Green Moms: Moms dish the dirt on living green

Mary Isakson
Environmentally speaking: What should you do? What is most important, most efficient, and most effective?

Good questions, but in a way, insufficient. To develop a real commitment to environmental issues, you also need to ask: What do you enjoy?

I believe a mom’s attitude toward her own participation in environmental community service impacts her children. I encourage my daughters to participate in community service, and explain to them that it can be an opportunity to pursue something you enjoy. While we all have an obligation to contribute to society, it ought not be a burden and should not be a gift given grudgingly. Helping my daughters find what is right for them is a work in progress. In the meanwhile, I hope that setting an example may speak louder than lectures.

One of the opportunities for service that I have been lucky enough to find is at TheLotusGarden.org. For almost ten years I have had the privilege of tending a plot at the garden and helping to host community events, including field trips by my younger daughter’s preschool (this daughter will soon be entering sixth grade, but my trips with the preschool continue to be an annual event). This allows me to share my joy in gardening with an enthusiastic audience, and to impart increased knowledge of and appreciation for nature in the process.

The children love to see our lush "secret garden," delight in discovering the paths, the goldfish, the variety of plants and flowers. They enjoy participating in some gardening or a garden related craft project.

The entire visit takes under two hours, and the preparation for it is also fairly minimal. For me the morning is exhausting and satisfying; filled with the contagious enthusiasm of young children and a reminder of the focused attention they require. I love the time with them, and the peace when they depart, their piping voices quietly fading in the distance after the garden gate swings shut. It is always a pleasure for me to recognize one of these youngsters leading his or her family back for a visit on a subsequent Sunday.

Michelle Bexelius, co-founder of GreenThisLife.com

Going to school is the most exciting thing to do as the new kid on the block. There are so many new things to discover and learn, but I’ve noticed that so many things can be improved to strengthen their experience.

The first thing I noticed as a parent of a kindergartener touring schools is the lack of fresh air and circulation in the classrooms. There are enough germs going on between buddies. Wouldn't it be nice to open the windows or better yet, use an air filter to also rid the place from bacteria and dust? Who wants to bring that home anyway?

Ventilation is especially important in the presence of art materials such as glues and paints as the little guys create their masterpieces. Air filters don't cost much these days and the filters really only need to be replaced every 3-5 years.

Each year school supplies get replenished after hours of use, spilling, knocking over, etc., but one thing I would like to see is schools starting to use more non-toxic ingredients for the little hands that touch them. Glues and crayons can be made without animal by-products and lead. Soy wax crayons and safe glues are a phenomenal alternative.

Here's a list of some things you can do to make your school green and healthy:

• Ask the grounds crew to use natural herbicides and pesticides.


• Create paper, plastic, and aluminum recycling centers near waste bins.


• Request that the school copy center and administrative offices use 100% recycled paper.


• Work with the administration and food services departments to eliminate Styrofoam cups and plastic utensils, and to use non toxic cleaning products.


• Place air filters in the classrooms


• Suggest that your school compost leftovers for a school or community garden. If your child's school doesn't have a garden, organize an effort to create one.


• Encourage the school to stock up on recycled paper goods: toilet paper, napkins, and paper towels


• Pack your child's school supplies box with soy wax crayons (a host of regular crayons have lead in them)


• Make sure your child's school is aware of environmentally safe paints for buildings


• Suggest wax paper bags for home lunches brought to school

Charlotte Hudson
When I found out that I was pregnant, I knew that I was going to have to make a large investment in all the gear you need for bringing a small bundle home from the hospital. What I didn't expect, however, was how much of it was made of plastic.

I don't have anything against plastic, but the sheer volume of it was overwhelming -- from the pack n' play to the stroller, from the high chair to the baby plates and spoons... not to mention the toys. While I didn't find alternatives for some of the bigger items, I did try to change some small things. (And if any of you out there found other alternatives, I would love to hear about them!)

At least until my son is old enough to start feeding himself, I have avoided using plastic bowls and plates to warm his food and starting using glass instead. Especially if you are using the microwave (yes, I admit it!), I found great little glass dishes with lids at Kmart. Although there is still some debate about what concentrations of chemicals leach into food from plastics at high temperatures, for me, it was worth $20 in glass bowls to not have to think about it.

