Men and women who are big on green style and earth-friendly substance have discovered that the Web is littered with natural and free-trade clothes and accessories. You can get vegan shoes for hundreds of dollars, or hoodies and Ts for a lot less.

We’ve combed through online shops to create a very merry Green His and Hers Gift Guide.

HIGH STYLE

Deborah Lindquist uses both  “reincarnated” and new Earth-friendly fabrics for her creations. From her current collection, “Goth Girl Goes to the Country, ” is a vintage cashmere crewneck floor sweeping dress, $394, and silk long-sleeve T-shirt underneath, $185 (above).  You can buy Lindquist’s edgy styles in stores, or directly on her Web site.

Linda Loudermilk, another hot natural designer, offers a striking organic cotton long jacket for him (below). It looks like leather, but it’s not – because the fabric is cured with mud. It has top-quality styling and details, which is good since it costs $2,350. You can take solace knowing that it will last a lifetime.

Let’s shop green without being obvious about it, OK? You can, you know. There are many ways to tweak the holiday list this year to skew it toward recycled, socially conscious, energy-conserving goods. Of course, we don’t like to advocate lots of consuming. We definitely don’t buy that theory that it’s our patriotic duty to purchase our way out of the recession.

On the other hand, we are going to exchange gifts this holiday season. With that in mind, here are a few humble suggestions for keeping it green (and affordable), subtly.

A TOASTER OVEN

Black and Decker CTO6301 Convection Toaster Oven

Mom, dad, a kid on her way to college. Lots of people can appreciate the utility and electricity savings of a Toaster Oven. Did you know that the average 1500 watts used by a toaster/convection oven is less than half, or even more, than that used by a full-size oven? How many times have you heated the entire oven just to warm rolls for dinner? Or to bake a couple ramekins of dessert? Or broil a tuna melt? Or brown a small brushetta?

Turn that big oven off, and use a tool that’s sized-right for the job. That’s the very sound idea behind this “smart” appliance. There are dozens to choose from. The Black & Decker one shown here can be had at Amazon and other stores for around $60. It gets good reviews for durability, space and function.

THE WOVEL

THe wovel uses see-saw action to shove snow.

This goofy looking simple machine just might keep some snow blowers off the road. It’s unique enough to keep the relatives marveling about the weird gift Aunt Sally got Uncle Mel, but it’s got it’s serious side: It powers through snow without using fossil fuels.  More importantly to most users, it makes the job of shoveling the white stuff, pound per pound, easier. Easier on the back, mainly, because the motion of pushing and then “throwing” the snow engages leg and arm muscles.

We don’t actually have one, and we wonder if it’s quite as easy as it looks, but the see-saw action does appear to take a load off the back, a victory over bending, raising and twisting to shovel snow the old-fashioned way. The Wovel has made several YouTube appearances since being named on Time’s Best Inventions List in 2006. Check out this video by a convinced user.

It is expensive for a shovel ($119.95 retail), but it solves a problem, without adding another pollution-spewing machine to the household arsenal.

RECYCLED TIRE WALLET

Recycled Tire Wallet made by artisans in El Salvador

Number three on our list is black, but so very green. This completely recycled, vegan friendly wallet is made from discarded tires. But it looks so much like the standard leather version we thought it would qualify as a green gift that doesn’t stand out as different. Each 9 x 3.5 inch wallet has a slot for money and six slots for credit cards, just like you’d expect. A Fair Trade artisan group in El Salvador makes these wallets, helping provide jobs and living wages in their community. You can buy it ($30)  through the GreenHeartShop in Chicago, at their online store.

Green Heart helps promote artisan craft goods, clothing and food from around the world and in the U.S.

By

Really, we shouldn’t think of them as gift baskets. We should think of them as stockings for adults, overflowing with fabulous presents for good girls and boys who have been green all year.

