Give the Planet a gift this Christmas

The Green Guide for Christmas contains everything you need for the festive season – but with a planet-friendly, natural and ethical slant.

Choose from organic and fair trade food, hampers, clothes, shoes, accessories, chocolates, wine, cosmetics, gadgets, jewellery, toys, gift vouchers, books, magazines and much, much more.

Or consider something completely different. Buy a tank for £1,000 and keep five blacksmiths in Sierra Leone busy for a year as they turn it into ploughshares. Why not give a voucher for an organic cookery weekend or a course on low impact living – or maybe splash out on an environmental research trip. Buy an acre of rainforest; adopt a dolphin, a turtle or an orangutan; send medicines to developing countries; sponsor bees, cattle and goats; build a toilet or a well; or help fund a school.

There is something planet-friendly for everyone in the Green Guide for Christmas – whether for you, your family and friends or for people you’ve never even met. Gift suggestions start at 35p and go all the way up to more than £8,000.

The Green Guide for Christmas contains:

• more than 200 of the best green, ethical or natural gift suggestions
• over 600 listings for planet-friendly mail order suppliers and retailers
• the best green shopping web sites and ethical catalogues
• tips and advice for greening your Christmas

Price £8.50 (plus £1.50 P&P).

Buy the Green Guide for Christmas here

Download a sample file here - Christmas Sample file

It is also available in the most eco-friendly option of a downloadable PDF, priced £6.00

The Green Guide for Christmas was printed on sustainable papers using vegetable inks and minimal water inputs.

Some Green & Ethical Christmas Gift Suggestions from the Guide
(There are another 180 in the Guide plus over 600 listings of planet-friendly mail order suppliers and retailers)

Swords into Ploughshares – Give a Tank this Christmas
Peace is paying dividends in Sierra Leone. The same civil war that depleted the country of tools and work is now providing ample raw material for recovery: weapons. Enterprising blacksmiths and metal workers convert them into farm implements. The indisputable heavyweight champ is a tank that can provide a year's work for five blacksmiths, turning it into 3,000 items vital to equip a farming village of 100 families. Jobs, tools, agriculture. Price £1,000.00 from www.goodgifts.org

Elephany Dung Paper Note book
Amazing and beautiful hand crafted memo book, made from elephant dung and recycled paper. Price £10.30 from www.ecotopia.co.uk or call on 01453 752 345.

Exquisite 100% Sterling Silver Evening Bag
This exquisite bag is the result of an amazing environmental success story. Emerging from a troubled time when their economic survival depended on growing opium for the world’s drug market, 27 Northern Thailand hill tribes are now being supported by a development foundation to create viable alternative means of income. Exemplary highland agricultural projects have enabled local communities to grow alternative crops, such as coffee and nuts, instead of opium, and the reforestation programme has significantly restored rainforest cover throughout the area. Created in a lasting and classic design, this extraordinary bag is a stunning example of how traditional craftsmanship skills have been adapted to appeal to contemporary markets. It costs £275 and is available exclusively from Natural Collection by mail order on 0870 331 3333 or online at www.naturalcollection.com

Adopt an Orangutan
As humans invade the rainforests on which orangutans depend, many lose their homes, their mothers and their lives. For every captured infant that survives, another 3 to 5 die. By adopting an infant you will help to provide it with the loving long-term care on which it depends as it embarks on a slow journey back to the wild. Your adoption will also benefit the other orphans at the Care Centre. Costs £24.95 per annum from Care for the Wild International. Call on 01306 627900 or visit www.careforthewild.com

From Cell Blocks and Silk Parachutes
The ingredients of Worn Again trainers have been through a lot and the fabrics chosen for each pair of trainers have been given a new lease of life as functional footwear with uncompromising style. Because they are made from reused materials, the variation in colour and texture give each pair a unique character. Available from www.wornagain.co.uk priced £60 (inc P&P) and available at stockists such as Sole, Kurt Geiger, Schuh, Rift and Traid Remade stores.

Solar Power Backpack
This futuristic Voltaic backpack is designed for the super cool modern humanoid! Embedded in the back of the bag are three lightweight, tough, waterproof solar panels which generate up to four watts of power. Inside the bag is a Li-ion battery pack which stores any surplus power generated. Just plug a standard car charger into the bag and recharge most small electronic devices including mobile phones, cameras, two way radios, PDA’s and MP3s. Price £169.95 from Natural Collection at www.naturalcollection.com or call on 0870 331 3333.

