19 Best Gifts for Environmental Engineers in 2024

Last edited: December 6th, 2024

Environmental engineers have unique interests and can be tough to find the right gift for. They tend to want things that are practical, functional, and eco-friendly. Being an engineer myself, I wanted to assemble what I think are the best gift ideas for industrial engineers.

Finding the perfect gift for an environmental engineer can be time-consuming, but I hope this gift guide helps you finish your gift shopping faster than ever and brings a smile to an engineer’s face. Show them you understand their passion for engineering and support them when they geek out over your perfect gift.

This list is a compilation of my favorites from around the internet. Some are our own Genius Lab Gear inventions and some we’re just jealous we didn’t think of first! Some external links in this page are from affiliates, which means that any purchase of the items after clicking the link will result in a small monetary referral fee paid back to Genius Lab Gear at no cost to you. We appreciate your support which allows us to continue inventing and testing the best tools for engineers on the planet!

1. The Pocket Engineer: Wallet Ruler and Unit Conversion Reference

The most practical and unique pocket tool for any environmental engineer. It’s the size of a typical credit card and packed with functionality and information that an environmental engineer will need on a daily basis both in school and on the job.

The laser-cut and laser-engraved stainless steel is built to last - not like the disposable plastic item flooding the market. It’s one of the best inexpensive gadget gifts that any engineer will geek out over. You can order directly through our site or on Amazon with the links below

You can also add a custom logo to this for events, networking, or promotional giveaways! Custom orders start at 100 pieces - just email us for more info.

The Pocket Engineer at Genius Lab Gear

The Pocket Engineer on Amazon

2. The Low-Carbon Cookbook & Action Plan

This cookbook is a thoughtful gift for a health-conscious environmental engineer. Alejandra Schrader's book is so much more than a cookbook; it digs into the causes, effects, and consequences of climate change and how food system sustainability will be critical in the future. In these recipes, fun foods like Corn Lollipops and Prickly Pear Ice mingle with filling entrees like Tostones Nachos and Quinoa-Stuffed Peppers. There are 140 plant-based recipes to choose from made with ingredients that can help lower their carbon footprint and “foodprint”!

Check the price on Amazon.

3. Funny Engineering-themed Word Magnets

We recently launched a full line of science and engineering-themed word magnets and of course made a set specifically for engineers! Each specialty pack comes with 144 tiles carefully designed by a PhD in that field for technical accuracy and tacit absurdity. These make for a funny engineer gift for the lab or office that lets them express their technical side but isn't work-oriented.

Also now available on Amazon.

You can also bundle it from our site with our newest "Engineering is for Everyone" sticker and The Pocket Engineer above!

4. Rocketbook Matrix cloud-connected reusable paper notebook

This one is for the conservation-focused environmental engineer who  still loves the feel of pen and paper. Rocketbook finally solved the problem of merging your hand-written notes into your favorite digital services. You simply use their app to take a photo of your pages of notes and the QR code and marked symbols on each page trigger the app to send the digitized page to any of the 9 pre-set digital destinations you choose. This includes OneNote, Evernote, Google Drive, Dropbox and even specific emails. Want a shortcut to send notes via email straight to your colleague or boss? This is what you’re looking for.

The Rocketbook Matrix is my personal favorite because it's designed for more technical work. It's got 30 pages of graphing paper and one regular lined page for taking notes, plus a built-in ruler on the inside cover. Did I mention they are reusable? Use their "Pilot Frixion" pens and then wipe the page with a damp cloth after uploading your notes to use it all over again (and win one for the environment!). 

Check the price on Amazon.

5. Philips Hue Smart Light Bulb

Smart home gifts are a terrific option if you're looking for a helpful tech gift for an environmental engineer. They will not only cut down energy bills but also be very easy to manage at the same time. This Philips Hue Smart Light Pack includes 4 light bulbs that can be controlled using a mobile device. They are extremely eco-friendly with a lifetime of 22 years! You also have the option to include the Hue Hub in your gift to unlock more features like timers, routines and motion sensors.

Check the price on Amazon.