Slideshow: green gifts for baskets

There are plenty of pre-made gift baskets, and sure, that is easier on you. But if you like being one of Santa’s elves, if you like filling the sleigh with cool green gifts that pre-made baskets can only dream of – and being sure of their content and origins – then you are in the right place. (Elves wear green, you know. It’s documented.)

A spa basket fit for Mother Earth

You know exactly who you’d give this to. The woman in your life who makes time for others (but not always for herself); who thinks of the extras (and acts like it’s nothing special); who gives and gives (yet rarely takes). She needs a reason to stop and breathe. Let’s put an assortment of those reasons into an eco-friendly gift basket that will soothe her skin, tickle her senses and tell her you’ve noticed.

The healing properties of a good long bath are nothing new – ancient peoples and modern marketers alike have rhapsodized about it. Bubble bath or bath salts make the water spa-worthy, and these products make it organic as well. Nimli’s In the Raw Bubble Bath ($38, pictured above) is infused with oils in seven scents (mango, lemongrass and sage, lavender and orange, grapefruit and tangerine, creamsicle, coco mango, and ginger and lime). The cork-stoppered bottle holds a generous 18 ounces.

We’re dreaming of these Organic Sea-Therapy Bath Salts ($18), which are made with crystallized kelp from an organic seaweed farm on the Brittany coast of France, and contain more than 60 minerals, vitamins, antioxidants and animo acids that detoxify the body and nourish the skin. In two scents: eucalyptus or lavender. From Eco Choices.

Soap can clean dirt off your skin, or it can wrap you in glycerin and the fragrance of essential oils. The Rainforest Site’s handcrafted Natural Glycerin Soap Cube ($5.50) comes in three scents: citrus zest, herbal whimsy (lavender, rosemary, peppermint and tea tree) or kitchen café (cinnamon, ginger and coffee). The colorful blocks of soap are made by The Enterprising Kitchen, which helps disadvantaged women in Chicago. The Rainforest Site sends some of its profits back into preserving rainforest, so this is one green product that does triple duty, helping women in Chicago gain job skills, supporting reforestation and using natural ingredients.

Or opt for the Handmade Botanical Spa Soap ($9 for one, $22 for three) from EcoChoices, which are made with organic oils (olive, palm and coconut) and organic botanical scents (unscented is available as well).

As in so many things in life, the accessories make all the difference. The Paw Prints Cotton Eye Mask ($10) from the Rainforest Site is made in Vietnam, and while it’s a sleep mask, we think it also helps with daydreaming in the bath. Vashon Organics offers Certified Organic Loofah sponges and gloves made in Paraguay ($3-$7.50), the first loofahs certified to be organically grown. And when she wraps herself in a hand-loomed Organic Cotton Bath Towel ($67, left) from EcoChoices, she’ll be wrapping herself in 100 percent Bergama organic cotton from the Aegean Sea region in Turkey, dyed with vegetable and natural dyes. All of these are fair-trade products, which support artisans and small businesses in developing nations, allowing them to earn a fair and decent wage and encouraging sustainable enterprises.

After the bath, she needs products to help her keep that luscious moisture in. Hollybeths organic Marigold & Basil Shea Butter ($22) sounds good enough to eat, but it’s meant to hydrate the skin and uplift her with citrus or lavender scents, sold by Nimli, a New York City company that buys carbon offsets to cover shipping and arranges direct shipment to customers to minimize environmental travel costs.

Thistle Farms Moisturizing Body Balm ($12) from the Rainforest Site will help soften rough elbows, knees and feet. It’s handmade from olive oil, almond oil, beeswax and essential oils by the women of Thistle Farms, a residential community in Nashville that helps rehabilitate women with histories of prostitution or drug addiction.

And there’s no better time for contemplation than after a soothing bath, when the pressing needs of the world have quieted, just for now. Finish her gift basket with two personal indulgences – a Tibetan Spa Soy Wax Candle ($15) from Fair Trade Online, and a handmade Tibetan Waterbird Journal ($11) from the Rainforest Site. We promise that when she reflects on you, it’ll all be good.

