenheart and its work around the world, see the history on their website.

The Greenheart storefront is open  M-F 11-7; Sat 11-6; Sun 12-5; products are available online.

This Father’s Day go green and sustainable with gifts that support eco-friendly clothing, are made with recycled products or help de-toxify dad’s bath and body routine.

• Whether dad is a rugged outdoorsman or just likes to trek around the ‘hood and occasionally go off-road, he might appreciate these Finn Vegan Hiking Shoes by Patagonia. Made without any animal by-products, they’re topped by a breathable mesh and have a footbed composed of 70 percent recycled foam containing carbon and cork bits to wick moisture and control odor. (Making for a lighter footprint!). The insole board is made from recycled polyethylene and the patented “Vibram Ecostep” outsole is composed of up to 30 percent recycled scrap rubber. Patagonia has been producing green clothing and gear for many years, so these shoes are backed by eco-experience that newer green shoemakers are still acquiring. About $100 at Zappos, which carries many more vegan shoes.

• Exercise is good, but so is relaxation. Any pop would like to hang out on this Envirorope Double Hammock, made from recycled soda bottles. It’s available at Greenfeet, which promises that the Envirope is “softer than virgin polyester and shares the same durability”. It’s mildew- and UV-resistant and measures a generous 5 feet x 7 feet, with an overall length of 13 1/2 feet. So no surprise that it is listed as capable of holding up to 450 pounds for familial group naps (you’ll have to figure out how your family adds up). The Envirorope Double Hammock is made in the USA and the spreader bars are white oak from second growth Virginia trees. $134.95 at Greenfeet, which also sells other hammocks, including a single hammock made of hemp.

• What is it about electronics and guys? They seem perpetually delighted with the latest blinking gadget. This year try giving dad a way to power his gadgets, his iPhone or iPod or handheld game devices, with a Solio Classic Hybrid Solar Charger. The Solio is compact and green, collecting power from the sun to recharge small electronics. A fully charged Solio is listed as able to recharge the average phone once and perhaps twice, or power 15 hours of MP3 music. (The rough calculation is 15 minutes of talk time or 40 minutes of music for one-hour of sun charging time.) You charge at about the same rate of speed as if the gadget were plugged into the wall, except there’s no “charge” because solar energy is free! Great for outdoor excursions, or just use a clear, sunny windowsill to collect the rays. The Solio comes with adaptor tips to fit iPhones, Samsung, Sony-Ericson, Nokia and LG phones and devices. Available many places, including at Green Home for $95.00 

• Get dad started on natural body products with this new Burt’s Bees Men’s Natural Grooming Kit, containing a small body wash, soap bar, sponge, lip balm and aftershave. Good Guide gives Burts Bees products an 8.2 rating, on a scale of 10, for health and social responsibility criteria and notes that the company is a member of Safe Cosmetics and on PETA’s “no animal testing” list. As for the actual ingredients, the Burt’s website lists the ingredients of each product. The body wash, for instance, relies on coconut, citrus and sunflower oils and contains no parabens, phthalates or synthetic fragrances.  $19.99 at Target. Get bigger portions by buying the 12 oz. bottle of  Natural Skin Care for Men Body Wash or the Natural Skin Care Shaving Cream, 6 oz.  These retail for $8 each and are available at many stores.

• Improving the wardrobe — always a good bet and often, necessary. Combine practicality and fun by treating padre to an upscale Loomstate Organic Cotton T-shirt with arty graphics. Loomstate, a collaboration between designers Rogan Gregory and Scott Mackinlay Hahn created in 2004 to create demand for responsibly made, organic cotton clothing, does it better than just about anyone. Check out this breezy “Peace Signs” SS Crew Tee, with whirring wind turbines. It’s $54 at the Loomstate website and there are plenty other designs to choose from.  Loomstate T-shirts, hoodies and shorts are also available at Barneys New York and other retailers.

Copyright © 2009 Green Right Now | Distributed by Noofangle Media

As I unloaded my groceries onto the conveyor belt, I realized I was buying more than could fit in my reusable bags.

“Can you try to fit everything in these?” I asked, handing over my assortment of canvas totes.

“I can try,” the cashier answered. “But it’s no big deal, I can just use plastic bags for whatever we can’t fit into  the ones you brought.”

“Oh no,” I said. “No plastic bags. Please.”

She stared back at me. She had already stretched out a plastic bag and was ready to load.

