Columnists

Need a gift for someone who has everything? Maybe that girl (or guy) just wants ta have some (easy on the earth) fun. I think that the gifts below are green because they’re low waste and they help support ecotourism or your local economy. They’re just a few ideas I’ve been saving up, so please share your own favourites!

Music lessons. That dusty violin could use some love. Reunite your friend with her instrumental passions – or give her the confidence to try out something new, like her singing voice – and you could get a front-row seat to a budding musician! The Royal Conservatory of Music offers courses, and music stores often have information about local instructors.

Forest adventures. Just because you’re nervous about zooming through the treetops suspended from a ziplining wire doesn’t mean you shouldn’t buy a ticket for your friend to do so. Check your local ecotourism destination (or try this one in BC) for this and other fun options such as canopy tours. The tour shown above is offered by the Haliburton Forest and Wildlife Reserve. It’s half a kilometre long and 10 to 20 metres off the ground, for a beautiful birds-eye view. Or go spelunking – otherwise known as caving – an opportunity to light up a headlamp and squeeze your way through tight caverns as you explore the depths of the earth. Giving gifts that support leaving the landscape wild helps ensure we have wildlife habitat for the future.

Theatre or orchestra tickets. Give an entertaining, feel-good gift that lasts all year with season’s tickets for local productions. Support a community’s efforts to create music, build sets, make costumes and generally share the joy.
Make it ecological: Look for venues near your friend, so she doesn’t have to drive.

Cycling or padding tours. Athletic friends looking to get away from it all – and see a beautiful landscape up close – might love a summer adventure  such as these paddling trips offered in Newfoundland and Labrador or these Eastern Ontario cycling trips.
Make it ecological: Look for itineraries that include lodging and dining options near the route.

Dinner for two. Give your friend a delicious, bill-free night out and support a restaurant that features local food. You’ll support local agricultural producers, from cheese mongers to meat producers to veggie growers and more.
Make it ecological: Ask the restaurant if they offer local wine and beer selections.

Spa appointments. Nothing says friendship (among women, at least) like giving some total pampering time for both of you, so you can share the fun and pampering of pedicures, massages and facials. Where else but at the spa is it really, totally all about you?
Make it ecological: Ask about organic ingredients and check that nail polishes are free of nasty chemicals such as formaldehyde and toluene. Why? See my earlier post on the subject.

Bird-watching or hiking kits. Bring out the nature lover in your friend with a field guide - to the birds, the trees, the flowers, the frogs and toads, even the mushrooms of your area. (Ontario residents can use the Royal Ontario Museum’s digital field guides here. Those in Western Canada might enjoy this book. ) Add trail maps and trail mix and an insulated flask for hot drinks, and perhaps a membership to your local conservation area or park, and you have the makings of a beautiful experience with nature.
Go the next step: send your friend on a birding tour, such as this one to Canada’s Point Pelee National Park.

Is there a great experience in your area that Eco Logic readers should know about?

What experiential gift would you love to receive?

‘Tis the season to start Christmas shopping. I’d like to help you on your quest to give meaningful gifts (that don’t mess up the planet). Let’s face it, by helping you I’m also helping myself! (Friends and family, speak up now about what you want — and don’t want.)

I think I’ll offer gift ideas grouped into types. So here’s Type No. 1: consumable gifts!

Chocolate. Oh, I’ve been a lucky girl lately. I’ve been “testing” fair trade, organic chocolate for my Homemakers magazine column, Jess Tests. (Look for my story in our February/ March 2011 issue.) I’ve tried mouthwatering chocolate from Canadian companies including Camino, Galerie au Chocolat, Theobroma and a few other companies from outside Canada as well, including Divine (yes, their mint dark chocolate deserves that name) and Green & Black’s Maya Gold.
Make it ecological: Look for the Fair Trade Certified logo as well as an organic certification, such as Canada Organic or USDA Organic. As an alternative, shop from your local artisanal chocolate shop, and ask them for products made with Fair Trade ingredients.

Loose-leaf tea. I’m having the best tea of my life these days. Friends and family have lavished me with gifts of loose-leaf tea, and I’ve invested in a couple of infusers. Perhaps I’m enjoying better quality tea, perhaps it’s more fresh, or maybe it’s just the experience of  working with the tea leaves directly, but I’ve never enjoyed tea so much.
Make it eco-logical: Choose Fair Trade, organic tea in reusable tins. I love that some tea shops provide a discount when you return for more tea with your reusable tin. For an explanation of why you should avoid tea in silk or nylon bags, see this earlier post.

