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<\/p>\nEveryday Kids, Everyday Actions<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cMy parents were just whatever about it,\u201d says Rudy Sanchez, 17, a high school senior from Lawndale, California, of the first time he approached his folks about partaking in GMP.<\/p>\n Sanchez estimates that move combined with their other GMP actions\u2014composting, unplugging electronic equipment at night, and a switch to energy-saving light bulbs\u2014will save his family more than $1,000 a year.<\/p>\n And what of the money Sanchez earned through his contract?<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re putting it in a bank account for my college fund,\u201d says Sanchez.<\/p>\n Some families don’t take as much convincing.<\/p>\n \u201cTo my kids, saving the environment is just a given,\u201d says Lisa Glassman, a development director at an elementary school in Santa Monica. Her two children, AJ, 15, and Clara, 13, have both edited chapters of the GMP book.<\/p>\n Like Howard, they practice what they preach.<\/p>\n Using Energy Star, the U.S. government\u2019s program that walks consumers through the marketplace of energy-efficient products and practices, AJ was able to help his family purchase a new eco-friendly refrigerator. He estimates it will save them around $150 per year in lower utility bills and pay for itself in seven years.<\/p>\n The refrigerator sticky reads “Think about what you want before you open me.” The sticky on the washer reads “Use cold water only.” And in the bathroom: “Turn off the water while you brush your teeth.”<\/p>\n \u201cI went a little sticky crazy,\u201d laughs Clara.<\/p>\n A Paradigm Shift<\/strong><\/p>\n The money saved by Howard and the Sanchez and Glassman families contradicts the theory of “slacktivism,” which is the do-good feeling one gets from partaking in a social cause (like signing an online petition) but which has very little real-world impact.<\/p>\n But defeating slacktivism is hardly GMP\u2019s long-term goal.<\/p>\n If the scheme spreads and takes hold\u2014after three months, there\u2019s every evidence it will\u2014GMP could help raise a generation of children for whom the very thought of sticking quotes around the phrase \u201cgoing green\u201d elicits confusion; where environmentally-conscious living will be as normal as buckling seatbelts; where the solutions to climate change are inextricably linked to the entrepreneurial ambitions of millions of kids.<\/p>\n Again, the means to this end is the pay-it-forward methodology. One hundred youth champions, like Howard, will recruit 100 kids, each of whom will recruit another 100\u2014and so on. To date, Feegel says more than 20,000 children have contacted GMP to say that they\u2019ve greened their parents, including more than 6,000 on Facebook alone.<\/p>\n \u201cKids today are defining a new green lifestyle as their own domain, and it\u2019s about innovation, not sacrifice,\u201d says Feegel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/contaminasian.com\/dir1\/wp-content\/uploads\/greenteam1.jpeg\")
Eventually, Sanchez persuaded his parents that the family\u2019s addiction to two cases of bottled water per month had to go. Now, the Sanchezes use filters and re-usable canteens.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/contaminasian.com\/dir1\/wp-content\/uploads\/download.jpeg\")
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Clara has placed environmental reminder sticky notes on the door of this refrigerator\u2014and roughly 15 other spots around the family home.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/contaminasian.com\/dir1\/wp-content\/uploads\/greenteam.png\")
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