“I have this thing,” I told her. “I just really hate plastic bags.”

I wasn’t lying. I really do hate plastic bags, and I was on the last day of my one-week challenge to only use reusable bags for every purchase I made.  I wasn’t going to let the two gallons of milk, a watermelon and a Gatorade six-pack that wouldn’t fit in my totes stop me.

“Just put the stuff that doesn’t fit right into the cart,” I told her.

I made it to the car and my groceries made it to my home without the help of a plastic bag. I learned after going a week without them, shopping bags were simply unnecessary.

I got used to the idea of refusing plastic bags at the grocery store during the year I studied in London. Some stores would charge you if you needed a plastic bag while others would give you credit if you brought your own. And it made sense to bring a sturdier bag since you’d most likely be walking your groceries back home.

Carrying a reusable bag in London was trendy and cool. The U.K. is the birthplace of the ubiquitous “I’m Not A Plastic Bag” tote created by activist organization We Are What We Do, which encourages people to use small, daily actions to change the world.

Reusablebags.com reports an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to more than one million per minute. And the bags that get dumped pollute soil and water sources and are the cause of death for thousands of animals each year. Plastic bags do not biodegrade. They photodegrade, which means they break down into smaller and smaller pieces that contaminate the environment.

And paper bags aren’t much better. Research shows that more greenhouse gases are emitted during the manufacturing and transporting of paper bags than plastic bags. So the best solution is to use a reusable bag.

So the What We Do organization asked British bag guru Anya Hindmarch to create an affordable and environmentally friendly bag people could use instead of plastic or paper bags. And when 20,000 of them were released at 450 supermarkets across England in 2007, women got in line at 2 a.m. and all were sold by 9 a.m. Women in the States had a similar reaction. Within three hours of it being offered for the first time across the U.S., it had sold out of every Anya Hindmarch boutique across the nation.

Those pretty knick-knacks and decorative items around your home likely have a history. There’s the crystal bowl that was an anniversary gift from a dear friend, or the candleholder your mom gave you before she died — they all hold great significance.

We’ve found 20 lovely decorative items with their own stories. Our picks come from far-flung nations or close to home, made by fair-trade artisans or creative artists using recycled, natural materials. Take a moment to shop our selections. (Most of the websites selling these goodies have lots of other green items to check out.)

1. A colorful swirl basket from Uganda: This handmade basket, above, is made with coils of natural banana fiber by women in rural Uganda. It’s 15″ wide and 3″ deep, with a loop for hanging. The money you pay goes to employment and training for disadvantaged women, children, the disabled and those with HIV/AIDS. It’s very wallet-friendly, too, at $4.95 from World of Good at eBay.

2. A detailed retabolo photo frame: Artist Alejandro Chavez of Peru hand-makes these Andean life folk art dioramas (above) reflective of life in his country. The lower panel of this one, for example, re-creates a colorful Andean feast. It’s $34, also from World of Good.

From electronics powered by the sun to plates made from corn, towels woven from bamboo and suits spun from recycled plastic bottles, green products are crowding into stores. Never before has the green consumer enjoyed such a dazzling, dizzying…and completely confusing array of treats.

How does one choose? Should you get the locally grown zucchini or the organically farmed summer quash? The bamboo towel from Asia or the organic cotton bath sheet from Texas? Organic face cream or natural? Disposable or reusable? Plastic or stainless? Is it green, sustainable, FSC and Fair Trade?

For an increasing number of consumers, these are important questions. But the answers are spread across a universe of websites, books and human resources. That’s where GoodGuide and TheFind come in. GoodGuide is an online index that rates green food, toys, personal care and household products. TheFind is a shopping search engine that allows you to search and segregate green consumer goods. Both websites want to help you find the stuff that’s legitimately green, with the attributes that you value, and also ferret out products making false claims of sustainability.

Both websites also aim big: GoodGuide has already investigated tens of thousands of green products and wants to become the largest, most reliable online tool that consumers employ to vet the green credentials of a product, be it baby food or dog food, hairspray or bug spray, an action figure or a soil activator.

The free service tells prospective buyers about the product’s contents, its environmental pedigree and whether its manufacturer is working to lower greenhouse gas emissions, embracing low-impact methods, cultivating non-toxic alternatives, treating workers fairly and offering transparency into company workings.