6. 17 Pieces Eco-Friendly Gift Set with Zero Waste Sustainable Products

Nothing beats a well-curated collection of items that will help your favorite environmental engineer reduce waste throughout the year! This fantastic zero-waste kit includes up to 17 of the best plastic-reduction substitutions for everyday objects. It includes beeswax food wrap, zero waste reusable bags, zip locking bags, stainless steel straws, a brush, and travel bag.

Check the price on Amazon.

7. PILOT B2P - Bottle to Pen Refillable & Retractable Rolling Ball Gel Pen

In the Ocean Conservancy's annual beach cleanups in over 100 countries, plastic bottles and bottle caps are the third and fourth most recovered plastic rubbish items. You can help combat this problem and still give a practical gift! This B2P (Bottle to Pen) Ball Gel Pen from Pilot is 89% recycled plastic bottle. It can also be refilled endlessly instead of disposed! Now they can write their next chapter for a cleaner planet! 

Check the price on Amazon.

8. Lab Coat Pocket Protector

Environmental engineers wield pens like magic wands, scribbling eco-solutions that bloom like wildflowers. These unsung heroes are not only worthy of our praise and admiration, but deserving of a thoughtful and durable gift that’s made to last. The venerable Pocket Protector became a cultural icon in the 1960's and 1970's, but somewhere along the way the newer generation of STEM researchers forgot about them.

Environmental Engineers need these back in their labs and in the field to stay organized, stay efficient, protect their work clothes, and finish their experiments without being late to lunch. So we researched and tested every type ever made to methodically solve each problem and come up with this refreshed design.

Available in spruce green, sapphire blue, and faded pink - the top 3 colors voted on by our fans! You can even get it from our Amazon page if that's easier.

Check the price on Amazon.

9. Bamboo Travel Utensil Set

Carrying reusable utensils is another simple method to decrease disposable waste. Because they're compact, lightweight, and come with their own washable carry bag and carabiner, we think the Bamboo Travel Utensil Set is one of the finest budget gifts for environmental engineers who love to travel. We just toss these in a backpack, fanny pack, or handbag for quick access on the road, and we'll never have to worry about using disposable silverware again.

Check the price on Amazon.

10. Razor System Made with Recycled Ocean Plastic

Disposable razors are extremely wasteful because of their limited use, plastic handles, and non-recyclable metal parts. So why not get your environmental engineer one of these stylish, useful, and eco-friendly razors as a gift? This razor's ergonomic handle is created from recycled ocean plastic retrieved during clean-up activities. As a bonus, 25% of the sales go to non-profits that clean up seas and beaches, support marine conservation, and investigate plastic pollution. 

Check the price on Amazon.

11. AeroGarden’s Indoor Hydroponic Garden

A planter or pot is an excellent gift for an environmental engineer who wants to make their workplace or house a little greener. This modern Indoor Hydroponic Garden can grow up to 6 plants at a time without the use of soil, making it simpler and no mess. The control panel can tell if the plants need more water, taking the guesswork out of growing. It also automatically takes care of the lighting to maximize photosynthesis, resulting in rapid, natural growth and abundant harvests. 

Check the price on Amazon. 

12. LifeStraw Go: Water bottle that filters bacteria from outdoor sources

I travelled for 7 weeks in Eastern Europe and 4 weeks in Latin America using a LifeStraw Go to drink the otherwise undrinkable tap water, and never got sick. It drastically reduces your plastic water bottle consumption and ensures you never go thirsty. Just refill from any source and it filters out the bacteria that could otherwise make you sick.

Great for environmental engineers who often camp or travel overseas, it's a sustainable and safe answer to staying hydrated in other countries!

If you want to go up a level, I used the Grayl GeoPress for Southeast Asia where viruses like Hepatitis A are more prevalent because it also filters out most viruses, not to mention microplastics. Both are great choices!

Check the price on Amazon. 

13. Plug-in Power Energy Meter

This simple yet versatile energy meter can tell you exactly how much electricity any of your plug-in devices are consuming. It has a large LCD display that can show a wide variety of parameters like Power(W), Energy (kWh), Voltage, Amps, Power Factor, Cost and Minimum & Maximum Power, perfect for cutting down power consumption and saving the environment. It’s a fun and super useful gadget for an engineer to figure out how to reduce their electric bill!

Check the price on Amazon. 

