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"  A SMARTER LUNCHBOX  Cyndi Pedrazzi, 37, San Francisco THE CHALLENGE Pack kids&amp;#039; lunches without using piles of plastic bags. THE EARTH-FRIENDLY SOLUTION A lunchbox with washable storage compartments.  A few years ago, Cyndi Pedrazzi took her older daughter shopping for a lunchbox and was surprised to find that the design hadn&amp;#039;t changed since she herself toted a Scooby Doo box. Lunchboxes were still empty shells, so Cyndi would have to use at least four plastic bags per lunch for her girls, now 6 and 3. And all the boxes she found were made of vinyl or nylon instead of aluminum or plastic, so they couldn&amp;#039;t be tossed in the dishwasher. Cyndi imagined a stylish plastic alternative, with dishwasher-safe storage compartments. &amp;quot;I wanted something that was good for the environment and unique,&amp;quot; she says. Her design would have changeable faceplates that kids could customize with pictures or artwork \u2014 so moms wouldn&amp;#039;t have to buy new lunchboxes each year.  Cyndi also fantasized about quitting her job in human resources and having the flexibility to work from home and spend more time with her kids. So she found an industrial designer to translate her ideas into an actual product. Her husband agreed that they could use their savings to launch a start-up, and even volunteered to set up a website and help out on nights and weekends. And her brother-in-law offered to help with fulfilling orders. So Cyndi summoned the courage to quit her old job, and learned the ropes of her new one. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s all me,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m the customer service, the financial manager, webmaster, and order taker.&amp;quot;  Last September, the Yubo lunchbox, which sells for $30, was introduced at the ABC Kids Expo trade show; it&amp;#039;s currently available online at Toys-R-Us and Amazon. Cyndi is proud of how she&amp;#039;s taught her daughters to help the planet. &amp;quot;They love picking out designs for their lunchboxes,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;They see that going greener doesn&amp;#039;t have to be boring.&amp;quot; A GREENER DIAPER  Kim Ormsby, 35, Bozeman, MT THE CHALLENGE Find a convenient alternative to disposable diapers \u2014 a major household contributor to landfills. THE EARTH-FRIENDLY SOLUTION A hybrid cloth and disposable diaper system. When Kim Ormsby had her first baby nine years ago, she balked at the idea of using cloth diapers. Who needed more laundry to do? But after six months of going through about 10 disposables a day, she tried cloth. Turns out they weren&amp;#039;t bulky and didn&amp;#039;t require pins, like the ones from her childhood. The extra laundry was manageable, Kim was saving money, and she was glad not to add more trash to local landfills.  Recognizing all the benefits, including environmental and financial, Kim was sure other parents would be interested in becoming cloth converts. So when she was laid off from her engineering job after 9/11, she saw her freedom as the chance to turn her inspiration into reality. She used her credit card&amp;#039;s $15,000 limit to set up an online cloth diaper business. She developed a customer base, which spread the word, and in 2006, her husband quit his job to help secure loans and create the company, complete with a retail store, a corporate office, and a name: The Natural Baby Co. Cloth was still a hard sell to parents who liked the idea of being eco-conscious but preferred the convenience of disposables. So in 2009, with help from a designer, Kim launched the Gro Baby system, featuring a waterproof outer shell that gives parents the option of attaching a cloth insert or an eco-friendly disposable one; the shell can be used up to four times before needing to be washed. The system, now called GroVia, is sold at hundreds of retailers, including Whole Foods and Costco. An organic cloth set costs $25; a box of 50 biodegradable disposables is $20. &amp;quot;What&amp;#039;s great,&amp;quot; Kim says, &amp;quot;is that instead of washing cloth diapers after each use, you usually only have to wash the insert, so your laundry loads are lighter. That means using less water, detergent, and energy.&amp;quot; REUSABLE GIFT WRAP Patricia Lee, 39, Greenwich, CT THE CHALLENGE Make gift wrap that doesn&amp;#039;t get tossed later. THE EARTH-FRIENDLY SOLUTION Reusable wrapping fabrics. When Patricia Lee was a child, she was intrigued by the way her grandmother used old squares of cloth to wrap up the family&amp;#039;s picnic lunches or clothes for a weekend trip. Years later, when she visited her birthplace of Korea as a teenager, she learned that her grandmother&amp;#039;s handiwork was part of an ancient craft called bojagi. Patricia was fascinated by all the colors and styles of bojagi cloths and how an aunt of hers there used one to wrap a gift. &amp;quot;I thought it was genius,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;I wasn&amp;#039;t thinking how to go green. I just thought it was a way to express yourself and give someone something beautiful.