ThinkGeek’s trendiest eco-friendly gadgets
By Phil Hornshaw
In today’s super-technological world, it’s not only cool to have the latest and greatest gadgets — it’s cool to have gadgets that come with a little environmental consciousness. Fortunately, online geek emporium ThinkGeek has you covered. It offers plenty of great items that are a little greener than the average electronic device, and you can nab many of them with as much as 3.5 percent Cash Back.
We’ve put together a quick list of some of the greenest, most useful and most trendy ThinkGeek devices for your consideration. If you’re in the market for devices that will lessen the environmental impact of your smartphone or your plastic water bottles, these options are for you.
Charge it up
Most of ThinkGeek’s best green devices have to do with getting electricity into your favorite technological marvels. Smartphones, for instance, are great tools that are pretty green in and of themselves, what with the paper and other resources they can save through the use of their many apps. But when you plug them in, you still charge them using the same electricity that often comes from non-renewable resources.
ThinkGeek solves that problem with the Sol Sport Solar Charging Kit ($50-$70). It’s a small-scale solar panel you can take with you when you go out, and then pop open and plug into your smartphone or tablet to power it back up using the ever abundant radiation of the sun. The panels are meant to charge your devices quickly and efficiently, and they’re rugged enough to take out with you.
An alternative to solar power is human power, and that’s what the Pocket Socket Portable Hand Generator ($60) uses to charge up your devices. You literally turn a crank with your hand to generate electricity, which it funnels into a standard two-pronged outlet into which you can plug just about anything. You create the power with the crank, taking away any need to rely on outside power sources — including our closest star.
Go for efficiency
Part of being green isn’t just avoiding using resources, it’s making your machines work more efficiently to conserve. The Scan-Gauge II Advanced Multi-Function Vehicle Monitor ($160) won’t fix your car on its own, but it can tell you things like how efficiently your engine is working to help you get better fuel economy. And that means creating less exhaust over time and buying and using less fuel altogether.
There are also some devices that replace gas-powered machines with human-powered alternatives, like the Pocket Chainsaw ($30). It looks a bit like a bike chain and saws through trees using just the power of friction and two arms pulling back and forth — a great alternative to a motor that needs gas to run to do the same job.
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