14. How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need

Bill Gates has improved the lives of countless people through his foundation's efforts to eradicate polio, tuberculosis, and malaria, and now he wants to help save our lives by tackling climate change. How to Avoid a Climate Disaster explains the changes that must be made in order to reverse the impacts of climate change, including ways we can engineer our way out of it. It's a fascinating book, and Bill Gates' personal tales and passion for innovation make it enjoyable to read.

Check the price on Amazon.  

15. Nature Obscura: A City's Hidden Natural World

Kelly Brenner's Nature Obscura: A City's Hidden Natural World is a fantastic book to learn more about the hidden parts of nature in developed regions. Based primarily around the author's hometown of Seattle, the book investigates the often ignored fauna, plants, and landscapes in the area, as well as how land changes for cities and housing have impacted and changed the environment nearby. Nature Obscura is a rich and moving book for any environmental engineer who wants to obtain a fresh, profound understanding of the world and its living beings.

Check the price on Amazon.

16. Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout

This is by far my favorite author in the "productivity" space. Cal Newport has refreshing takes that get away from the "hustle" culture often promoted online by young guys trying to grind their way to success.

As a professor of Computer Engineering himself, he knows what it takes to build a successful career in academia. And it's not cruising through 100 emails every morning!

His newest book "Slow Productivity" mixes his own experiences with stories of the greatest minds in human history (think Curie, Feynman) to show that great achievements often happen slowly. I enjoyed reading this one at about one chapter a week to remind myself to focus on the "slow, deep work" and fit everything else around it.

17. Healing Earth: An Ecologist's Journey of Innovation and Environmental Stewardship

Healing Earth is full of inspiring short stories by legendary environmental ecologist John Todd, captured with stunning visuals, of successful ecological interventions implemented by environmental engineers and the wonderful natural changes that developed after them.

I love books like these which are related to your field but don't feel like "work". They make for a wonderful creative break to recharge and reignite your passion for work.

18. Subscription to AI-powered Research and Writing Software (SciSpace)

Environmental engineering grad students have to keep track of a huge amount of information to complete their research and write newspapers. Luckily, AI is now ready to help! SciSpace is a new software tool that combines AI search engines with reference/bibliography management to quickly get answers to highly technical questions - all sourced from peer-reviewed journals.

The Copilot feature is my favorite! It can scan those clunky PDF files to make summaries and even pull tables out into an editable format! That would have saved me hundreds of hours in grad school...The other neat thing is that it lets you take notes on every journal article, link it to that file, and search your notes later with the AI engine.

The best move here is to gift them a 1-year subscription! Just create an account here with your email, and then print out the login details to put into a gift box for the big day! They can move the account to their email address right after.

19. Engineer’s Gift Bundle ($39.50)

If you can't decide by now, I can still help! Consider this decision made. I put together an Engineer Gift Bundle just to make it easy for you. It includes the Pocket tool and Word Magnets from above, plus a few fun science stickers. You'll save over 20% by bundling them together, so grab this and you can stop your search here!

• Engineering Word Magnets
• Physics Word Magnets
• Science Basics Word Magnets
• Starter Word Magnets (144 tiles of connector words)
• The Pocket Engineer pocket ruler and reference
• Engineering is for Everyone sticker

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):

What is a good gift for an environmental engineer?

Anything that's practical, functional or can help them show their love for the environment and engineering. Here are our favorites:

• The Pocket Engineer pocket ruler and equation reference
• Funny Engineering-themed Word Magnets
• Rocketbook Matrix cloud-connected reusable paper notebook
• The Low-Carbon Cookbook & Action Plan
• Philips Hue Smart Light Bulb
• 17 Pieces Eco-Friendly Gift Set
• PILOT B2P - Bottle to Pen
• Pocket Protector for lab coats
• Bamboo Travel Utensil Set
• Razor System Made with Recycled Ocean Plastic
• AeroGarden’s Indoor Hydroponic Garden
• LifeStraw Go: Water bottle that filters bacteria from outdoor sources
• Plug-in Power Energy Meter
• How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need
• Nature Obscura: A City's Hidden Natural World
• Slow Productivity: The Lost Art of Accomplishment Without Burnout
• Healing Earth: An Ecologist's Journey of Innovation and Environmental Stewardship
• Subscription to AI-powered Research and Writing Software (SciSpace)