December 8th, 2008

Green Gifts for Men: Please Your Eco-Dude

Posted by Jessica Jensen

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Why are you men so hard to shop for??? Mom, sister-in-law, sister– check, check, check.  They are so easy!  But buying for my father, huzzy, and brother-in-law keeps me awake at night!  Then add to that that I’m trying to buy eco-friendly gifts and it gets even harder.  So I’ve searched and pondered and here are some ideas I’ve come up with for the sweet eco-dudes in our lives– I hope they help!

Idea #1:  Give an experience instead of stuff.  By far the most eco-friendly type of gift you can give someone is the gift of an experience.  It’s much more green to take someone to a play or buy them a massage or make them brunch than it is to buy them some item.  Don’t we all have enough stuff anyway?  So I encourage all of us to think of experiences we can give to our eco-dudes.  How excited would he be if you actually bought him baseball tickets? Wow, that would get you major points.  Or how about you call his mom and find out what his favorite childhood meal was and whip that up? (Organic) comfort food is the way to any man’s heart.

Idea #2: Get that man some learnin’.  How about a cooking class? Or some yoga lessons?  Or some golf coaching?  My cute husband recently told me he wanted to learn how to play the ukulele…. so you guessed it, he’ll be strumming away in class come 2009.  Classes or coaching are great eco-gifts.

Idea #3:  Dudes love gadgets.  Every man I’ve ever known loved electronic gadgets.  So here are some eco-gadgets that might float their boat.  This nifty item is a hand-cranked LED light, radio, cell-phone charger combination. It’s amazing! (I actually own one.) It uses no electricity and is great for natural-disaster preparedness.  It is really satisfying to crank the little handle and see the light come on and the radio start to play!  Better still– it’s only $25.

Solar chargers in general make a great gift– you can get them for laptops, cell phones, iPods, and more.  Check out lots of solar chargers here.

Another super-cool gadget my husband got that has changed his life is the Kindle from Amazon.  It is a complete book and periodical replacement.  You just download books and or magazines and newspapers with this wireless reading device and you’re off and running.  The screen is the size of standard paperback and the whole device is very easy to use.  You can have 4-5 books and weeks of newspapers and take them all on vacation!  Or you can program it to download your paper automatically every morning.  Think of all the paper you’ll save! The Kindle is pretty nifty.

Idea #4: Get that man some eco-style.  There are so many cool companies making clothing now out of bamboo and organic cotton and even recycled plastic bottles….every man deserves to look good and support the planet at the same time.   Patagonia is a wonderful, environmentally-minded company that make tons of great looking clothes for men…and I also love these t-shirts from Fuse Organics. 

Good luck with those dudes!

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