Kimberly Danek Pinkson, Founder of the EcoMom Alliance

While you're enjoying the last days of summer, the new school year looms ahead and the pressure to purchase adds to what is often an already a stressful time for many kids and parents. It can also be an opportunity to start fresh. So while you and your littles head off to shop, keep in mind the life cycle of your purchases: their manufacturing may have dumped toxic pesticides and other chemicals into the environment and into the bodies of exploited workers and their families.

Good news is that there are lots of eco-friendly options that can make back to school all the way cool (well, other than the fact that you still have to get everyone up and out every morning!).

Lunchbox options: PVC, or polyvinyl chloride (a.k.a vinyl), can be found in most shoes, boots, lunch boxes and backpacks. It is known to lodge in the fatty tissue of animals and humans and can cause health problems such as cancer, organ damage and immune suppression. It is one of the most persistent and toxic of all man made chemicals. So opt for old-fashioned stainless steel lunch boxes instead. I just found a great Curious George one for my nephew. I also like Mimi the Sardine Lunch Bags, and the faux-plastic Laptop Lunches bento style boxes -- which are actually made of corn starch.

Choose brown, wax-paper bags instead of plastic baggies to avoid adding to our landfills and leaching phthalates into your child's food. Earthpak.com has great recycled rubber back packs. Sigg.com and KleanKanteen.com offer healthy water bottle alternatives to the over 3 million plastic bottles that end up in landfills every day in the United States.

Buy organic cotton clothing. Cotton production accounts for a large percentage of the pesticide contamination of our waterways and food chain. Target has started carrying some organic options, and Patagonia and Garden Kids Clothing are other great options.

Buy recycled paper, biodegradable pens and binders at Green Earth Office Supply or EcoProducts.com.

You've now saved fossil fuels, your child's health and your own guilt. How to teach Johnny that enough is enough... well, that's another story.

Kimberly Danek Pinkson, Founder of the EcoMom Alliance

The very first thing I ever bought my son was a cradle. I was rather superstitious and not planning to baby shop until I was at least six months pregnant, but as I left Whole Foods and drove by a second hand store with baby furniture in the window, I found myself pulling over and going in. I think it was the hormones driving because before that moment, I had never shopped in a thrift store, unless you count some of L.A.’s vintage boutiques as "thrift stores," but that’s a whole other snobby, semantic story.

Anyway, the first thing I saw was this cradle. Still in its box. Never opened. FSC certified, all natural wood. I felt a little guilty about the impulse buy, but it came home with me. And fittingly, thus began my shopping adventures as a green mom.

Turns out I had nothing to feel guilty about because six years later, I still have that cradle and just thinking about it makes me feel happy again. Plus, two of my nephews, as well as the babies of three dear friends, have all come to use it. With every “recycle” I put on new bedding and tie on new ribbons. It feels good to pass on the memories of my newborn son swaddled within, and it feels good to know that my purchase is being reused over and over. My point here is that going green is easier than you may think -- and in fact, you may already be making some green choices...

Kimberly Danek Pinkson, Founder of the EcoMom Alliance

Sustainable: That which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

I came to the world of sustainability through my father, who worked with indigenous shamans the world over, and my Hungarian-born mother, who introduced my sister and I to global awareness. I always joke that when other kids were eating Twinkies and going to summer camps, we were eating organic papaya out of ceramic dishes, and going to Native American Sweat Lodge ceremonies.

I was always trying to save the rainforests, save the whales, save something. But this is not to say that I didn’t enjoy a day of shopping with my mom and going to brunch at Neiman Marcus. I just always wondered why the two worlds had to be disparate. So, quite naturally I became a bridge builder, looking for ways to bring ideas and people together in ways that would not happen otherwise.

It took becoming a mom though, for me to realize that I had to start taking more steps for a sustainable future. First it was just buying organic food. Then came the organic shampoos, conditioners and toothpastes. Eventually, it was organic cotton clothes and bed linens. And now, I’m the Founder and President of the EcoMom Alliance, an organization committed to inspiring and empowering moms to take "First Steps for A Sustainable Future." Funny how life happens isn’t it?

But what does sustainable mean and why is it important?

It means you matter. For thousands of years, indigenous people have known what contemporary science has now “proven.” We are all connected and what we drop into one “corner” of the ocean, impacts all of the other “corners” too...

Kimberly Danek Pinkson, Founder of the EcoMom Alliance

Yesterday my son came home from his first fishing trip with, yes, you guessed it, a fish. I was very excited and proud of him until I realized that I would have to help him clean it.

Native Americans talk about the web of life. How everything on this precious planet of ours is woven together just so. How it falls apart when we don’t walk in balance. I don’t eat meat very often, I am not a vegetarian anymore – gave it up during my pregnancy when my body seemed to scream out, "beef, beef, I want beef" – and I always talk about how important it is that kids grow up knowing where their food is coming from, but cutting off the fish’s head and cleaning out the guts? Ugghh, the things we go through in the name of raising children and walking our talk.

But I bucked up, asked Corbin to say a little prayer for the spirit of the fish that gave its life to him and then, we did the deed. And Corbin had him for dinner with garlic and lemon.

Thinking about this web of life is critical to shifting toward a greener lifestyle. As is realizing that this whole thing about trying to stop global warming, while noble and real, is not just about the planet. It is about you. Because sustaining your self, sustaining your home and sustaining your planet, it’s all connected. When push comes to shove, and the organic almonds at Trader Joes have gone up to $6.99 and the conventional almonds are only $3.99, what are you going to do? How much does climate change really mean then? How about your health?

Kimberly Danek Pinkson, Founder of the EcoMom Alliance

So here I am, out in the world talking about going green, but there’s my son, completely, irrevocably and 100% prime time in love with his sippy cup. His plastic sippy cup. The one that satisfies his midnight soymilk addiction.

As all moms know, plastics are unbreakable, lightweight, generally inexpensive and very convenient. And let’s face it, after the very first time you took your first baby out to run errands, convenience became a driving factor in many a decision (i.e. the midnight sippy cup).

However, the long-term price of convenience, when it means risking your child’s health, or his chance to swim in a clean lake, is not worth it. Plastics are extremely toxic for both your planet and your health. They are made from petroleum, a non-renewable, and mostly imported, resource. And all that great packaging? Imagine it in your local landfill.

The use of plastics in food storage and cooking has been linked to cancers, birth defects, poor brain/nervous system development and endocrine disruption, which, among other things, causes premature onset of secondary sex characteristics (early puberty). As if all that weren’t enough, plastic manufacturing and incineration creates air and water pollution that sends those chemicals right back into our rivers, soil, food chain, and then into your body. Not a pretty picture.

So what to do? Thanks to some forward thinking engineers, entrepreneurial moms and a few good old-fashioned options, there are alternatives to plastic that are both convenient and healthy...