Holiday Shopping for the Climate Champion Concerned About Climate Change

This holiday season, makers, entrepreneurs, and businesses are getting into the environmental spirit. They make it increasingly delightful and easy to live and gift our values about style and sustainability.

So, I want to offer a list of sustainable and eco-friendly products that I believe can enliven our spirits while reducing our impact on the planet.

Some will say, “Josh, are you crazy? How can you advocate shopping at this moment of climate crisis?”

I’ve been pondering this very question. Where I net out is that I believe shopping is absolutely part of the solution to climate change.

I’m not suggesting we shop willy-nilly and buy a bunch of stuff we don’t need, won’t last, and disregards the planet in its fabrication.

I believe that we have an opportunity to use our dollars as votes for:

1) Companies we want to see thrive (after all, where do green jobs come from if not from companies making sustainable products?).

2) Products that deeply move us by combining a deep respect for nature with style, design, and built-to-last quality.

3) A future where sustainable products win and send conventional, status-quo products to the trash heap (to be recycled, of course) of history.

(For more on the subject, see two recent podcasts: Can Shopping Solve Our Climate Crisis? and We Need It All: Products, Policies, and Protests. And here’s a post outlining a comprehensive approach to solving climate change that includes shopping too.)

And here are ten products and brands that I love this holiday season.

1. paravel sustainable luggage

I’ve hunted for stylish, sustainable luggage since traveling home from China in 1997, awakened to the global sustainability challenges that lay ahead.

I had just spent two years in Nanjing working for Kryptonite Bike Locks, strategizing how to sell locks to the billion Chinese riding bicycles. But it dawned on me that China would soon develop into the world’s biggest automotive market. And that would be environmentally problematic (see podcast episode 2 for the backstory).

Onto Paravel. Appreciated for its refined aesthetic and attention to detail, Paravel has trained its sophisticated eye on a collection of sustainable luggage worthy of any road warrior experiencing inner angst over their carbon-emitting travel.

Psst, I wrestle with that inner anguish too. For that, alas, there is no easy fix.

But for your luggage, there is. Paravel’s sustainable carry-ons feature recycled plastic outer shells, recycled aluminum handles, and a recycled inner lining made from 15 plastic bottles.

Here’s Paravel’s Sustainable Collection. Here’s the Aviator Carry-On ($255)

2. Everlane Rewool Overcoat

If you don’t know about Everlane, you’re in for a treat. Aesthetically, think J Crew. Environmentally, think Patagonia. Now merge the two, cut the price in half, and you’ve got Everlane.

Everlane’s ReWool Coat is made of Italian-milled wool derived from recycled wool sweaters. Isn’t that the most delightful description of any product you’ve read in a while? I smile to think of those Italian artisans, steeped in their time-honored textile traditions, focusing their expertise on recycling old clothes into something new, stylish, excellent, and, above all, Italian.

Here’s Everlane. Here’s The ReWool Overcoat ($298)

3. Allbirds – Wool Runner-Up Mizzles

Allbirds is fast becoming my favorite company. As I write, I’m sitting in an Asheville café wearing my Allbirds Runner-Up Mizzles. They are comfortable, cozy, water-resistant, and primed to be my daily go-to throughout the colder months here in the mountains.

What makes them comfortable is what makes them so darn eco-friendly – the natural materials. The wool shoes come with soles made of natural rubber and insoles made of sugarcane. No plastic.

That’s a big deal because guess what’s inside almost all other shoes? Hint 1: it starts out black and goopy and is dredged up from deep beneath the earth’s crust. Hint 2: it’s not sugarcane.

Here’s Allbirds and Here’s the Men’s Wool Runner-Up Mizzles ($135)

4. Lettuce Grow Farmstand

Wouldn’t it be great to grow our own food? I know, you’re thinking, “Yeah, yeah, sure. You produce a 25th hour in the day, and I’ll produce a tomato.”

Seriously though. How amazing would it be if growing our food were simple, effortless, and produced an abundance of healthy, leafy goodness?

The hero in this story? Lettuce Grow is the company’s name, and clever double-entendres are their game. Their growing vessels are called Farmstands, which is apt, because each unit is a self-sustaining micro-farm that, well, stands.

And that’s the essence of Lettuce Grow’s Farmstand. It’s a self-contained farming tower made of recycled plastic milk jugs. It incorporates all sorts of tech to automate growing for you and yields a bonanza of veggies.

Hyper localizing your food production is a climate-change-busting power move. Lettuce Grow helps you do it.

Delightful detail: the ever-delightful actress Zoey Deschanel co-founded the company.

Here’s Lettuce Grow and here’s The Farmstand ($348 and up)

5. Priority bicycles – Brilliant L Train

I can’t say enough about biking. Actually, I can’t say anything about biking because I’m off my bike for now. That’s what I get for trying to show my 9-year old son Shep how to run a deep go route like wide receiver Amari Cooper on the Dallas Cowboys. A torn calf and pair of crutches later, I’ll be recuperating sans-bike for a few more weeks.