Tis’ the season to be…conservative? Afraid so. As the economic downturn and the need to better care for our planet converge into a new aesthetic, we are facing an unusual holiday season. We can show we care with holiday gifts that help us all to consume less.

More from GRN

• Great green toy ideas for 2008
• Three great green gift baskets
• Slideshow: green gifts for baskets

This might seem the antithesis of consumerism, too bah humbug to be any fun. But we think you’ll see that we’re talking about smarter consuming; buying durable goods that cut out the disposables, forsaking chemical-laden items and making some of your own stuff, whether its soda or energy. Read on:

The Sodastream Penguin – make your own soda, bypass plastic bottles

We admit we were easily sold on the idea of making our own soda because it cuts down on plastic proliferation. Even a family that recycles #1 and #2 beverage bottles, could reduce their carbon imprint by cutting out the purchase of petroleum-based plastic bottles.

So the key question was not whether the Sodastream Penguin was environmentally friendly, but did the thing work? (And would it be a cool gift?)
We eagerly set up the inaugural trial at the kitchen table. The 13-year-old did the honors — and let’s face it, figured it all out quicker than his elders would have. But then as our most avid soda consumer he was the most motivated.

Turns out that making one’s own bubbly is no more difficult than making chocolate chip cookies, and a good bit quicker. After loading the carbonation canister inside the appliance, you fill the glass carafe with tap water and lock it in on the opposite side of Mr. Penguin; a couple pushes on the button, a whistle, and you’ve carbonated the water. Add flavoring and you’ve got soda. We tried several of our sample flavorings over the next two days, finding that we liked Lemon Lime and Root Beer the best.

However – and here was the biggest stumbling block – we didn’t like the extra sweet taste or aftertaste of the sucralose that had been added to even the regular drinks. Perhaps we were a skewed lot because we avoid faux sweeteners such as aspartame and Splenda and are unaccustomed to the taste of sucralose. A spokeswoman for the company told us that the sucralose is less bulky than sugar, and that’s why it’s added. But whatever the reason, we found its inclusion to be not so refreshing.

Happily, the Lemon-Lime, Orange and Berry all-natural flavor essences that Soda Club sells do not have any sucralose baggage. They are not sweetened and add just a hint of flavor to make a fun seltzer. The flavor and the fizz was as good as we’d been buying, and this being our drink of choice anyway, we began churning out carafes of these sparkling waters. The economics of this look pretty sweet, actually: Each small bottle of essence makes 40 liters of flavored seltzer, meaning that a variety three pack (retail $9.99) would make 120 liters, enough to hold our family for months. Add about $25 for the cost of carbonating the water for those 120 liters and you’re talking about 30 cents a carafe, not counting the overhead cost of the machine. (I’m not sure how to amortize that.)

Picture too the environmental savings of 120 plastic bottles subtracted from the waste equation, or about four recycle bins that your family didn’t fill.

Which reminds me. Those carbonation canisters do not go in the trash! You send them in to be refilled at a cost of about $12.50 per canister. (See the Soda Club website for details.) A word about the carbonation: Home soda makers have received mixed reviews on the consistency and durability of their bubbles. Consumer Reports, though, found that homemade soda held its carbonation for 10 days in the refrigerator just as well as the manufactured controls.

And we discovered another healthier drink to make, celebratory sparkling juice. Just mix juice with the seltzer. We’ve found it’s best to use grape juice, which could stand to be diluted anyway, or real juice concentrates, sold in many health food markets. Our kids have come to expect their bubbly at holidays (in wine glasses of course), and now that we have the Penguin, they can make their own varietals!

So if you’re looking for a “conservative” gift that’s also got pizazz, no easy trick, the Penguin should make a splash.The Penguin retails for $199.95 (and includes a starter pack of 2 60-carafe carbonators and two glass carafes). It is available at Williams Sonoma stores, and online at the Sodastream store.
A soda maker called the “Design” is available at Sam’s Club stores for $79.99, with a starter carbonator and two BPA-free reusable bottles.