Yes, we know, there are lots of “green” gifts out there to choose from. And we know that money is tight this year. But we think that two of our retail licensees make extra special, eco-friendly and affordable gifts you’ll be proud to give to family and friends this holiday season.

Both of these companies offer products that are made from recycled materials and can be recycled yet again! How’s that for sustainable? No green washing here. Our partners A Lot To Say and JulieApple are the real deal.

Here’s what they’re offering to kickoff the season with an extra green start…

eco-fashion with a powerful message

We’ve told you about A Lot To Say’s great t-shirts before. They’ve also added scarves, undies, umbrellas and tote bags–all made from 100 percent recycled plastic bottles (and yet so incredibly soft!) and dyed with AirDye technology. They are offering their biggest sale ever with 30 percent off any purchase, of any size. The sale ends Monday, and you’ll need to use promo code: ALTS30.

long-living handbags that never stop

Julieanne Applegate’s adorable bags line just keeps expanding. I just noticed the Make It Up bag and it’s only $38! But, best of all, if you’re quick you can win a free Hardworkin Hobo bag. All you have to do is tweet about JulieApple or become a fan on Facebook. The deadline is noon ET on Tuesday. Full details are on their blog.

We’re pleased to see our partners doing so well and being part of eco-friendly businesses. Support them and a sustainable world, but be quick, the sale and give-away won’t last long.

Our Friends over at DMD Green have created a new sustainability program called SocialCycling. The goal is to bring transparency and verification to the recycling process. The program is designed to encourage businesses to partner with organizations to reuse items that are not usually, or easily recycled.

One example, sited in this interview with Jason Warnock and Stacy Richter of DMD Green, is of an American company sending PVC scrap to Africa. Instead of ending up in a dump, the PVC is made into back pack linings. As Warnock says:

What we have done is solve a business problem for a US manufacturer, an African producer and hopefully, even helped some actual people along the way. To me that is the truly exciting part of environmental sustainability.

Just imagine what could happen if more organizations started to look at their waste as a resource; and if manufacturers looked at waste as a raw material. Seems to us that this is the ultimate in environmental sustainability: never drawing from “virgin” materials to create the products we need and want.

Here’s the question, what waste products does your company create that need to be SocialCycled? Perhaps we can spark a new partnership right here on Good for Water!

While the entire AirDye team works every day to make the textile industry more eco-friendly, we know this isn’t something we can change over night. Transprint’s Design Director, Philip Hess, paces himself outside of the office too, literally.

Philip just completed his second New York City Marathon. His goal was to break the four hour mark, and he missed it by only three minutes. This marathon was his personal best at 4:03:14. Needless to say, that’s much faster than anyone else around here. Not only was Philip pleased to keep a better pace…

This time I was much more relaxed and had a lot more fun running it. It is an amazing way to see all five boroughs of New York.

And while Philip was contemplating hanging up his marathon shoes, he’s seriously considering the Boston Marathon so his extended family can come out and cheer him on.

During the day, Philip oversees the design studio for Transprint, the global supplier of AirDye consumables. Philip’s team has created the world’s largest design library with over 15,000 designs adding about 500-800 new designs each year.

Well done and congratulations, Philip!

Winter rains may have started in the U.S. but many areas on the planet are still suffering from severe drought.

no rain in the americas

Here at home, California, southern Texas, and the Southwest continue to suffer from severe to extreme drought. Fortunately, we haven’t had to endure the hardships imposed on the citizens of other countries. Just this week residents of Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, are having to do without water service for up to 48 hours. The dry weather started back in 2007 and the water rationing is expected to be in effect until 2010 when the rainy season begins again.

africa’s suffering worsens

Over in Africa, more severe and frequent droughts are drastically changing the way of life for millions of nomads in Kenya. While drought is no stranger to Africa, a Christian Aid study released in 2006 shows that periods of drought have quadrupled in the last 25 years. Compounding the problem is a growth in population. What does this mean for the nomads? Many of them have lost their herds and are no longer  to continue with their nomadic traditions. Worse still, others have lost family members to malnutrition.

the chinese take control of the weather

And perhaps you heard about China’s efforts to wring some water from the skies by seeding the clouds over Beijing last week. According to the Xinhua news agency, the head of the Beijing Weather Modification Office (who even knew they had one), said, “We won’t miss any opportunity of artificial precipitation since Beijing is suffering from the lingering drought.”

Where does all this leave us? The message seems pretty clear, climate change is effecting more and more people every day around the world. We’re trying to do our part in reducing the demand for water for textiles. Let’s hope the upcoming Copenhagen climate conference yields real results.

photo credits- caracas: LAHT.com / goats: Siena Anstis / snow: LikeYesterday