Sustainable Community of Amsterdam's Gift Guide
Crowdsourced at the Sustainable Community of Amsterdam Group
How great is the feeling to give a loved one a gift that truly means something? A gift that not only fits perfectly with what the receiver needs, but also embodies your sustainability values. If you only needed to go on a scavenger hunt for this great gift once a year, it would probably not be that challenging, but with mother’s day, many birthdays, housewarmings, and so on, we are expected to tap our creativity at least several times a month.
While trying to balance the desire to both give a unique gift and be sustainable, we thought it’d be useful to make this process easier. Together, in our creative Sustainable Community of Amsterdam Facebook group, we’ve come up with a great number of unique, sustainable and personal gift ideas.
All ideas are summed up in this article. Continue reading if you want to take advantage of our group’s collective creativity. We’ll provide you with options for birthday and Christmas gifts, making your own food, decorating your house using eco-friendly/sustainable materials, and much more.
With the creative community continuously providing us with more inspiration, new ideas will be added to this article on a frequent basis.
Would you like to add an idea to this article? Join our collective brainstorm and share it as a comment in this Facebook post.
Happy gift giving!
Let's get into it…
20 sustainable gift ideas, and counting…
- Give experience based gifts, like a ticket to a concert or a workshop.
2. Reusable bags (for shopping, bread, croissants) for family members that don’t have them yet. The ones from bag-again are stylish and very practical. Same goes for water bottles for those family members that don’t use them yet, there are so many beautiful glass bottles out there.
3. Visit a few 2nd hand clothes to check out any nice toys/books that are in good shape.
4. Upcycled zero waste computer bags and travel accessories, made from the thousands of life vests left in Greece from the refugee crisis.
5. goodgifts.org. Nothing says merry xmas like a goat or a midwife’s bicycle……they say it’s the thought that counts, how about thinking about sending a gift to someone who really needs it?
6. Ask if people really want to exchange gifts. Sometimes the best and most sustainable gift is releasing someone from the obligation to give.
7. Plants from Wildernis or another local store are also a nice, practical & stylish gift.
8. Local Amsterdam honey for sale. From Westerpark and citycentre. They also offer beeswax wraps and wax candles. :)
9. E-gift voucher for music lessons. Great, especially for kids presents.
10. A selection of organically grown tea in a sustainable packaging would be a nice gift. Other recommendations welcome :)
11. Make the gift yourself. A simple face cream or baking cookies or baking a lip balsam. All done is few minutes, they are personal and mostly produce no waste. A few options from Youtube Tutorials:
For those who need a little more direction, you can learn from Erica at DIY Soap. She organises these lovely and affordable workshops in her lab, and her shop sells all the products for you to make your own stuff too!
12. Another great gift is stashers from ecomondo . Get this for family members to help reduce use of ziploc bags.
13. Soda stream is great for sparkling water lovers. One of our members has reduced their plastic bottle use by about 60/year.
14. Impact Hub Member Shop can be an inspiration as well. With Lesbos products, Seaweed salts and herbs to Rockbooks to handmade natural deodorant. See products and price list here.
15. Making gift giving sustainable can also mean asking grandparents homemade, second hand and limited gifts. At Naya Nature, they also offer a sustainable gift: meaningful parent-child moments in nature. They offer a voucher of 3 discovery sessions of their programmes “Family time” at the Beatrixpark, for 2–4 y/o or 4–7 y/o.
16. Yummie Life Naturals’ deodorant as well as DIY Natural Cosmetics workshops organized in collaboration with De Ceuvel. :) You can see info about the workshops here.
17. Sustainable gifts from the shop Waar. One of the favourites, recommended by a member who's been using it for 2 years is the reusable sandwich bag. Also for those who like to give Dutch gifts to family & friends from abroad (well also for the locals), they recommend products of Cre8 (up cycling material). Bonus: an idea for wrapping, is using old newspapers or pieces of unused fabric.
18. Coming soon: palanta.co, ethical wardrobe for a greener future PALANTA.CO is an ethical clothing rental website for women, mom-to-be & kids. Offering slow-fashion pieces, organising sustainable workshops, creating eco-friendly communities and supporting circular economy.
They'll launch in 2020!
19. Paper Craft Market offers lovely handmade and naturally coloured notebooks + cards. They make cards and notebooks using only natural dyes and pigments that found in the kitchen and/or nature :)
20. Six and Sons are a physical platform for sustainable brands. They currently host over 50 sustainable brands, ranging from giftware to fashion. They also have music events, workshops and pop-up launches in the store. It is a space with activity and stories to help people make an informed decision on what to buy and why. The focus is on conscious life and style brands, a platform for mindful brands and entrepreneurs.
21. DIY Soaps Store in the centre of Amsterdam +online shop +workshops during week and weekends. All natural and sustainable!! A must to check out!
22. Flow, they have a wide selection of sustainable and zero waste beauty :)
23. Activities can also be great gifts. Joyce Bergsma from Eat Live Love Food runs workshops on fermentation and a few other food things (like a Winter Sprouting Workshop) and they are great to do with a group of friends or to meet new people. Gift certificates are certainly possible.
24. Stargazer Path offers eco-friendly yoga mats at the moment (Nov 2020) and hoping to expand for more yoga & meditation products! Their natural cork mats are their favourites
25. Little Green Shop offers a great variety of gift products for sustainable living, cooking, holidays, gardening and beauty. You can also mix and match many little things for your own personal sustainable gift package that has minimal packaging material
26. A gift for parents! Nappinno: Amsterdam based Start-Up and first All Inclusive Diaper Laundry Service in the Netherlands.
They are offering free service-trials for those who are already using, consider using or want to experience washable diapers.
27. Little Quiet Ideas: Small business of handmade zerowaste products, based in Amsterdam. If you'd like to gift zerowaste products and love Italian handmade. Their idea is to replace common disposable products with washable and reusable products.
Their webshop will be online soon.
26. DIYS Soap (based in Amsterdam the Pijp but with a rich webshop too) has Natural skin care products, sustainable and zero waste. You can find Zero waste sets, DIY kits, Birthday party sets, refills, Live and online workshops, subscription models and more such as a NEW lovely Gift section !! Enjoy!
27. Seeing how you can never get too much soap 😉
The Craft Bubble — Organic Soapery makes beautiful cold press soaps, but also sells lip balms, natural sponges and stones.
28. For eatable gifts, Umeabakery sells vegan bullar in compostable packaging.
29. A perfect present for fashion lovers is the Sustainable Fashion Gift Card - and it’s conscious too!
We truly hope this has helped you make your sustainable gift giving easier! We're also always up for hearing your suggestions! You can let us know your suggestions here!
Cheers!
Curated by Olívia d'Orsi Junqueira and Reena Tops with suggestions from Dina DeHart, Helena Olsen, Aurélia Cg, Clair Richards, Dorinde de Tempe, Iwona Konopka, Yeliz Mrt, Mèdia Donyadari-van Westering and other Sustainable Community of Amsterdam Members.
