by Stephanie Block

You don’t have to hurt the Earth you love this holiday season by purchasing products loaded with chemicals, opaque trade practices and naughty corporate un-consciences. Spoil everyone on your list rotten this year without rotting Mother Earth, because hell hath no fury like a woman scorched and polluted!

1. Sckoon Organic Cotton for Baby (and Pets!)

That little tyke couldn’t be more precious, so make sure to set a good example early and buy her or him the most lovely organic and enlightened products. Make no mistake about it; outfits like the Kabuki Kimono and Monkey Pants are totally old hippie inside, but tres chic outside! And if the only little one in your life is your toy poodle, well they even make all-organic outfits for your pooch.

Sckoon prides itself on its all-organic products and manufacturing process at their environmentally conscience and Fair Trade factories in Egypt and India. And while this may be an extreme variation on the theme, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out that Sckoon also boasts the world’s largest selection of certified organic cotton cloth reusable menstrual pads.

2. Charmone Shoes: Vegan AND Italian!

Of course I don’t want you to go without Italian shoes, but maybe we can work together and spare a cow or two by loading up on Charmone Shoes, the only vegan shoes made in Italy. They are hot, they are crafted by Italian hands, and stars (Jessica Alba and Natalie Portman) can’t wait to scoop them up. Using only microfibers, no animal products were used in any part of the process including the water-based glue.

You didn’t think about shoe glue and where it comes from, did you? I know, being a shopping vegan sometimes means asking uncomfortable questions. Nor do the shoes use the worst of the plastics, PVC. Ecofriendly and red-carpet friendly, these hot shoes are the ones you want to buy. Your squeaky-clean conscience is just icing on the cake.

They’ll run you about $300.

3. Doy Bags! And Belts and Luggage Tags, Too

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Really Fabulous! You’ll smack your head and mutter, “Doy,” the minute you realize that this whole time you’ve been shopping at (insert evil corporate conglomeration here) when you could have been using your wallet to make a powerful statement.

Doy Bags are made from recycled, non-biodegradable juice packs that would otherwise sit in landfills and seep into gosh-knows-what. Produced in accordance with Fair Trade principles, Doy Bags are made in the Philippines by a women’s cooperative, employing local women and improving their lives by providing meaningful work at fair wages. Talk about the gift that keeps on giving!

4. Tree Greetings: Ecards That Plant a Tree!

Hug a tree virtually by sending an eCard that not only saves our barked beauties but actually plants more of them! Unless we’re sending a fabulous card by Heidi, that mass of well-meaning holiday cards we all send out to relatives, friends and Santa was once a lovely glen by a meadow with a babbling brook. Oh, the guilt! So cut down on deforestation with eforestation True Greeting Cards today!

5. Organic Floral Bouquets

Of course long-stemmed roses are de rigeur, but why not make sure your boughs of holly come from all-organic floral bouquets? Kisses under the mistletoe will taste that much sweeter knowing you’ve supported an organic farm. With a seal of approval from Global Fund For Women and other charities, the plight of your usual poinsettias never seemed so poignant.

In fact, your purchase of the pink rose bouquet will actually help the Global Fund for Women, the grant-making non-profit that supports women’s groups around the world! They have partnered with Organic Bouquet.com to bring you USDA-certified organic florals that are Fair Trade Certified and whose workers earn a living wage.

A 5% donation accompanies your purchase of the delicately massive, two-dozen pink and cream roses. With two-dozen roses, you can deck ALL your halls, and your bedroom, and some petals for the bathtub, and some roses for your friends, too. It’s a lot of flowers, but there are a lot of women in the world who need your help.

Check out Organic Bouquet’s selection of other charitable bouquets and choose the one that fits your own world view!