Green Holidays

The Western holiday season is mostly about excess, so the best way to go green is to scale back on wasteful use of natural resources. Slate.com has some tips and suggestions for gifts. (Like signing friends and family up for deliveries of fresh food through Community Supported Agriculture.) Also, for bright, beautiful LED holiday lighting that uses over 90% less electricity, go to http://www.shopipl.org/.

Interfaith Power and Light is a religious response to global warming with chapters in 25 states and Greater Washington, D.C. Find a link to your local chapter at http://www.theregenerationproject.org/State.Find discounts on energy saving products at http://www.shopipl.org/

Maine IPL offers Gift of Green Power for Holidays

Go Green, Give Green, Give Wind Watts!

Offering a New Kind of Tag...Made in Maine!
This year, Maine Interfaith Power & Light is proud to offer a new kind of clean power "tag"...Maine Wind Watts!

During the holidays we use more electricity to light our homes and travel more miles to visit relatives and loved ones.
Compared to other times of the year, we burn more fossil fuels and release more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, creating a larger "carbon footprint" which adds to global warming.
To offset this impact, Maine Interfaith Power and Light offers Maine Wind Watts renewable energy certificates (RECs) to offset greenhouse gas emissions with clean, renewable wind power!

Maine Wind Watts
may be purchased as...
a holiday gift
a stocking stuffer
a travel or electricity offset

To learn more about Wind Watts or to purchase please click here...

Maine Interfaith Power and Light Offers
3 Holiday Gift Selections...

Holiday Stocking StufferOffset holiday power
use and car travel
$20

Holiday Gift Package Offset holiday power
use and car travel
$40

Holiday Gift Basket
Offset holiday power
use and car travel
$55

Maine Interfaith Power and Light Offers
3 Holiday Gift Selections...

Interfaith Power and Light is a religious response to global warming with chapters in 25 states and Greater Washington, D.C. Find a link to your local chapter at http://www.theregenerationproject.org/State.htm
Enjoy discounts on energy saving products at http://www.shopipl.org/

Earth-Friendly Giving

A number of religious traditions celebrate holidays that involve gift giving around this time of year. For those of you still stumped about what to give/what to request as a gift, here are some earth-friendly gift links.

If you haven't already, stop by the Center for a New American Dream. There you can find suggestions on avoiding conspicuous holiday consumption.

For those who have everything (and maybe even a little too much), the gift of Carbon Offsets can be appropriate and even welcome.

Some of us still can't resist the allure of receiving cool stuff, and what's cooler to environmentalists than recycling? Eco-Artware features gifts crafted from recycled materials like a wreath from repurposed street signs.

For my fellow organic food snobs, there is Ideal Bite and Eco-express, which features both food and personal care items. If you are lucky enough to live near a Whole Foods, you can pick up a food gift on your way to holiday gatherings. If you have a sweet tooth, check out their Tiny Trapeze line. (Disclaimer: Tiny Trapeze is the brainchild of a friend of a friend.) At my house we're packaging do-it-yourself gift baskets in recycled clementine orange crates. We've decorated them with children's art, but they look nice just as they are.

For the right person, Reusable Bags are a thoughtful gift.

Lovers of the exotic might appreciate World of Good fairly traded gifts.

What are you hoping to find in your organically grown, unbleached hemp stocking this year?

Post your ideas in the comment field.

Visit us at www.irejn.org.