The Sunjar was invented by designer Tobias Wong, and designed to use energy saving low voltage LED’s powered by a super-efficient solar panel inside the frosted jar. Recharge the Sunjar during the day to enjoy a warming relaxing orange glow during the evening and night.

The Sunjar is watertight and has no trailing cables which makes it suitable using inside or outside. This would also be amazing to use when camping, especially in a tipi.

£17.95 from Ethical Superstore

For the kids

Mr Robot Head is an electronic toy with no batteries. Every parent’s dream, and better for the environment.

Wind him up and rise to the challenge. Try to move the wand along his antenna from one end to the other without touching the sides. Touch the sides and Mr Robot Head with will flash his eyes and buzz his disapproval.

This is how we can give children the toys that they desire without adding to the landfill problem. Mr Robot Head will entertain and engage any young child as well as develop hand eye co-ordination and fine motor control.

£14.67 from Ethical Superstore.

For Inspector Gadget

The Trevor Baylis Eco Media Player is one of my favourite gadgets ever and Stephen Fry loves his too.  It’s a wind-up (and rechargeable) music and video player for watching movies or music videos, listening to mp3 music files or tuning in to the radio, any time, anywhere. It has 2Gb storage (about 500 songs), and you can add to this with plug-in SD cards.

The eco wind-up system means that you”ll never run out of power or waste environmentally harmful batteries – one minute of winding gives up to 40 minutes of play time.

£99.99 from Nigel’s EcoStore. There’s a new one out too, called the Revolution, from Ethical Superstore for £129.99.

For yummy mummies
Figs & Rouge Art Nouveau inspired organic skincare packages it’s natural products beautifully. This Figs and Rouge Luxury Garden Collection includes a 50-hour candle, 300ml Marigold and Mandarin Body Lotion, 250ml Juniper Berry Shower Wash and a vintage style seed pack.

The set is free from parabens, synthetic fragrances and harsh chemicals. All fragrances are also 100% organic with natural blends of vintage garden aromas. It comes tissue-wrapped in a beautiful gift bag and the hand-poured jasmine and sweet geranium candle is contained in a handmade ceramic glazed pot. When the candle is finished, sprinkle the Figs and Rouge seeds into the pot to create a garden. Suitable for vegans.

£28.00 from ECOutlet.

For your New Year’s Eve party

A solar powered disco ball for indoor and outdoor use will have you feeling like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever over this festive season.

Get the party going and get dancing!

The solar disco ball needs direct sunlight or a spotlight.  It is approximately  15cm in diameter.

£25.00 from Biome Lifestyle

The shower that you can see on the left over here is the shower that we used at Keveral Farm. It’s a wooden structure with an old radiator painted black as a solar panel warming water for the shower. There’s a little bit of green shade cloth pinned to the wooden frame to protect one’s modesty, but other than that it’s very airy, and most exhilarating to use.

For something a little more temporary (and contemporary), check out this “plug and spray” Serpentine solar shower from Extremis.

Designed by Tom De Vrieze, the Serpentine can be used wherever you want. Plug your regular garden hose to the end of the stainless steel tube and your shower is ready for use. I’d say lying the hose out in the sun for a little while before hand would be sensible too. It’s a great way to water your lawn and shower at the same time, saving water and energy into the bargain.

If you’re more the McGyver type, then this DIY solar shower will be more up your street. It’s from Mother Earth News and full instructions can be found there.

A simpler and cheaper solution would be the £8.99 portable solar shower option that folds away to nothing and you can store in your backpack when on the move, or just away in the shed at home for the cold winter months. When the summer comes, just fill it up and hang it in a tree. Once it’s been in the sun for a few hours, you’ll have a gorgeous hot shower.

Electronics & Gadgets

This is a good gadget. In Stephen Fry’s recent review of it he declared: “Eat Trevor’s dust, Apple!” The Trevor Baylis Eco Media Player plays music, video and fm radio, and also functions as a torch, sound recorder, photo viewer, mobile phone charger, ebook viewer and data storage device. You can even record your old LPs onto it. It has a dual power system, so if you’re away from your power source (in this case your PC/laptop USB port) for a while, who cares, just wind it up. You get 40 minutes audio play time for each 1 minute of winding. The Eco Media Player features a 1.8″ screen, and 2 gigabytes of internal memory, which holds around 500 songs, and can be expanded by adding an SD Memory Card. £169.99 £134.99. Free shipping with promo code FSCS25 until 21st December 2007. I’m getting one of these babies for my birthday in a couple of weeks time, can’t wait!

Here’s a little something for boys of all ages. The H-Racer is the world’s smallest hydrogen powered fuel-cell car, a futuristic toy car containing one of the most exciting and advanced technologies of the 21st century. With new advances in technology, hydrogen is on its way to becoming the world’s next fuel. The H-racer is the working miniature version of what is being developed in real-size cars of the future, which are also called “zero emissions vehicles”. I can just see boys and their dads falling head over heels for one of these. £74.99 including delivery.