The GoodGuide, which launched last September, already boasts a library of 70,000 products and is getting daily queries from the public for more, says Jodie Van Horn, director of partnerships for GoodGuide. (Now that consumers can assess their food, they’re asking for the guide to step up its inventory of pet foods.)

Now about TheFind. Its goal is simple: to show shoppers “everything” that’s available for sale, online and locally.

“With Google you can see (and) you can find any article from any website anywhere, we’re just trying to do that with shopping,” says TheFind’s CEO Siva Kumar. “It can be done.”

A distinguishing feature of TheFind, which can link shoppers to 500,000 stores, is that it gives searchers an option to sift out the “green” products and/or find local stores. The local shopping option, in some instances, may offer the lowest carbon-footprint purchase. All told, TheFind can locate some 320 million products, and more than a million of them are part of its green data collection.

Are you sensing that the GoodGuide and TheFind might be compatible? So did the proprietors, which is how TheFind and GoodGuide came to partner by interlinking to each other’s data. This just-announced partnership should put green consumers on the fast track to finding the best-of-class, verifiably green products – in the price and location they want.

When getting ready for Mother’s Day, don’t forget about Mother Earth. We have gathered ten ideas that your mother will love and won’t hurt the earth.

A Gift That Blooms

1. Flowers are always right for Mom’s Day. If you are leaning in that direction, consider buying local blooms from a local florist. Picking out flowers that are grown locally cuts down on the amount of gas used to bring you that flower, and you will be supporting your neighborhood economy. If cut flowers aren’t easily found, look for a perennial or shrub in a pot.

Find local flower markets and farms by typing in your zip code on LocalHarvest.org. We found White Dove Farm Flowers, in Santa Paula, Calif., north of Los Angeles, which produced this gorgeous Iris.

White Dove is just one of many possible local sellers. You’ll find several flower farms, sometimes as part of larger produce and herb farms, in any large market.

A Gift With A Conscience

2. Make your mom proud and invest in another woman’s future. Microplace.com enables you to make an investment in a loan of a hard-working borrower in an impoverished nation. With only a $20 donation, your mom can receive a hand-woven, free-trade scarf from Bihar, India and you will help a hard-working entrepreneur to lift herself out of poverty.

A Tasty Treat

3. A basket full of fresh organic fruits and vegetables can more than carry the day. Stop by your local farmers market and hand pick some fruit or veggies. To be earth friendly, reuse a basket or pretty tote you have in the house and fill it with your hand-picked goodies, her favorites.

Add some baked treats from Blackbird Bakery for some gluten-free sweets to make mom smile. Blackbird, founded by Karen Morgan, and popular with Courtney Cox Arquette, Island Def Jam and Laura Dern,  uses 100 percent organic fruit, eggs and dairy in its products.

Or add a sweet touch from Taza chocolate – it’s organic and stone ground and available in gift boxes.

Turning off the water while you brush your teeth, installing a low-flow showerhead, and simply taking shorter showers are all easy ways to make your bathroom a more environmentally conscious place. Choosing responsible-produced bath linens is another good step. These natural towels are extremely soft, on you and the environment. Made under fair labor conditions of organic cotton and organic dyes, their warm natural color complements most any decor.

• Bath towel: 55″H x 27 1/2″W
• Face towel: 19 3/4″H x 11 3/4″W

Keetsa is a San Francisco-based sleep store that wants to challenge the old traditional ways of buying a mattress with new types of products and a new way of doing business.

Keetsa’s eco-minded solutions include:

• Compress packing mattresses to reduce carbon foot prints.
• Continuous developments toward sustainability to increase Keetsa Quotient
• Usage of Green Tea extract to create foam with low emissions of VOCs.

The company’s orientation towards sustainability has led to a new, fresh approach to creating a better sleep environment. It started with a question: how can you make a better mattress that encourages deep, restorative sleep and has a lower impact on the planet? Some obvious changes to the materials used in mattresses surfaced (since they are among the largest disposable consumer products). But there were other challenges, as well.

Do you really need a ‘box spring’ for your bed? Or, can you sleep just as well with a simple foundation? Check out our Keetsa Foundations.

Can you make a pillow supportive, yet soft for comfort? Check out Keetsa eco-friendly pillows.

Is there a low-impact way to re-fresh an existing mattress that still has life without having to throw the whole thing away? Check out our Keetsa Re-Cover System.

Is there a product that can protect the mattress from mites? Check out Keetsa Protective Cases.

You can find Keetsa online or visit the showroom at 271 9th Street, San Francisco.