We’re looking at you, Target, Walmart, Sears and BestBuy, sites that don’t have green tech or eco-friendly sections or search filters that make it easy to find the water-saving, solar, LED and more earth friendly tech items they carry.
Maybe big retailers don’t want to come off too specialized, or maybe they’re worried about implying other products they sell, outside of a special “eco” section, are somehow environmentally wasteful.
Let’s admit it. Some of those electronics are wasteful. A wino, or possibly an arthritic sommelier could make the electric corkscrew worth its weight in rare earth metals. But who really needs a portable watermelon cooler?
Gift shoppers can’t rely on the media’s picks entirely, either. Several guides have recommended stuff this season that’s either utilitarian, or expensive enough to wilt mistletoe.
Treehugger suggested a $670 eMeter that measures a users’ energy consumption at home. Inhabitat suggested a water clock that duplicates time-keeping features of a basic mobile phone— but hey, it runs on lemon water so it’s “eco.” The biggest stinker was NetworkWorld’s recommendation to give automatic, electric composter as a gift. Who’s naughty enough to get that one? (It’s not even solar-powered!)
The most environmentally friendly gifts one can give are probably not things — shipped from far away, delivered by diesel trucks, destined for the landfill — but digital goods, like a must-read e-book or a membership to a streaming video site. We know.
Digital goods lack that whole je ne sais quoi of handing a loved one something they can tear open. Hopefully, it’s wrapped in 100% recycled and recyclable paper. We suggest using the comics section— save a tree and a little piece of the print news business.
Here at TechCrunch, we found a six-pack of sites that either specialize in, or have designated sections and great search filters for what we call green tech. These should help you find sustainable gifts for tech heads that are actually worth coveting, and should arrive in time for Christmas if ordered on or before December 15th.
Also worth noting:
For a guide to what’s hot in tech in general this season, visit Crunchgear’s 2010 holiday gift guide.
Beer can wreath image via Krupp
Charlie Brown-style Christmas Tree image via Listen2ds
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Authors: Lora Kolodny