Clothworks Organic Cotton Cardigan
Linda Row designs clothes with a ‘cradle to cradle’ philosophy. Her organic cotton cardigan with fluted front opening is coloured with natural dyes and available in natural, taupe, lilac and pink from www.clothworks.co.uk or call on 01225 309 218. Price £59.00.

Buy someone a toilet for Christmas!
Looking for a potty pressie idea? These simple structures prevent the spread of deadly diseases in crisis situations. Expertly installed, they ensure that the writing’s on the wall for cholera and typhoid. You don’t have to be flush to finance these facilities either. Spend some pennies – save some lives. Price £30.00 from www.oxfamunwrapped.com

Penny Gray Jewellery
Penny Gray moved to Cornwall in 1997 and her love of texture and colour inspired her to produce her own range of jewellery made from recycled buttons, vintage beads and pearls, sea glass and shells – anything interesting, mounted on a recycled plastic base to produce ‘one off’ pieces. Her original designs include brooches, rings, necklaces and earrings. Prices from £30.00. www.pennygray.co.uk or call on 01736 874 422.

Hug your Kids
HUG’s funky Little Green Radicals collection (from £15) will appeal to all the eco tots out there. T-shirts bear slogans such as ‘I recycle my tantrums’, ‘I only eat organic turnips’, ‘wind farm’ and ‘genetically mudified organism’ – quite perfect for little eco warriors! From www.hug.co.uk or 0845 130 1525.

The Crisis Pud
By giving a delicious luxury Crisis Pud as a present you will also be giving a homeless person the chance to make a new start in 2006. Every pudding sold will be giving a homeless person a Christmas dinner ‘with all the trimmings’ at this year’s Crisis Open Christmas, helping them to take the first steps to rebuilding their lives. Available for £30 via a dedicated campaign site www.crisispud.org.uk, or by phone 0800 038 4838.

Sweet Smell
If you’re already into organic food, weekly yoga work-outs and all-natural skincare, then isn’t it time you re-thought your signature scent too? Rich Hippie perfumes are 100 per cent natural and made using the traditional methods employed by perfumers before the advent of the chemical indusry. Visit www.rich-hippie.com. Prices start from £60.00, available from The Natural Store on 01273 746 781 or at www.thenaturalstore.co.uk

Low Impact Living
Low-Impact Living Initiative (LILI) is dedicated to helping protect the global environment by promoting sustainable alternatives to various aspects of everyday life. Give a gift of a course voucher for budding eco-warriors. Contact them to find out more about their courses, manuals, information sheets, products and presentations on 01296 714 184 or visit www.lowimpact.org

Budding Bobs
The Natural Nursery offers a magical collection of soft and wooden toys from fair trade and renewable sources. Fun, educational and stylish whether you are looking for a stocking filler – (starting from 29p and all under £5.00) – or that ‘special big present’ you will find it there. Tool Kit is £9.99. Call on 0117 966 8483 or visit www.thenaturalnursery.co.uk

Black Isle Beers
Get these mail order, craft-brewed organic ales as the ideal gift for the ethical beer drinker. A mixed box of 20 bottles for £44.95 is delivered within mainland Britain. The brewery’s mission is to produce a range of top quality organic beers packaged in recycled materials. The barley and hops used are grown on organic farms. www.blackislebrewery.com or 01463 811 871.

Restoring the Caledonian Forest
Imagine how would you feel if a friend told you that they had planted a tree just for you, in the beautiful Highlands of Scotland. Growing over the years, your tree and its progeny will stand forever as part of the restored Caledonian Forest. Trees for Life began in 1981 as a local solution to the global problem of deforestation. Since 1989 over 472,000 native trees have been planted. Donations start at £15. Call on 01309 691 292 or see www.treesforlife.org.uk

Tis the Season to be Jolly Organic
Made from organically grown cotton and hand dyed by a fair trade co-operative, Tatty Bumpkin’s Christmas stocking kit is the perfect gift for little’uns as well as making a mantelpiece or fireplace look truly festive. Price £19.99 from www.tattybumpkin.com or call 01732 812 212.