Before you ask “Santa” to bring you a new washing machine, a set of cool wireless speakers, or maybe an updated flat screen tv, pass him (or her) a copy of the ENERGY STAR Holiday Gift Guide.

He – along with you and everyone else shopping for appliances, electronics, and even new holiday lights – can find great gifts that give back by saving you so much energy and money and helping prevent climate change (which is why we’re partnering with ENERGY STAR to let you know about this fabulous guide).

What’s in the ENERGY STAR Holiday Gift Guide?

EPA’s ENERGY STAR team put together the guide to help all shoppers (whether they wear a red suit or not) make the most energy efficient choice in 15 gift categories, including →→→

In each category, the guide describes the benefits of buying the ENERGY STAR certified option in terms of both energy and money saved, as well as the environmental impact.

For example, an ENERGY STAR certified clothes washer will use about 45% less water and 25% less energy compared to models that meet the federal minimum standards.

Top-freezer refrigerators that have earned the ENERGY STAR use less energy than a 60-watt light bulb!

If every clothes washer, dishwasher and refrigerator purchased in the United States this year were ENERGY STAR certified, we would prevent greenhouse gas emissions equal to those from nearly 270,000 cars!

The financial savings are so significant, they amount to a gift all on their own.

The typical household spends about $2,000 a year on energy bills. With ENERGY STAR, you can save about 30%, or about $575.

I’m proof that these choices make a difference. A few years ago I switched to the ENERGY STAR qualified LED light strings similar to those featured in the guide. These qualified light strings use 75% less electricity than conventional incandescent light strings.

As much as I love the energy and money savings, I particularly like that the bulbs are very durable and don’t break the way the little incandescents used to. Plus, ENERGY STAR LED light strings are cool to the touch, which reduces the risk of fire.

The lights are available in a variety of colors, shapes, and lengths. I’m partial to the multi-colored strings, but I noticed that my city’s downtown area has wrapped all the trees in our shopping district with the cool white ones.

Another feature of the ENERGY STAR holiday gift guide is that it makes it easy for shoppers to find rebates when they’re available. All you need to do is click on “FIND REBATES” and plug in your zip code. Whatever rebates are available in your area for the product you’re buying will pop up. (Here’s how I got $200 in rebates when I bought a new ENERGY STAR refrigerator.)

Santa, if you’re shopping for a new set of speakers for me (hint, hint), PLEASE make sure you check out ENERGY STAR’s partner deals. They’ll save you a bundle buying, and me a bundle when I start bingeing on my favorite holiday carols.

You can even download a cute little holiday gift tag to use when you wrap my gift.

Whatever you buy, make sure the product label includes the ENERGY STAR imprimatur. Many manufacturers claim their goods are energy efficient, but only those that have met ENERGY STAR’s standards for quality as well as energy efficiency display the logo.

12 Days of an ENERGY STAR Christmas

Over on Facebook and Twitter, we’ll be featuring one energy-efficient gift category every day for 12 days. Please stop by and wish us a merry Ho Ho Ho!

And if you buy something from the ENERGY STAR holiday gift guide, do let us know.

NOTE: Partners enable us to bring you the expert content you need to live the greener life you want. All editorial opinions remain our own. But of course, we only partner with those whose mission we support 100%! Happy holidays!!

The post Ask Santa to Shop From the ENERGY STAR Holiday Gift Guide This Year appeared first on Big Green Purse.

My favorite gifts to give are those that make a whole bunch of people happy at the same time. I think you’ll like this idea too, which is why I’ve created the Incredible Buy One Give One Holiday Gift Guide.

I love BOGOs! BOGOs are companies that give someone in need a free gift every time one of their items is purchased. Tom’s seems to have started this practice by producing canvas shoes that were sold as two-fers. If I bought a pair of TOMS, TOMS would give a pair for free to someone who was shoeless. Today, a lot of BOGOs offer a wide variety of products. I’ve compiled the best of them into this incredible Buy One Give One Holiday Gift Guide.

Buy One Give One Holiday Gift Guide

TOMS – TOMS shoes has provided over 60 million pairs of shoes to children since 2006, thanks to the many shoe purchases the company has inspired.

