When I first started publishing our
Green Holiday Gift Guide in 2002, the pickings were pretty slim. Back then, buying an environmentally-responsible gift usually involved a trip to the health food store for some cruelty-free soap or buying a pair of sandals made from recycled tires at your local hip boutique. About the closest thing to green technology I could find were some early LED flashlights and a small folding solar panel that could be used to charge up those new-fangled NiMH batteries. Happily, this has changed radically in the past year or two, with hundreds of mainstream high-tech and low-tech manufacturers getting into the act.
Last year’s
Green Holiday Gift Guide overflowed with exciting choices that put a smile on your face without punching a hole in the Ozone Layer. In fact, there was so much green tech on the market that we were even able to publish a companion
Green Computing Guide.
2008 has seen an explosion of toys, tools and trinkets that have been designed and manufactured with the environment in mind. Whether it’s a wide-screen HDTV or a stylish laptop, there are many makes and models that are exceptionally energy-efficient, use lots of eco-friendly materials, and are easy to recycle at the end of their lives. There are even fun things like electric bicycles that make reducing your carbon footprint a pleasure. With the huge universe of green-tech goodies on the market these day it’s impossible for me to keep track of everything myself.
That’s why I’m inviting you, dear reader, to submit your best ideas for this year’s
Green Gift Guide. If you’ve found a product that’s so cool you feel it deserves a place under the eco-conscious consumer holiday tree, you can simply send me the item’s name, a brief description and a URL where a reader can get more information about it.
If you’re feeling a bit more ambitious, I’d love to give you the opportunity to post your review in our 2008 guide. Writing a short review of your favorite green tech toy is easy to do, here are the basic ground rules:
The products you write about should be exceptionally fun, useful, or otherwise interesting as well as have environmentally-positive features. These can include use of green power or energy-efficient operation, reducing or eliminating consumption of natural resources, or being produced using eco-friendly practices. We’ll be accepting your entries from now until Friday, November 28, 2008.
When you submit a candidate product, please include the following:
- Product name, model, and brief description
- A short list of important features and specifications
- A list of eco-features with as much detail as possible
- A review of the product, including what you like and dislike, as well as anything you find especially interesting about it, or the way it was made. Length can range from 25 to around 250 words, depending on how much there is to say and your writing skills
- Pricing and availability
- A URL where your fellow readers can get more information and perhaps even order the product
If you can, please supply a photo or two of your favorite product to publish with your review. Photos should be in the web-friendly JPEG format and be copyright free.
Finally, please let us know if you want us to include your name and home town in the review, or if you’d prefer to remain anonymous.
There are already a couple of really exciting green goodies on my holiday list, including an ultra-efficient HDTV and a sampling of the world’s best electric bicycles, but it’s almost certain that the best items in this year’s Guide will come from you.
Feel free to send your reviews, comments, questions, or
visions of digital sugar plum fairies dancing in your head to me at lhg at en-genius.net. I’d also love to kick around any ideas you have for green gifts on the
EN-Genius Blog: just post your ideas via the link below to add your spontaneous two cents.
