GreenMoms, a network of mothers sharing ideas about greener living, launched its new global Web site, www.greenmoms.com, on Mother’s Day 2009. The site provides an exchange of ideas that help visitors make greener choices for their families and communities. The site is also a connecting place for people across the country — and the globe — to learn how to form their own GreenMoms groups, meeting locally and sharing ideas globally.

The GreenMoms concept started in 2005, when California Bay Area coastal resident Melinda MacNaughton organized a group of mothers interested in adopting a greener lifestyle. Concerned about the polluting effects of conventional agriculture, MacNaughton sought support from other like-minded moms to share green living ideas. “Once the group got going, it felt so good to have a network of people to share successes and challenges, that it made it much easier to stay motivated to make green changes. We’re constantly inspiring each other with new ideas,” MacNaughton says. Eventually the Coastside group started to invite guest speakers, attend berry-picking events at farms, host vegetarian potlucks, and compile a list of green resources.

Melinda MacNaughton and Janice Solimeno, co-founders of GreenMoms.

In 2007 Janice Solimeno joined the group and offered to help MacNaughton craft a pilot Web site focused on the activities of their local Coastside group,       as well as the ever-growing list of resources. This pilot site also showcased information about green shopping and green events, and spawned more contact with local moms. The GreenMoms even garnered the attention of Swiss  National TV. “We always knew we wanted to create a global Web site to offer the support and tools we had available to our Coastside group, so after we completed our pilot site focused on our local group, we expanded and created GreenMoms.com for people everywhere,” says Solimeno.

The Half Moon Bay Coastside group was the launching pad for GreenMoms, but by mid-May the greater GreenMoms community had 12 groups. There are GreenMoms groups in Alabama, Idaho, Missouri, New York, and Tennessee, as well as several in California: Davis-Yolo, HMB Coastside, Los Angeles, Riverside-Inland Empire, San Francisco-Marina and the San Francisco Peninsula. And there’s even a group in Israel.

A recent “movie night” included dinner and a movie called Garbage: The Revolution Starts at Home.

The co-founders support the fact that there are many different shades of green when it comes to being a “green” individual. Their ethos is “come as you are” — all levels of green are welcome. The site has a GreenMometer list where visitors can find tips for the level of green with which they are comfortable. One example is family gift-giving, where the lightest shade of green suggests that adults give only one gift per child. The next shade darker is selecting one name from a hat or giving home-made gifts. The darkest shade of green is giving the gift of time and love, or giving to a charity, instead of buying presents.

Visit the GreenMoms Web site, www.GreenMoms.com, and help make your life, your family’s life and the planet a little bit greener, one step at a time.