You can still shop for shoes, but TOMS now also donates other essentials thanks to the shopping you do with the company. Here are a couple of other reasons why we included TOMS in our Buy One Give One Holiday Gift Guide.

If you buy the company’s sunglasses, TOMS will donate prescription glasses and help fund sight-saving surgery.

If you buy a bag of TOMS Roasting Co. Coffee, you’ll help fund 140 liters of safe water–a week’s supply–to a person in need.

Purchases of TOMS Tote Bags like the one pictured here support the training needed to help provide a safe birth where conditions are risky.

DIFF Charitable Eyewear – DIFF (as in make a “diff”erence) is built on the principle that designer eyewear should be socially conscious as well as affordable and fashionable.

That’s why, for every pair of sunglasses purchased, a pair of reading glasses is donated to someone in need.

Through their partnership with Eyes on Africa, DIFF has provided the gift of sight to over 20,000 people.

They also partner with Student Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity, a partnership that in 2017 helped 10,000 people worldwide.

Better World Books – This bookseller collects and sells books new and used, then uses the profits to fund literacy initiatives worldwide.

They also commit to matching every purchase on their website with a book donation to someone in need, in a program called Book for Book.

They conduct book collection drives on over 2,300 college campuses and partner with 3,000 libraries, too.

So far, the company has converted more than 250 million books into over $24 million in funding for literacy and education. In doing so, they’ve diverted more than 250 million books from landfills.

Here’s another benefit: every order shipped from their warehouses is carbon balanced with Green-e Climate certified offsets.

Bluer Denim – For every pair of jeans you buy from this company, you can donate an old pair.

Once Bluer receives them, they’ll give you a $15 credit and send your old jeans to someone who needs them.

It’s a great way to recycle your jeans and reduce the carbon impact of producing and shipping a new pair.

Here’s another advantage to Bluer. They’re made in America: designed in Portland, Oregon; made from cotton grown in Georgia and denim milled in North Carolina, with rivets and zippers coming from Kentucky. The jeans are cut, sewn, washed, and hand-finished in Los Angeles using what the company says are eco-friendly ozone laundry processes.

Good Spread – I always give friends and my kids food for the holidays, so when I heard about Good Spread being a BOGO company, my first reaction was, “Bingo!”

Good Spread includes organic unsweetened peanut butter, organic honey banana peanut spread, organic chocolate pretzel peanut spread, and organic salted honey peanut butter.

The ingredients are non-GMO, Palm Done Right, and organic certified.

Where does the BOGO come in? When you buy a jar of Good Spread, you send a treatment of MANA Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food to a malnourished child. As the company’s motto goes, “Four delicious organic flavors to choose from. One lifesaving mission!”

WeWood – “You buy a watch. We plant a tree.”

What’s not to like about that BOGO approach?

Since 2011, WeWOOD, a company based in Florence, Italy, says it has planted over 500,000 trees.

Its goal is to plant 1 million total by 2020. The company works with Trees for the Future and American Forests to “help restore Mother Nature one watch at a time.”

The watches are made from exotic remnant hardwoods minus any toxic chemicals.

BOGO Bowl – This company’s name says it all. And the company says it up front.

“You buy a bag and we give a bag to a pet in need.”

The pet food manufacturer says it doesn’t use byproducts, artificial colors or flavors, or corn, wheat or soy as filler. It’s good dog and cat food in a variety of formulations to help animals maintain a healthy weight and develop healthy bodies, starting with kittens and puppies.

The company helps pet pantries, foster-based programs, animal shelters, and rescue centers.

We’re looking for more BOGO companies to add to our guide. If you have any recommendations, please list them in the comments below or on the Big Green Purse Facebook page.

Happy holidays, and thanks for shopping BOGO!

NOTE: Some of these entries contain affiliate links. We’ll make a teeny tiny commission of you use the link when you shop, which helps us continue to bring you the green expert content you need to live the greener life you want. Thanks!

The post Our Incredible Buy One Give One Holiday Gift Guide appeared first on Big Green Purse.