The Eton FR200 Wind Up Radio with Flashlight is ideal for camping, gardening and even in emergencies. The radio has a heavy-duty, splash-proof ABS plastic case, a long-lasting rechargeable battery pack and gives you access to AM, FM, and 11 International Shortwave bands, so you can stay informed where ever you are, even in emergency conditions. Just one minute of winding will give you approximately an hour of radio operation. A gift that will appeal to geeks, hunks or grandpas.£23.99.

Fashion
Handbags and gladrags tend to make an appearance at this time of year. This gorgeous bag wouldn’t be out of place now or at any other time of the year for that matter. The Fairtrade felt Flower Bag is handmade in Nepal by local village women. It’s fully lined and zips up, keeping keys and purses safe. Buying Fairtrade gifts is a wonderful way to give back something at Christmas time to people who work hard for wages that are much lower than ours. £18.50 including delivery.

Food & Drink

Food is such a great gift not only because it brings pleasure to the recipient, but also because it’s something that can be all used up, there’s nothing leftover to go to landfill. And what’s more of a luxury than beautiful and delicious cake and deserts. Tom and Ant’s organic cakes are a feast for the eyes, the taste buds and the stomach. This Christmas Celebration package contains a 10″ cake of your choice and a large mixed desert box, including brownies, chocolates and fudge. £55 including delivery.

Gifts for the Home

This is such a cool gift that it won the Gift Association’s Eco-friendly Gift of the Year Award this year. The Sun Jar is a traditional Mason jar containing a highly efficient solar cell, rechargeable battery and three low energy LED lamps. During the day, put the jar in a sunny location where the solar cell creates an electrical current that charges the battery over a few hours. At night, this energy powers the warm coloured LEDs in the jar, the light of which is diffused by the frosted jar. The jar is watertight so the jar can be put outside to benefit from maximum sunlight. Makes an excellent garden light, mood lighting or night light for children. £19.95.

I hummed and hawed about putting this item on the gift list. It is a piece of furniture, and I’ve never bought anyone a piece of furniture for Christmas, but if you’re one of those couples who buys something together for your home instead of a gift each, or if you have a son or daughter (or friend) who’s just bought their first home, this may be just the thing you’ve been after. They’re called Rock’n'roll shelves, a unique shelving system made in Sweden from unbleached high density paperboard. They are paintable, washable, not inflammable and fully recyclable. I think you’ll agree that they’re also beautiful. £189.99 for a pack of 5 rolls. To make the pictured configuration you’d need two packs.

Kids Stuff

“He thought he could fly up in his spaceship and just grab the star. But his spaceship had run out of petrol last Tuesday when he flew to the moon.” A quote from How to Catch a Star, one of my daughter’s favourite story books. Rockets and spaceships play a big part in children’s fantasies, and this really cool Paperpod Rocket is eco-friendly too. It’s not just a toy rocket, small astronauts can actually fit inside it for planetary exploration missions. It’s made from recycled cardboard, is a blank canvas for budding artists to decorate and personalise, and can be folded away at the end of play. This really appeals to my motherly side, and to the side of me that likes a tidy living room once the kids have gone to bed. £29.99.

The Lorax is a classic in every way. Who doesn’t love Dr Seuss? And this is no ordinary Dr Seuss book, in this book Dr Seuss gets serious and spells out an ecological warning that is as relevant today as it ever was. A great book to get children into the ideas of environmentalism and earth stewardship (although sometimes I think it’s the kids that get it, and it’s the grown-ups who should be reading books like these). By buying a child a copy of this book, you’re passing along an important message in a most enjoyable way. £3.99.

This is the best value wooden kitchen that I’ve come across. I bought one for my daughter 18 months ago and it’s stood up extremely well to being played with on a daily basis. I heartily recommend this all-in-one kitchen for its durability, for being fantastic value for money and for being compact enough to be wheeled into a corner at the end of the day. The kitched includes cooker, hob, washing machine and sink. £79.95.

Book Recommendation

This great read has been the top-seller in our bookshop since I reviewed it back in June. In “How to live off-grid“, Nick Rosen goes into every detail of off-grid living. He provides not only the inspiration to get off the beaten track and find your own space, he also provides countless resources to help you do just what he suggests. To gather the information to write this book, Nick took to the road with his wife and baby daughter in a converted care bus fuelled by vegetable oil and sun. They toured the UK meeting with off-gridders of all sorts. Yurt-dwellers, communards, utopians and rural squatters were all on Nick’s path, all living happy and comfortable lives completely off-grid. Their stories are fascinating, inspiring and sometimes quite far-out. But they all have some lessons to pass on to those of us who until now have only dream about being self-sufficient. £9.09.

Stocking Fillers

Multi-Striped Organic Cotton Socks – treat their feet! £5.95 £4.75

Divine Fairtrade Milk Chocolate Coins – pennies from heaven. £1.99

Felt Finger Puppets (set of five) – These cute little guys will provide hours of fun for the little people in your life. £5.95 £2.35

Swedish Firesteel – For outdoors enthusiasts, these are really cool little gadgets. No need for lighters or matches. With one of these you can pretend you’re Ray Mears. £14.95 £11.95

Forest friendly Butterfly Castanets – For the littlest of people. Brightly coloured butterflies that make a delightful clackety-clack in small hands. £2.49 including delivery.

