Youth Taking Action: Green Teens

Green Teens holds an eco-bag session at a local church

What impact can a 16-year-old social entrepreneur make? Lots! Take Youth Venture's Jessie Mehrhoff, and Best Buy @ 15 Challenge finalist, as an example. Jessie started Green Teens determined to change the mindsets and actions of people in her school and community to live more environmentally sustainably. Her enthusiastic approach to environmental action is making everyone in her community and beyond realize how they can contribute to a cleaner and greener world. How does she do it? We spoke with Jessie about her work as a social entrepreneur and Green Teens' plans for the future.

1) What is the focus of Green Teens?

Green Teens is a youth-led organization that aims to spread environmental awareness throughout the community by promoting simple, positive lifestyle changes. The group originally focused on the use of reusable eco-bags instead of paper and plastic, but soon found that so much more could be done simultaneously. Green Teens holds events geared towards different age groups. We tend to use arts and crafts to share our environmental message with young children. Our work with adults tends to focus on how easy and cost-effective it is to be environmentally minded. Our newest initiative, The Compost Caf. Project, works with high school students, like ourselves, to show how composting involves the three R's (reducing, reusing, and recycling). We aim to show the public that every small thing they do to help the Earth counts!

2) Who or what inspired you to start your social venture? Is your source of inspiration the same today as it was when you started?

I was raised in an environmentally conscious household; however, at age 14 I was elected the North American Representative to the 2006 TUNZA International Children's Conference on the Environment. I helped plan and run the conference with 10 other representatives from around the world. All of the behind the scenes work showed me just how much of a difference kids from around the world were making. I realized that as much as I found environmentalism important, there was so much more that I could do. When I got home I started high school and found some friends also interested in helping the environment. We started brainstorming all of the different ways we could get our community actively engaged in helping the environment; soon Green Teens was born.

3) What has your project accomplished and where do you see it going?

Green Teens has established a name for ourselves and our cause in the community which is allowing us to take on bigger projects. We have donated over 1000 eco-bags to members of our district. Our town does not recycle incandescent light bulbs and most people here did not realize that this could even be done. Our group has conducted CFL exchanges where we have donated hundreds of CFLs to community members in exchange for their old incandescent light bulbs which we then recycled. We have planted trees in local parks and given speeches on the importance of preserving our natural resources. Our current initiative is The Compost Caf. Project, which is proving to be our biggest challenge and success thus far. We will transform high school cafeterias into recycling centers, starting with our own. Work in the cafeteria will allow our message to reach youth it may normally miss. After creating a stable composting system we will replace the plastic and Styrofoam lunch supplies with reusable and biodegradable ones. We enjoy and will continue our small community-based projects, but hope to increase our impact with larger initiatives like The Compost Caf. Project as well.

4) How have you harnessed local support for your project among both young people and adults?

The fact that Green Teens started out as a group of friends is probably what helped it earn respect and support. I think most initiatives that have the support of, if not direct help from, friends are bound to accomplish something. The club started out as three high-school freshmen, so needless to say, we knew it would be hard to muster up support. The fact that each of us could bring different friends to the table until we had enough support to get others to take notice was helpful. By that time we were completing our first events people saw that despite our age, we had legitimate goals. Gaining adult support was fairly easy, especially in an academic institution. It seems as though even if not all adults have faith in youth to accomplish great things, many are more than willing to help out however they can. It's inspiring to see the next generation so proactive in solving today's problems rather than waiting until forced to do so. Like the students, as soon as adults saw that Green Teens wanted to make a difference, and was willing to work for it, they helped us reach where we are today!

5) What do you think are the most effective ways to get people to change their behavior and live more environmentally friendly?

Unfortunately, it seems as though most people cannot see environmentalism without a dollar amount attached to it. Sure, covering your roof with solar panels is great, but in these hard economic times, it isn't always a reality. If we can show people the simple changes they can make to their everyday routines that benefit Mother Nature, then we can get them to change their attitude towards helping the environment. Most schools, towns, and offices have recycling programs so taking a few extra seconds to throw that piece of paper in the recycling bin rather than the trash proves rather easy. Eco-bags can be purchased for $0.99 and are much nicer than paper or plastic; not only do they hold more, but they are easier to carry. CFLs use about ¼ of the wattage an incandescent bulb uses and last much longer, in the end saving about $30 (for a 60 watt incandescent equivalent). If we can educate the general public about how easy it is to help the environment without spending lots of money, then we can change their attitude towards environmentalism.

6) What advice do you have for other young environmentalists who want to get involved, but might not know where to start?

Talk to your friends! As mentioned before, I think I can attribute much of Green Teen's success to the fact that we started out as a small group of friends with our belief in environmentalism in common. Brainstorm ideas of environmentally conscious activities that you and your friends can do around town or in school. Look at different organizations' websites (like Youth Venture) for creative, new ideas that will attract attention while helping the community. When you're ready to expand your group, set a rule, for example each member must recruit one new member every few months until you've reached your goal. Not everyone will be as enthusiastic about the group as you, but eventually you will find your core members. The more minds working to spread environmental awareness, the more opportunities you will have to do so.

7) What is the most important lesson you've learned from your work as a social entrepreneur?

Every cloud really does have a silver lining. As cliché as it sounds, that phrase is something for a social entrepreneur to live by. Creating social change is in no way as easy as it looks. When creating Green Teens, I thought the group would be able to spread environmental awareness throughout the community without hitting many roadblocks; I quickly found out that I was very wrong. Not everyone is going to see the same level of importance in your work as you do. That is normal. As social entrepreneurs we must work creatively with the situations we are handed. For every roadblock you hit, you are given more time to think of an even better approach to your goal. Social entrepreneurs are told "no" quite often. Through Green Teens I've learned to take that small word and work with it until a solution can be reached to please everyone. That is success. The joy social entrepreneurs get out of standing up for their cause serves as a large enough reason to keep fighting for it, even when chances for achievement seem slim.