Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa. Let’s color them all green this year. Here are our picks for some green gifts that can truly make a difference. Look for more as the season of lights (please make those LED lights) continues.

Laptop Lunch Kit

Nothing seems to generate more needless trash than today’s school lunch. There are so many mini-packaged snack tidbits and chunk-lets of food pre-sealed in plastic what-nots that tempt us at the grocery. Give in to this and you’ll pay more and pack a lunch that winds up as a cacophony of paper, plastic and foil refuse. Say no more! Get a Laptop Lunch kit, which includes a zip lunch box, drink bottle and multiple sizes of plastic containers that fit neatly inside the box like a jig-saw puzzle. One container is perfect for a sandwich, another good for fresh fruit and others could contain peanuts or veggie sticks with a separate container for the requisite Ranch dressing. We love this green idea created by two moms who were fed up with the lunch garbage. It not only solves the problem of using too many environmentally questionable plastic bags, it encourages us to buy in bulk and pack healthier, fresh stuff.

The kit includes a user’s guide with lunch ideas, kid-friendly recipes and creative lunch menus. Components are also available separately, should you need replacement parts.

Price: $34.99 each or two for $32.49 each
Buy it at: Laptop Lunches

SOLIO Hybrid 100 Solar Charger

Don’t like to be alone when your cell phone or MP3 player runs out of juice? Then you need a personal power gadget for your gadgets. The new Solio Hybrid 1000 solar-powered universal charger will keep you connected, talking and listening, no matter where you happen to be. This personal solar power device is being marketed as more rugged and less expensive than its predecessor, so it can endure backpacking and camping trips. Chances are, this new improved solar charger has a bright future. The first Solio has sold about 500,000 units, more solar power devices than any other solar-supply gadget, according to a spokewoman for the company.

The Solios (the older model remains on the market) work like this: You set them in the sun or in the case of this new model, under any light to charge. It takes just four hours to fully charge and can store that energy for up to a year. Once it’s charged, you can use it to fully recharge your cell phone or power your MP3 for 10 hours of music. You can recharge it again and again, so even more than that energy bunny, whose batteries need to be recycled or recharged on your home electricity current, this is one energy source that keeps on working. It is renewable and free, the solar energy that is. It includes a USB port replicator tip that can power an iPhone, iPod and various MP3s; a mini-USB tip to power Blackberries, Motorola and other cell phones and a Nokia tip. (The Solio is a hybrid because you can also plug it in.)

Price: $79.95
Buy it at: Solio.com (Also soon to be available at Amazon.)

Clothing From the Garden of Edun

No guarantee you’ll look as hip as U2’s Bono or his wife, Ali Hewson, but you can be “one” with the socially conscious couple this holiday season by selecting a gift from their Edun apparel line. A fair-trade and fair-employment label whose purpose is to simultaneously create chic fashions and sustainable jobs in developing nations, Edun uses natural materials (organic cotton as often as possible) and only works with locally run factories in Africa, India, South America. The factories, in turn, are monitored by international non-profit Verite twice annually, to ensure humane working standards and to observe and consult with local businesses. Apparently there is no place in Edun for multi-national conglomerates.

Co-designed by New Yorker Rogan Gregory and launched in spring of 2005, the line is once again working with Bono’s “One” organization this fall, creating specially designed t-shirts to raise money for AIDS treatment and prevention in Lesotho, Africa - where one-third of apparel workers are estimated to have the HIV virus. The $40 shirt (see Ben Affleck modeling one above) is made of 100-percent cotton produced in Lesotho, Africa, and $10 from each purchase goes directly back to the Apparel Lesotho Alliance to Fight AIDS (ALAFA), which is partially funded by UK’s Department for International Development.

Another inspiring item suitable for gift giving: Men’s “Eclipse” Jeans. Stylish, slim, bearing the Edun “leaf” on the back pocket (even with Greenies, sometimes label does matter), and with a poem by German writer Rainer Maria Rilke stitched into the inside pocket. Like Emerson, Whitman and others before him, Rilke (1875-1926) was green before green was cool. Made in Tunisia of 98 percent cotton and 2 percent stretch.

Price: $185
Buy it at: Edun or at Barneys, Nordstrom, Bloomingdales and Fred Segal in the United States. See the website for worldwide venues.