But when I hop back on, I long to hop on a Priority Bicycle. Based in New York City, the bike maker offers sleek silhouettes at affordable prices and integrates two innovations that make bicycles feel like they have finally pedaled into the 21st century.

They are: 1) puncture-proof tires to avoid flats and 2) grease-free bicycle chains to prevent a whole bunch of greasy, pants-related irritations.

Here’s Priority Bicycles and here’s The Brilliant L Train ($650)

6. UNAGI SCOOTER – THE MODEL ONE

Back in 2007, when I was single and living in Greenpoint (in Brooklyn), I used to ride a Strida bicycle down Bedford Ave. and into Williamsburg to catch the L train heading into Manhattan. Shaped like a triangle, with two small wheels and a collapsible frame that you could roll onto the subway, the Strida looked incredible. It rode for s**t, but it had undeniable aesthetic appeal (see it below).

On three occasions, while on the subway with my Strida, women asked me out. I’m a decent-looking guy, but the thing is, not ONCE did a woman ever hit on me, offer me her number, or ask me to go for coffee when I didn’t have the Strida with me.

Hmmm. Might attractive strangers have made some assumptions about my inherent goodness and mating potential thanks to the form factor of that Strida and what it signaled?

Enter Unagi. Its convenience, agility, and fun factor is undeniable. And the electric transportation factor is zero-emission. So, if you like having fun and want the convenience of your own electric scooter, the choice that could also be the key to unlocking love – is The Model One from Unagi.

The sleek, futuristic design speaks for itself. It easily folds to take with you on the subway (ahem) and stow/display in your office.

Here’s Unagi and here’s The Model One ($840 and up)

7. SUN BASKET – Meal Kits

Are you Paleo? Are you Vegetarian? Are you Pescatarian? Are you Gluten-Free? Are You First Team All-USDA Organic?

Are you keen to eat well, without hassle, using ingredients that respect the planet?

Then Sun Basket is the Blue Apron you’ve been waiting for. Blue Apron is good too, but Sun Basket has mastered the delivery of gourmet meal kits that are sourced with organic ingredients nearly 100% of the time.

This holiday season, give the gift of yummy, nutritious, farm-conscious, easy-to-cook meals to a malnourished loved one.

Here’s Sun Basket and here’s the Meal Plans (about $6 per serving)

8. buffy – The Breeze Comforter

I am hot in bed. Throw me under a down comforter and watch the sweat drip.

So, it is with relief that I turn to Buffy’s affordable, eco-friendly, and temperature-regulating comforters. The critical cooling fiber comes from the Eucalyptus tree and is used for the outer shell and inner fill.

A quick Eucalyptus fiber primer: the fiber comes from the tree, but it’s harvested without cutting down the tree, so the tree regenerates naturally. Beyond that, all you need to remember is that the trees are grown in Austria (which is in Europe).

As Alfred Strigl, deputy director of the Austrian Institute for Sustainability, humbly puts it, “When it comes to the environment, Austrians are top of Europe and top of the world.”

Here’s Buffy and here’s The Breeze Comforter ($180 and up)

9. organic basics – underwear

Climate activists (and anyone with universal respect for science) want us to wake up and get climate activated. I say, Amen, my brothers and sisters. Show me the way. Let me just put my underwear on first.

One particularly beautiful way to start your climate activated day is in a stylish, comfy, well-fitting pair of organic cotton underwear.

For me, that choice is Organic Basics. The clothing maker’s underwear features organic cotton and recycled nylon.

Take 10% off your first Organic Basics order using code: LASTEOBC

Here’s Organic Basics and here’s the Men’s Organic Boxers 2-Pack ($47) and the Women’s Cheeky Briefs 2-Pack ($50)

10. Simbly – dining table and benches

Gather ye clan this holiday season around a modern design, eco-friendly dining table and benches made of FSC certified sustainable wood.

The great news? This beauty is made in a family-run factory near Asheville, North Carolina. Simbly’s direct-to-consumer business model enables the company to offer attractive prices for the high level of design and craftsmanship.

It’s kind of like if Ikea sold you a table that only took 3 minutes to assemble, was super durable, designed to easily dis-assemble, and could quickly be put back together again whenever you moved or felt like having a dance party.

How do I know all of this? It’s my company. I founded Simbly with a mission to showcase how modern design, environmental sustainability, affordability, and American manufacturing can co-exist and deliver amazing results.

This holiday season, take 15% off your Simbly order. Use code: LasteHoliday15

Here’s Simbly and here’s The Dining Table ($999) and Benches ($399 each)

That’s ten sustainable products to support your eco-friendly holiday shopping list. Enjoy the season!

Special Thanks To: This post is sponsored by Lazy Environmentalist, your go-to resource for stylish and well-designed products that elevate your sustainable lifestyle and minimize your impact. Lazy Environmentalist introduces you to cutting-edge sustainable brands and visionary designers who believe style and sustainability can go hand-in-hand.