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Palo Alto-based SuperGreen Boards makes skateboards out of sustainable bamboo, which is 17 percent harder than maple, and uses low-VOC epoxy to laminate them. Buy one of three existing models or have a custom board made. a$175 for a deck only, $275 ready to ride, up to $400 for most custom orders, supergreenboards.com.
Fund research on soil restoration in Kenya, buy a Mayan community an hour with a lawyer to defend its land from mining companies, help researchers monitor coral reefs in the Turks and Caicos—these are just a few of the gift donations you can choose from at Changing the Present, a new nonprofit whose board of advisors includes the heads of the Sierra Club, Amnesty International, Teach for America, and other established nonprofits. a$2-$500 at changingthepresent.org.
Noon Solar bags are made from hemp and cotton colored with natural dyes and leather tanned with sustainably harvested materials like walnuts and rhubarb, and each one incorporates a small solar panel that can charge devices like a cell phone or an MP3 player. Plus, the company’s based in Chicago, so you’re buying local as well. a$270-$410 at Pivot, 1101 W. Fulton, 312-243-4754 or noonsolar.com.
