Think Raising Green Kids is Tough? Try Greening Your Parents! (And Vote Today at Pepsi Refresh!)

March 31st, 2010

Maybe I’ve had it wrong all along.  I’ve been blogging  about helping parents to raise green kids,  when maybe it’s the kids who need to green their parents!

That’s the premise behind Green My Parents, a green youth movement launching Earth Day  to help young people teach their peers and parents how to work together to go green through simple, everyday actions that not only help Mother Earth, they save money! Starting with a small group of “Green My Parents Champions,” these kids are committed to recruiting 100 kids to help save their parents $100 at home through simple, energy savings steps. The movement will grow as those 100 kids recruit another 100 kids and so on until they reach their goal of saving $100 million for American families – and greening the planet at the same time.

I’m blown away by the kids behind this movement. Check out:

  • Adora Svitak, a 12-year-old who is a published author and was the youngest speaker at the TED 2010 conference. She says, “ As one of the champions for GreenMyParents, I feel strongly that we can inspire our families, our communities and our country to successfully face and overcome the most important challenge of our time.”
  • Jordan Howard, 17, a senior at Environmental Charter High in LA, Green Ambassador Youth leader, and prolific speaker and blogger who inspires at her blog jordaninspires.com;
  • Alec Loorz, a 14-year-old who founded Kids Against Global Warming as a 12-year-old. He gave over 30 global warming presentations before being invited by Al Gore to be formally trained with the Climate  Project in October of 2008.  He is now the youngest trained presenter with The Climate Project.
  • Ally Maize, who three years ago, as a 15-year-old started the Green Youth Movement, whose goal is to “educate kids all over the world on living green, and to one day establish this very important information as part of the curriculum in our elementary schools.” and
  • Erin Schrode, a freshman at Columbia University and  founder of Teens Turning Green who wrote a great blog post about just what Green My Parents means to her. Erin just returned from a trip to Haiti that was sponsored by Green My Parents.  As Erin put it, “Every penny I raise for Haiti will go DIRECTLY to development efforts on the ground and the creation of a sustainable healthy peaceful nation for the future.”

Talk about positive role models for youth! (I don’t even want to imagine the college application essays these kids have put together!)

There’s a lot already going on – you can follow GreenMyParents on Facebook and Twitter and keep up with the movement on our website.  But the official launch is on Earth Day, when the Green My Parents book (and more) comes out. So stay tuned for more deets!  And please, join in! God knows, we need to green those parents!

Some of the other organizations behind Green My Parents are:  National Wildlife Federation publisher of Ranger Rick Magazine, Environmental Protection Agency ENERGY STAR Program, Carbonfund.org, Environmental Media Association, Earth Echo, Alliance for Climate Education (ACE,) Kiva.Org, DonorsChoose.org, Kids vs. Global Warming, Green Youth Movement (GYM), Teens Turning Green, SlowFoodUSA, ProjectSprout, Rise Above Plastics, Plastic Pollution Coalition, Green Charter Schools Network, Environmental Charter High School, Green Ambassadors, and many others who are joining us every day. Care to join in as a sponsor or a member? Just leave a comment here, @ us on Twitter, leave a message on our Facebook page, or whatever is easiest. We’ve got a lot of work to do!

Note: GreenMyParents is a new client of my consulting firm, 4GreenPs. I’m thrilled to be working with them to help this movement take off!

— Lynn

Copyright OrganicMania 2010


7 Responses to “Think Raising Green Kids is Tough? Try Greening Your Parents! (And Vote Today at Pepsi Refresh!)”

  1. Mary Hunt on March 31, 2010 6:15 am

    Thanks for bringing this to our attention Lynn. What a great fit of expertise and mission for you as well.

  2. Jeanne on March 31, 2010 6:38 am

    Wow! How inspiring and what great work these kids are doing. Their parents must be proud. Congrats to you too!
    .-= Jeanne´s last blog ..Thrill of the Hunt: A New Earth and Other Tips for Resourceful Book Shopping! =-.

  3. Lynn on March 31, 2010 6:51 am

    Thanks so much for the comments and RTs to help get the word out, Jeanne and Mary! Yes, those kids are truly amazing and I have to confess, I haven’t even been through ALL of their videos, websites, blogs, etc…just enough to skim and go, OMG, I didn’t realize I was such a slacker!!!

  4. mother earth aka karen hanrahan on March 31, 2010 7:00 am

    i think fostering the movement with our youth is an awesome way to go, here is another remarkable role model educator and personal hero of mine:

    http://willstegerfoundation.org/
    .-= mother earth aka karen hanrahan´s last blog ..Wanted Green Wanna Be’s =-.

  5. Anna@Green Talk on March 31, 2010 7:17 am

    I have been getting press releases about Ally for a while. All I have to same is “wow.” Boy could I use their help in my own district. I believe that it is the kids that will change the world. In this case, one parent at a time.

    Lynn, what a great movement for you to be involved in. Tweeting and Facebooking.

  6. Lynn on March 31, 2010 7:45 am

    Anna and Karen, I know, it’s awesome isn’t it? Glad to see your enthusiasm!

  7. Lisa @Retro Housewife Goes Green on April 11, 2010 12:48 pm

    I would have loved to have been apart of something like that as a kid! Looks awesome!
    .-= Lisa @Retro Housewife Goes Green´s last blog ..Green Baby Gifts =-.

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