Heart-Full, Guilt-Free Giving This Holiday Season
This holiday season, give gifts that do double-duty by bringing joy to the receiver and making our world a better place. Whether that’s helping the environment, those less fortunate, or whatever your cause of preference may be, ethical gift giving choices can do so much more! Don’t know where to start? Not to worry! We’ve got your guilt-free, heart-full, gift giving items covered.
Give the gift of fair trade. Fair trade gifts are just that – fair. When you buy fair trade you are supporting companies that justly compensate their workers, help their suppliers build sustainable businesses and provide funds that are specifically designated for social, economic and environmental development projects. Check out the gift guide from
Fair Trade USA for some great ideas.
Give a battery-free item. Each year, Americans throw away more than
3 billion batteries! That’s about 180,000 tons of batteries each year that go into landfills where their toxic chemicals, such as lead and mercury, can leach into the environment. So this year, ban the battery gifts. And if you must give a gift with a battery, make sure it is a rechargeable one.
Give a donation. Give the gift of helping others in need by making a
charitable donation to an organization in lieu of a tangible gift. If you don’t already have a favorite charity, use a website like
Charity Navigator to find a charity you’ll love to support.
Give cruelty-free. When you buy
cruelty-free products, no only are you taking a stand against animal testing and the unspeakable horrors bunnies, mice, hamsters and sometimes even dogs are put through, you are also purchasing products with less chemicals and a lower environmental impact. Not to mention you are building some serious good karma! Remember,
Stemology skincare products and ingredients are
never tested on animals. However, many big companies are
not such as L’Oreal, Max Factor, Ponds, Johnson & Johnson and Dial.
Give a gift that gives back. Companies like
Toms, who give a pair of shoes to someone in need for every shoe purchase;
Box Lunch Gifts, who give a meal to a person in need for every $10 spent; and
One Hope Wine, who donates to a charity with each bottle purchased, combine the best of both worlds – a lovely gift to give and a wonderful cause to support!
Give an experience. Instead of adding one more toy to a pile, shirt to a closet or tool to a garage, give the gift of a lasting memory by giving an experience.
Cloud 9 Living offers over 2,000 unique experiential gifts for men, women and couples. This is a gift that you won’t soon forget.
Set the intention this holiday season to give gifts that make the world a better place!
And then tell us in the comments how you incorporated ethical gift giving into your holiday traditions.