Mustards, jams, pickles, chutneys and sauces. I think we’ve come to a point in the slow food revolution where, if you gave someone a jar of something homemade and tasty – such as this Homemakers recipe for pickles, they would be aware of the time and effort that went into the making, recognize the high quality of the food and generally appreciate it as a really great gift. Personalize your efforts: use this funky tool to create your own fun gift labels for the jars.
Make it eco-logical: If you don’t make your own jarred goodies, just go to your local farmers’ market or your local food supplier and support your local food artisans.

Maple syrup. Why is it that the good stuff – you know, where you can really taste the maple sugar, with a hint of smoke – is at every tourist gift shop, but hard to find on major grocer’s shelves? Let’s treat our friends with a taste of a national treasure. I go on and on about maple flakes and maple sugar as well – it’s maple syrup in a dried form, perfect for sweetening beverages, desserts (like our maple truffles), glazing fish… mmm, I’m getting hungry!
Make it ecological: Take the time to visit a maple sugar producer near you, learn how they work and show the kids too!

Candles. Beeswax candles. An eco alternative to parrafin wax candles (parrafin comes from petroleum), beeswax candles should put your gift recipient in the mood – the mood to support Canada’s apiaries, that is. Although I see beeswax candles at many farmers’ markets, green living stores and decor shops, you can also buy them online.
Make it ecological: Ask if the beeswax comes from Canada.

Notebooks. Yes, I have lots of notebooks, but I love them and fill them up with story ideas and other plans quickly. I love spiral-bound notebooks made with recycled paper, and I’m also keen to jot in those new school workbook-type notebooks. These Ecojot Made-in-Canada notebooks are particularly fun.
Make it Ecological: Look for the FSC logo as well as paper made with post-consumer, recycled content.

Soaps. I know that boxed soaps wrapped in pretty paper are all the rage. But how about completely unpackaged soaps, made without artificial fragrances or dyes? Too boring? Take a smell of these lovelies when you get a chance – you might just change your mind!
Make it Ecological: Look for soaps that contain Canadian-grown ingredients, such as lavender and mint.

UPDATE. I can’t believe I forgot the WINE! Vinters are getting into organic wines, which just make sense to me: grapes are listed among those fruits that you should consume organic because their thin skins are more likely to be permeable to pesticides. The same must be true for grapes used in wine. For a bit of background about organic wine and to see who is offering it, see the Wines of Canada site here. For fabulous wine reviews, click here to visit Natalie MacLean, Homemakers’ wine columnist!

Look for more Eco Logic gift guides coming up.

Do you have other ideas for consumable gifts? What would you most like to receive?

What’s the worst gift you ever received? Stinky soap that made you sneeze? Flaking candles that wouldn’t stay lit? Something that still had remnants of earlier wrapping paper on it, a clear regift? If only the giver had recognized that they just didn’t know what to get you, and chosen to give you a charitable gift — perhaps a donation that supports Canadian wildlife habitat — instead.

Charities themselves, as well as giving organizations such as Canada Helps, make it really easy to donate with gift giving in mind. This year World Wildlife Fund Canada (WWF-Canada) is offering symbolic wildlife adoptions to help them fund their conservation work. This year they’re introducing the lynx. According to WWF, “Hunting and trapping the lynx for their soft fur has completely depleted lynx populations in some parts of the world. Habitat destruction and degradation place further stress on the lynx, forcing them to adapt to unfamiliar environments.”

And World Wildlife Fund is offering one lynx adoption kit to Eco Logic readers!
UPDATE: THE CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED. THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR YOUR ENTRIES!
CONGRATS TO GAYLE OLSON, THE WINNER OF THE LYNX ADOPTION KIT FROM WWF!

To win this adorable, collectible version of the lynx, simply post a comment below. The lucky winner will be chosen by drawing a name from a hat when the CONTEST CLOSES at noon on November 17. Employees of Homemakers magazine and Transcontinental Media and their family members are not eligible to win.

Good luck! And look back to Eco Logic soon for more green gift ideas.

We’re five days away from Christmas, when many people around the world will join in the annual ritual of giving and receiving. I’m predicting that economic conditions have danced with the crafter movement to create a surge of hand-made gifts this year.

I’m not very good at making things, aside from little songs, so I love to receive a hand-made photo scrapbook, hand-made cards, all things hand-knit… and pretty much anything made with love. But there’s one class of stuff that no one wants under the tree: upcycled handicrafts.

The definition of upcycling isn’t yet set in stone, but it strikes me as: using materials pretty much as-is to construct or adorn new materials.

Whether it’s a picture frame decorated with used dental flossers, a doll’s head making an appearance on a toilet paper cosy or an old sock repurposed into a fruit protector, some things, as documented on Regretsy, are just not meant to be reused.

Hey, I’m sure there are great ways to upcycle. All I’m saying is, in this case, it may be better to give upcycled items to a true fan: oneself.

Prove me wrong! Do you have a great idea for a gift made with reused materials?