It takes a little bit more get-up-and-go and time but it is worth it to gift eco-friendly or social corporate gifts instead of the standard run-of-the-mill-drain-the-environment gifts that are the common gift fodder for numerous companies.

When you’re rewarding diligent employees and esteemed customers with environmentally friendly or socially friendly corporate gifts, you’re also encouraging a green lifestyle that shows your company cares about our earth and the less advantaged people so more will naturally cherish the gift.

Of course the best type of eco gift is one where you do not in fact give anything! There are umteen such gift options now available such as Buy1GIVE1, Kiva and Change The Present.

When you use eco-friendly corporate gifts it’s always important to consider your receiver. You’ll want to choose a gift that represents the gratitude you feel. Whether its for saying thank you for remaining in the office late to meet tight deadlines or running that extra mile to close a sales deal, your team members dedicated their precious time to the better your business. So the extra effort involved to create a special eco-gift or social gift is fitting considering the reason why you want to give the gift in the first place.

Everybody likes diamonds and no one looks bad in diamonds, do they? It is not really within the remit of this article to propose whether diamonds are a first-class investment or not, but their supposed worth is enormous. Instead, I would like to discuss where the best place to buy a diamond is, because it is more importantant that you buy your diamond from a reputable merchant with a guarantee than that you believe you got a good deal on eBay by means of buying somebody’s granny’s engagement ring, which might not be authentic.

Consequently, before you start shopping for diamonds, think about dealing with a bonded jeweller. Bonded jewellers sell bonded diamonds and there are very few bonded jewellers in the world. In fact, of the jewellers in the world, only about 5% of them are bonded.

Purchasing a bonded diamond will cost more than buying a non-bonded diamond, however when you look at what you get with the bonded alternative, you will perceive that it is well worth the extra outlay.

First, bonded diamonds have a buy-back guarantee for the life of the diamond. No matter how long you keep the diamond, you can take it back to the bonded jeweller and sell it back to him or her, for a 100% refund.

The Green Book, by Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas M. Kostigen, give the issues of our environment top drawer treatment. Looking at the way Americans use water and energy, and what we do with our waste, they offer useful and practical tips.

Celebrities, including Robert Redford, Ellen DeGeneres, Jennifer Aniston, Faith Hill, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. contribute suggestions for living green. Rogers and Kostigen establish 12 aspects of our habitat, like home, work, and school, and suggest better lifestyle choices for each. Small adjustments are the focus of the book that add up to significant and positive environmental effects by using descriptive rather than numerical analyses.

The Green Book offers hope and practical suggestions, such as:

* Don’t ask for ATM receipts. If everyone in the United States refused their receipts, it would save a roll of paper more than two billion feet long, or enough to circle the equator fifteen times!

* Get a voice-mail service for your home phone. If all answering machines in U.S. homes were replaced by voice-mail services, the annual energy savings would total nearly two billion kilowatt hours.