The other small change has been introducing toys that aren't plastic. There is something about the old wooden toys that I used to play with that I miss. My son loves the remote control and our cell phones, so yes, he does have his share of shiny plastic with songs and lights, but I recently found a good source of wooden toys at FatBrainToys.com. They carry brands like Melissa & Doug and Haba that are all wood.

I don't think plastic toys are unsafe or that there is really anything wrong with them, but I chalk up this need for more natural toys as a way to introduce my son to different textures and let his brain do a little more creative thinking.

Although, plastic or not, I do admit that the best toy out there is an empty water bottle filled with some dried beans or rice -- and, at least the beans are natural!

Wendy Gordon, General Manager, National Geographic's TheGreenGuide.com

There's no place I'd rather be in July than our garden.

I feel pretty lucky to have this garden, all 40 x 30 square feet of it, which is just a couple dozen yards from a 100+ year-old farmhouse we have in the western Catskills. It produces an abundance of vegetables from early June through late September. There's no evidence proving that locally grown is better for you, or "more nutritionally complete," but no group of scientists are needed to inform me that my fresh-from-the-garden vegetables taste a whole lot better than those that have shipped thousands of miles from farm to fork.

I also like that I haul my dinner greens to the kitchen myself -- no car, not even a bag. According to Joan Gussow, Columbia University nutritionist, shipping a strawberry from California to New York requires 435 calories of fossil fuel but provides the eater with only 5 calories of nutrition.

Gardening is something my husband and I enjoy. The kids seem to always disappear when it's time to plant, mulch, or weed. But they are always at the ready when harvest time comes around, which starts early in our garden --when perennials, including rhubarb and asparagus, come bursting through the cool soil at the same time we're planting the first early season peas, beans and lettuce seeds -- and runs pretty much straight through October.

Our approach to gardening is a bit haphazard, but we have gotten better at picking seeds that are right for our region. Most catalogs offer a zone chart and other keys; Seeds of Change has the best charts among the catalogs we get, showing how much sun and water certain plants need and in which zone they are best suited.

Then there is the matter of which seeds to choose. We're not purists about it, but we do try to buy organic seeds whenever there is an option. Conventional seeds might have been harvested from chemically grown plants, and they also may have been treated with insecticides or fungicides prior to sale. We also try heirloom varieties that are from our region whenever we come across them. Even the major seed catalogs, such as Burbee, offer a number of organic and heirloom varieties.

You don't need a big yard or even a yard to plant a garden. A small potted garden on a terrace or sunny apartment window sill can provide a year round bounty. As part of my work on The Green Guide, we've come up with lots of tips on starting a vegetable garden, including a list of companies offering organic and heirloom seeds.

Tiffany Washko, NatureMoms.com
For many green moms and dads the decision about how to diaper their baby does not come so easy. We all know disposable diapers are bad with a capital "B," but the other options just seem so archaic and inconvenient.

But it's not as bad as you may think. There are some pretty appealing diapering alternatives nowadays. If you want to lighten your environmental footprint by avoiding those landfill-filling, disposable diapers, then two options you might consider are cloth diapers or gDiapers.

Cloth Diapers
When many parents think of cloth diapers they still think of those thick, towel like diapers (the ones we now use as burp rags), diaper pins, and the plastic vinyl pants that go on top. Well, the cloth diapers you find today are far cry from that these days.

Bum Genius cloth diapers by Cotton Babies are designed to make cloth diapering easy for every-day people -- like your babysitter, grandparents and even dad. Using a BumGenius cloth diaper is just like using a disposable, but you don’t throw it away! Just wash it and they’re ready to go again. They come in a variety of beautiful colors like Blossom Pink and Grasshopper Green.

They are pocket diapers, which allows you to use the type of insert that meets your absorbency needs (although the included microfiber insert should be sufficient). Bum Genius also offers an all-in-one diaper, which is a one-piece diaper that most closely resembles a disposable. Plus, Bum Genius diapers have neat stretchy tabs that make diapering even the most wiggly babies a breeze.

The best thing about these diapers by far is that they are one-size-fits-most. They will fit babies between 6 and 35 pounds, so there's no need to buy a bunch of diapers in different sizes. Ingenious!

If you want to go a step further you can try a cloth diaper made from sustainable materials, such as organic cotton or even bamboo...