The Gift of Purified Water

Here’s another gift idea for your camping or hiking pals . Or if you’re planning on a camping trip (or if you “happen” to be in the Himalayas) put it on your own list. You won’t have to port in plastic water bottles anymore, but can use nature’s nectar by filtering it on the spot. Perfect for streams and lakes, even murky standing water, portable micro-filtration systems are where it’s at. Save money and the environment.

Among the world’s top-rated portable purifiers is the Katadyn Exstream. Unlike many of its competitors, this little guy actually looks cool. And it fits in all the right places — a backpack pocket, bicycle water carrier, your hand. Available in yellow, gray and olive, the Exstream has a carbon filter (to kill pesky microbes and viruses - even, some say, giardia), an internal EPA-registered Virustrat purifier and holds 21 ounces of the life-giving libation. Cartridge lifespan: 26 gallons. Oh, and the really good thing about this specimen is, no pumping required.

Price ranges from about $39.95 to $45.
Buy it at: Moosejaw. Also available at Target and many outdoor-specialty stores.

A Handle For Your Hot Java

At first, the idea of buying a non-disposable sleeve for coffee cups might provoke a double-take: Yes, it’s nice to reduce the use of those paper insulators your corner coffee joint uses, but if you’re going to carry something along on your caffeine run, why not make it a travel mug?

The twist with the “Coffee Cuff”, from design group Contexture, is that you can carry it without giving it a second thought: When not wrapped around a hot cup, it’s designed to look good on your wrist.

Made completely with fine-wood veneers discarded by cabinetmakers and woodworkers, the $68 (Canadian dollars) bracelet is clearly meant to be a high-style assertion of belief in sustainability — handsome enough for fashion mags, but doubling as a conversation-starter. The company uses scrap veneers for other products as well, including a $48 money clip that makes a nice “his” match for the “hers” cuff.

A Robe, Soft and Earthy

Who doesn’t appreciate a new robe at the holidays? That’s a rhetorical question. Almost everyone loves a cuddly, warming robe perfect for curling up with books and cups of cocoa. This particular version, from the environmentally sensitive wellness store Gaiam, is made of organic cotton and seems to offer just the right blend of heft, depth and softness to satisfy customers. In other words, you won’t feel outfitted for a winter in the Yukon nor will your shivering knees be begging for coverage. The robe may cost a bit more than its bargain priced department store counterpart, but we suspect it makes up for that in its added organic cotton softness, and of course, it’s got great environmental credentials.

We wish we could report the source of that pesticide-free cotton, but Gaiam doesn’t report that on its website. The unisex robe is imported. Its machine washable and available in natural, French blue, celadon (shown), plum or ruby.

Price: $96
Buy it at: Gaiam

Palma Collection - Renewable Jewelry

Plenty of sustainable materials can be used to make jewelry, but the tagua nut seems to be about as low-impact as it gets: Harvested from a South American palm after its fruit falls off the tree, the non-toxic nut can be carved, polished, and dyed; some refer to it as “vegetable ivory.”

The Palma Collection offers a wide range of jewelry made from the tagua nut, little of which is what you’d call sedate. Vibrant colors and bold shapes abound — one nice thing about the nut is that its light composition makes big, blocky earrings much lighter than they appear. (The sterling silver hooks on Palma’s earrings don’t grow on trees, of course, but vegans will appreciate the necklaces’ use of wax cotton to approximate the look of leather and suede.)

Shown above are the $36 Hosono necklace and the $21 “Unihosty” earrings, available in a range of colors from natural-looking lime green above to turquoise, purple, red, you name it.

Buy it at: The Palma Collection online.

Designer Recycling

Once it was considered counter culture. Now that recycling has become mainstream, its graduated to counter clutter, at least that’s where it often winds up at our house awaiting sorting before being airlifted to the blue bins in the garage. This nifty item, called the Ecopod, gets the recyclables off the counter and into a neat, compact package that’s out of your vision until its time for the trip to the curb. The Ecopod, available at Williams-Sonoma, can crush about 50 beverage containers, both plastic bottles and aluminum cans. You use a foot pedal (with a child safety device) to compact the bottles and cans. The brushed stainless steel and plastic pod also has two more compartments for holding newspapers, glass bottles and other recyclables. At 31 inches high and 20 inches deep, it’s designed to fit neatly into a corner of the kitchen or pantry.

Price: On sale for $189.99
Buy it at: Williams-Sonoma online

Compiled by Shermakaye Bass, John Defore and Barbara Kessler

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