Advertisement: Reduce your CO2 footprint by as much as 2 tonnes/year & save up to £150 on your energy bills.

Then came the Plug-In Mains Power & Energy Monitor. Fine if you just want to know how much electricity a couple of your appliances are using. But if you want to audit the electricity use in your entire home, it would involve having quite a few of these, and running about the place with your calculator, adding up your kilowatt-hours. Possible, but not probable.

(Sigh) The Electrisave. It came along in all its wireless glory and put an end to the hard work involved in checking your energy use. It only takes 5 minutes to install, and you can monitor your entire house with just one glance. And then spend your time rushing around switching things off. Pretty satisfying? You may think so. But some of us are blessed with a need for beauty in all functional objects (I’m thinking my architect husband here), and while it’s functional, clever and ever so convenient, the Electrisave is not beautiful.

And so, on to the Wattson. Aaah! Fantastically stylish and hailed by some as a classic design piece, the Wattson keeps an eye on your electricity use and provides some funky mood lighting while it’s at it. It’s available to pre-order now at LOVE ECO. There is no more beautiful way to work to reduce your consumption and lighten your carbon footprint. Not yet!

Sponsor: Save money and do your bit to save the planet – switch to ibuyeco 100% carbon neutral car insurance

While you’re there, check out some of their other camping essentials: Organic Places to Stay in the UK, recycled rain hat and after-sun spray with organic aloe-vera, lavander and organic eucalyptus.

Rechargeable batteries are available in our supermarkets, so couldn’t be simpler to get hold of. And the good news is that you can make a huge energy savings by using rechargeable batteries, because the energy used to manufacture a battery is about 50 times as much as the average disposable battery gives out.

The latest innovation in rechargeable batteries comes in the form of the USBcell, which makes recharging even easier, and doesn’t require you to buy a recharger. Simply plug the battery into a USB port on your computer, and Bob’s your uncle, very soon your battery is charged and ready to go.

If you still have disposable batteries that you need to dispose of, please remember that they should not be disposed of in your household rubbish. Some local authorities offer a battery collection scheme, alternatively some Curry’s branches have a used battery collection point where you can leave your batteries for recycling.

Please note that rechargeable batteries should NOT be used in smoke alarms because they tend to run out suddenly, which prevents the alarm from warning when the battery’s power in running low.

Figures for recycling were taken from Waste Online.

Green Design colorfully documents the rising trend to create and market new
and innovative products that help consumers downsize and upgrade their
lives. Through a carefully chosen selection of green toys, objects, fabrics,
paper and alternative energy sources, the photographs and articles in Green
Design illustrate what happens when green-minded lifestyles meet
well-designed, high quality products. Many of the examples in this book show
how successful business plans can flourish when ecological and social
responsibility are core considerations.

Though the book features color photographs of all the products mentioned ­
from American Apparel to Lego to Sonic Fabric to Jimi Wallets to Stupid Sock
Creatures ­ Green Design is not a glorified catalog. It is a well-focused
collection of products created by over 50 designers that exemplifies their
work and the inspiration behind it.

With articles by writers who have collectively contributed to Wired, Mother
Jones, NPR’s All Things Considered, Entertainment Weekly, The Asian Wall
Street Journal, Print, The San Francisco Chronicle, I.D., dwell and Photo
District News, Green Design is suited for designers implementing aspects of
green design and consumers who want to be informed about the products they
buy.

Green Design is edited by Buzz Poole. It is printed on recycled paper and retails at $34.95.

Bamboo is a grass rather than wood, but it is harder than oak. The fibres are even stronger than wood and steel. The Bamboo used in these monitors is made from the Gramineae monocotyledonous plant. This type of plant is hard and panda friendly and as pandas only feed on soft bamboo there is no harm to wildlife.

Once the bamboo is harvested it is dried in high temperatures which kills pests and bacteria. Then through high pressure and high temperature carbonization, the bamboo fibre and other compositions have been completely solidified. To finish, the bamboo is coated with paint which features anti-pest and anti-rot effects. Bamboo monitors are easily cleaned due to their unique fibre. In addition to this the texture of bamboo offers warmth in the winter and coolness in the summer.

Bamboo is one of the world’s fastest growing plants on the planet, there are over 1200 species, they can regenerate faster than wood and is typically harvested within 6 to 12 months. The growth period of bamboo is short – it will mature in three years. Bamboo does not require replanting when harvested, it has a mature root system that sends up roots for decades so forests are not harmed. Bamboo can be reused, decomposed, yet it will not generate harmful materials. With a positive impact on our environment Bamboo truly is one of the world’s renewable sources. Bamboo also helps reduce carbon dioxide gases and mitigates water pollution due to it’s high nitrogen consumption.

PlayEngine are the official distributor of these bamboo products in the UK, and will soon  be launching a TV version.  Perhaps we’ll see a bamboo laptop too one of these days.