&amp;quot;  Fast-forward to Christmas of 1996 and the resulting mountain of garbage after her family opened presents. &amp;quot;It made me sick,&amp;quot; says Patricia, a painter, designer, and mother of two kids, ages 11 and 14. So Patricia, along with her sister and mother, decided to revive the eco-friendly wrapping tradition. After several of her friends admired her wrapping jobs, Patricia thought there might be a bigger market for bojagi. In 1997, in New York City&amp;#039;s garment district, she found a Korean manufacturer who could make 100 wraps at a time. She started out taking orders from friends and asking them to host informal gatherings in their homes where she could give bojagi demonstrations and sell wraps. Then she worked gift trade shows and came up with her pitch to consumers: It&amp;#039;s as easy as tying your shoes.  In 2008, Patricia launched her company, called Bobo. The wraps are sold for $8 to $48 online and by more than 60 retailers. &amp;quot;I was inspired by friends who&amp;#039;d started businesses,&amp;quot; Patricia says of the risk she took. &amp;quot;Seeing these other women made me think, I can do this!&amp;quot; TUNES FOR THE GREEN GENERATION Jessica Hoffman, 38, San Francisco Maya Churi, 38, Los Angeles Jennifer Marks, 38, New York City Heather Staples, 39, San Francisco THE CHALLENGE Use the power of music to get kids excited about helping the planet. THE EARTH-FRIENDLY SOLUTION A CD compilation of great green-themed songs. Growing up in the &amp;#039;70s, Jessica Hoffman had always loved Free to Be You and Me, the popular kids&amp;#039; album that championed issues such as racial tolerance and gender equality. But when she became a mom, some three decades later, she couldn&amp;#039;t find any records like it that explored one of today&amp;#039;s most pressing concerns: the environment. So Jessica, a publicist, called Jennifer Marks, a college friend she used to write songs with. Her idea: to partner with Jennifer, a New York City mom and professional songwriter, and create a kids&amp;#039; album.  Six months of phone jam sessions later, they&amp;#039;d written a lineup of songs that teach kids about environmental issues ranging from the garbage problem to global warming. Jessica then enlisted an old high school friend, Maya Churi, a mother of two. Maya had a knack for designing websites and created one to promote the CD. A talented storyteller, she also wrote green-themed tales to be read aloud on the album. Jessica&amp;#039;s PR partner, Heather Staples, a mother of two, handled business matters. &amp;quot;We all worked after the kids went to bed or at dawn before they woke up,&amp;quot; says Jessica (pictured above with her two girls, Pilar, 4, and Camila, 1). &amp;quot;We made it happen.&amp;quot; Net profits from the CD will go to the Nature Conservancy, to support conservation efforts.  My Changing Planet is being released this month to coincide with the 40th anniversary of Earth Day. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s a family album,&amp;quot; Jessica says. &amp;quot;We roll back the sunroof and blast it. Everyone sings!&amp;quot; A NONTOXIC TOY CLEANER Marianne Szymanski, 42, Milwaukee THE CHALLENGE Concoct a cleaner cleaner \u2014 one that won&amp;#039;t that leave residue on toys.  THE EARTH-FRIENDLY SOLUTION Natural cleaner that&amp;#039;s safe for kids to ingest. For Marianne Szymanski, keeping her kids&amp;#039; toys clean was a major source of frustration. She didn&amp;#039;t have time to soak them in bleach and water, and they didn&amp;#039;t all fit in the dishwasher. She also worried that even &amp;quot;natural&amp;quot; cleaning agents might leave a chemical residue on the toys her kids, now 8 and 5, might put in their mouths. &amp;quot;There wasn&amp;#039;t a spray without alcohol, phosphates, artificial scents, or chemical preservatives,&amp;quot; Marianne says.  In 2005, Marianne, who runs Toy Tips, a research firm that tests and reviews toys, began her quest for a better cleaner. After three years of tinkering with the formula, she came up with one that includes an edible preservative. Marianne opened an office in Milwaukee; a local factory produces her product. Toy Tips Toy Spray sells for $6 and is available online at Wegman&amp;#039;s, Target, and Amazon and at more than 200 boutiques and stores. &amp;quot;Small kids put their mouths on dirty toys all day,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;Now parents don&amp;#039;t have to worry about that.&amp;quot;  DO YOU KNOW A GREEN MOM?  Nominate her to be a Red-Hot Green Mom! Send us a 300-word description of how she&amp;#039;s making the world a greener place for her kids, plus her photo, to redbook@hearst.com (subject: Green Moms). "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/life/mom-kids/advice/a5992/green-women/>