The Sustainable Christmas Gift Guide
Last Updated: Mar 10, 2025Making your home more sustainable is a gift that keeps on giving because it will help save money and/or keep your home healthier. Below, we offer a variety of unique gift ideas for all types of people: the Energy Efficiency Nerd, the Water Conservationist, and the Trash Warrior.
Table of Contents
- ecobee SmartThermostat with Voice Control
- FLIR Thermal Imaging Camera
- Sense Energy Monitor
- SodaStream Fizzi Sparkling Water Machine
- Lighting Science LED Light Bulbs
- TomCare Outdoor Solar LED Torch Lights
- Niagara Low flow Showerhead
- Compost Pail
- Organic Cotton Dish Towels
- Glass Jars with Chalkboard Labels
- Preserve Plastic Tableware
- Bottom Line
ecobee SmartThermostat with Voice Control
The Ecobee Smart Wi-Fi Thermostat is a great way to help take control over the heating and cooling of your home while saving an average of 20 to 25 percent on energy bills. This ENERGY STAR certified device works with several smart devices such as the Apple Home Kit, Amazon Alexa, and Google Assistant. In addition, with the Whole Home Voice technology, this product allows you to speak to one of the above-mentioned smart devices to control the thermostat in your home. For example, by simply saying to your smart home assistant, “I´m Away,” your Ecobee Smart Thermostat will automatically lower the temperature in your home to save on energy. The ecobee SmartThermostat with Voice Control is currently selling for $199 and comes with built-in Amazon Alexa voice service as well as a room sensor, which pairs with your smart thermostat to help regulate the temperature in hot spots or cold spots in the corners of your home.
FLIR Thermal Imaging Camera
Anyone who has seen an infrared thermal imaging camera knows how fun it can be. You can find your cats outside. You can see that people’s noses are colder than their cheeks and foreheads. That’s fun, but it can be useful too. For a home, you can easily see where any air and water leaks are a problem, so you can fix them properly. For example, since insulation is typically installed behind drywall, you don’t know if the installer missed an area—and often areas are missed: around outlet plugs, in corners, near crawl spaces, you name it. And the FLIR camera can find it. The older cameras are very expensive and bulky; the newer version is compatible with mobile phones (and is still pretty pricey, at $269.99 on Amazon, but it’s a lot less than older models). If you want to know where insulation is missing and are not a DIY-er, get your home an energy audit.
Niagara Low flow Showerhead
Nobody wants a weak shower that trickles a few small streams of water on your head, but showers typically are the third largest water user in the home, after toilets and clothes washers. Before the 1994 federal regulations requiring that showerheads have a maximum flow rate of 2.5 gallons per minute (gpm), most showerheads spewed out about 5 gallons per minute. So if you took a 10-minute shower, that would use 50 gallons of hot water—quite a bit of water and energy usage, and probably emptying your hot water tank! So, if you have an older home and have not replaced your showerhead since 1994, you can likely save quite a bit of water and energy by replacing it with a newer one that has WaterSense label—meaning it uses only 2.0 gpm. Better yet, try the Niagara Earth Massage showerhead, which has a flow rate of only 1.25 gpm, and still gets good reviews on Amazon and strong ratings from Consumer Reports. If you are replacing an old showerhead, you will be saving many thousands of gallons of water by switching over. (Quick math: if your household takes a total of 15 minutes of shower-taking every workday, and you save 3.75 gpm, then you save 3.75 x 15 x 252 = 14,175 gallon per year. At a half-cent per gallon, that’s over $70 per year, not including the energy savings—easily paying for multiple showerhead replacements, and maybe even some faucet aerators!)
Preserve Plastic Tableware
Ok, sometimes you just really need plastic tableware for picnics, kids’ parties, or casual gatherings with a lot of people. Skip the single-use disposable plates and cups and invest in reusable plastic dishware made by Preserve. Preserve’s products are made from 100% recycled plastic (from #5 plastic—the yogurt containers), they can be put in the dishwasher, and they are lightweight, stackable, and sturdy. They don’t crack or warp and come in a variety of colors and sizes. A set of 8 large plates costs $7.25; cutlery (knives, forks, and spoons) goes for $5.65, and 10 cups sell for $5.85. So, for less than $20, you can get a table setting for 8 that will last for years, and you won’t be filling up your dumpster after a party.
Bottom Line
Gifts for a more sustainable home can help you save money, reduce waste, and be healthier—what’s not to love?
Melissa Rappaport Schifman
Melissa became the Twin Cities’ fifth LEED for Homes Accredited Professional (LEED AP) and completed the work necessary to get her own home LEED Gold Certified, the basis for her book, Building a Sustainable Home: Practical Green Design Choices for Your Health, Wealth, and Soul, (Skyhorse Publishing, August, 2018). With her corporate experience in finance, marketing, and business development, and an MBA and Master’s in Public Policy from the University of Chicago, Melissa has been providing sustainability advisory services to businesses, governmental agencies and non-profits, focusing on strategic and operational change that provide bottom-line financial returns. She has led the LEED certification of two million square feet of commercial buildings, written GRI-compliant Corporate Sustainability Reports, is a LEED Pro Reviewer and LEED mentor with the U.S. Green Building Council. She is the founder of Green Intention LLC where she writes about sustainable home living.
