In order to lighten your load of holiday shopping, we organized some green [www.sundancechannel.com] gift-giving ideas.

Designer Spotlights

For the Kids:
Q Collection Junior [www.sundancechannel.com]

Q Collection Junior provides a cute line of children’s furniture, bedding and accessories, while using sustainable [www.sundancechannel.com] materials and manufacturing. All of Q Collection Junior’s cotton is 100% organic [www.sundancechannel.com]. They don’t use formaldehyde, polyurethane, toxic [www.sundancechannel.com] flame retardants or heavy metals in their products.

Home Furnishing:
Ohio Design [www.sundancechannel.com]

Ohio Design uses graphic overlays to enhance the look of their furniture, while producing the pieces using reclaimed wood, recyclable steel and non-toxic [www.sundancechannel.com] finishes.

Accessories:
ply Design [www.sundancechannel.com]

Ply Design demonstrates that even the smallest scrap can be reused. They offer products with recycled felt and/or recycled leather.

Online Gifts

For your Pet:
Worldwise [worldwise.stores.yahoo.net]
Worldwise is a leader in green [www.sundancechannel.com] toy making for pets. All of their products are made of natural [www.sundancechannel.com], recycled, reclaimed or certified organic [www.sundancechannel.com] materials.

An Assortment of Gifts:
EcoExpress [www.ecoexpress.com]

EcoExpress provides natural [www.sundancechannel.com] and organic [www.sundancechannel.com] gifts for any special occasion. Making it easy to support the environment [www.sundancechannel.com], you can buy great gifts from their wide assortment of “earth friendly gourmet, spa and rainforest baskets”.

Something Pretty:
Organic Bouquet [www.organicbouquet.com]

These beautiful arrangements are a great gift for the holidays, and they send the right message. Organic Bouquet’s lovely flower arrangements are all organic [www.sundancechannel.com], promoting a healthy environment [www.sundancechannel.com].

Do-It-Yourself Holiday Ideas
Holiday Recipe:
Glogg Recipe [www.organicvalley.coop]
Going to a holiday party? Don’t bring the regular egg nog. Spice things up a bit and impress your friends with your own homemade Swedish glogg.

Homemade Gifts:
Garden and Hearth: Homemade Gifts from the Heart [www.gardenandhearth.com]
Don’t know what to buy someone this holiday? Try making a gift from items you already have. It’s personal, creative and ecological [www.sundancechannel.com]
. Garden and Hearth has great homemade gift projects for you to get your hands on.

When it comes to combining rigorous sustainability standards with high-end design, it doesn’t get much better than Q Collection [www.qcollection.com], whom we’ve spotlighted before [www.sundancechannel.com] for their excellent work. If you’re looking to combine top-notch design with top-to-bottom sustainability considerations, you can’t go wrong with Q, so we’re excited to see that they’ve extended their offerings to include Q Collection Junior [www.qcollectionjunior.com], a cute line of mod furniture, bedding and accessories that combines beautiful design with very thoroughly considered and impressive sustainable materials and manufacturing.

A great example of how to avoid the indoor air pollution we talked about all week, the furnishings represent a practical guide to greening the interior of your home from the inside out. The list of green practices and materials that go in to the collection are all what we look for in sustainable furnishings: FSC-certified and locally-sourced, responsibly-managed wood; formaldehyde-free, water-based, non-toxic adhesives; non-toxic, low-VOC finishes; low-impact, non-toxic, heavy metal-free fabric dyes; 100% organic cotton. And we aren’t the only ones to give it a thumbs up: Q Collection Junior is the only children’s furniture and bedding line recommended by Healthy Child Healthy World [www.healthychild.org], a leading non-profit organization helping parents find non-toxic and environmentally friendly products for their children. Q Collection Junior’s cribs are the first (and only, so far) in the world to be certified by the Greenguard Environmental Institute [www.greenguard.org] for low-VOC emissions.

Their green-above-all approach makes lots of sense for children’s furniture, from both a planetary and human health perspective: youngsters spend tons of time in their cribs, on a changing table, and surrounded by stuff in their nurseries; exposure to VOCs and other harmful pollutants that are off-gassing from their surroundings can lead to both short and long-term health problems, especially if they’re living with poor indoor air quality during their busiest developmental years. By focusing on the dual “People Safe. Planet Safe” goals, the furnishings can help cut back on some of the risks.

In addition to the killer line of furniture and accessories (that’s the Luna changing table [www.qcollectionjunior.com] and Astronomer stool [www.qcollectionjunior.com] directly above, in addition to the Solare Armoire FSC [www.qcollectionjunior.com] and Claudius the Bear [www.qcollectionjunior.com] above that and the Solare armoire [www.qcollectionjunior.com], Stella stackable storage [www.qcollectionjunior.com] and Solare crib [www.qcollectionjunior.com] in the top image) Q Collection Junior wants to be a resource for greener, healthier parenting; they’ve got a great collection of resources [www.qcollectionjunior.com] and a glossary of terms [www.qcollectionjunior.com] that parents can use to make their homes healthier places to raise children.

Q Collection Junior is available for sale directly from their site [www.qcollectionjunior.com], which has lots more information on their materials choices, manufacturing practices and other green aspects of the business; the collection is also coming to a select number of retailers [www.qcollectionjunior.com] soon.