This Christmas there will be a million products competing for your cash. Apart from the difficulty of making the right choice for every recipient, you might also be worried about whether your purchases will have a negative effect on the environment.
Alternatively you (or your gift recipient) might be concerned about the effects of poverty in developing nations and interested in taking practical steps to help to alleviate it.
To respond to these concerns many organisations specialise in providing ethical gifts. There are several different ways to define ethical giving, but the list below looks at gifts which are either environmentally friendly or which help the developing world (or better yet both).
I hope one or more will help you feel good about giving your next gift(s) and as a bonus provide some ideas for gifts which are certainly unusual.
Supplier: WWF (World Wildlife Foundation)
Adopt a polar bear on someone's behalf and they will get various items related to their adopted bear, including an adoption certificate.
Supplier: OLPC
The one laptop per child programme aims to put very affordable, robust tech into the hands of the worlds poorest children. For a limited time the organisation is doing a buy-one, give one offer. Buy a laptop for you to give as a present and one is given free to a developing country child.
Supplier: Oxfam America (look in the green gifts section)
50 trees planted on behalf of your gift recipient. As well as being environmentally friendly, the trees provide crops such as avocados and shade for other economically important plants like coffee.
Supplier: Grass Roots
One for the outdoor enthusiast, this pack will charge your phone, GPS, iPod, PDA etc from a portable solar panel. Cut down on disposable battery use and make sure you don't run out of juice on a long trip.
Supplier: Organic Bouquet, Inc.
Flowers grown using the best certified sustainable practices
Supplier: Buy Green
Sticks picked from the woods and professionally handmade into unique wooden USB sticks. The green credentials come from the reduced energy required for manufacture and the use of sustainable raw materials for the main casing.
Supplier: Fair Trade, Inc.
Not sure quite what to get? Why not give someone the chance to pick what they want from a range of Fair Trade goods. Especially good for giving a small value gift.
