With politicians and celebrities alike focusing on the environment, more and more teenagers are expressing interest in making a difference in the world around them. Besides encouraging your kids to reduce, reuse and recycle, here are 10 ways to help get your teens to think green.
- Set an example: You won't have any credibility with your teen if you talk the talk without walking the walk. Make sure you're doing your part before you insist they do theirs.
- Discuss the issues: Talk to your teens about what politicians are saying and doing when it comes to the environment. Ask them who they would support in an election and why.
- Get the facts: Watch documentaries together and share magazine articles about environmental problems such as global warming, overpopulation, acid rain and species extinction. Talk about changes your family can make to positively affect the environment in your home and your community.
- Encourage environmental efforts: Help your teen find time in his or her schedule to join environmental clubs or efforts such as the Otesha Project (www.otesha.ca), a youth movement towards sustainable consumption or the Canon Envirothon (www.envirothon.org), North America's largest high school environmental education competition where teens solve real environmental issues through in-class projects and hands-on field experiences.
- Go gadget green: If your teen is a gadget fiend, make sure you've got enough rechargeable batteries on hand to keep them running. And when they've outgrown or upgraded their cell phone, MP3 player, hand-held videogame console or digital camera, make sure it's not thrown away, but either recycled or passed on to someone else. Organizations like ThINK Food / Phones-for-Food (www.think-food.com) accept cell phones and printer cartridges for recycling, which in turn raises funds for local food banks
- Paper or plastic? Neither: Outfit your family with reusable bags-the funkier the better-and get your teen into the habit of refusing the disposable kind when shopping.
- Green is gorgeous: Encourage your fashionista teenager to buy from eco-friendly companies when it comes to clothing and makeup. Help your teen along by buying green products as gifts. Check out the latest colours and styles from environmentally friendly stores, The Body Shop (www.thebodyshop.ca) or Mountain Equipment Co-op (www.mec.ca)
- Coffee to go: If your teen has discovered the joys of chatting with friends over a cup of java, offer to buy a reusable travel mug to cut down on waste. Note that if you want your teen to actually use the mug, let him or her choose it and don't expect your style-conscious high schooler to use the freebie you got at the gas station.
- Serve locally grown food: If you do the cooking in your family, make the conscious effort to serve locally grown produce. Explain that the average food item travels 2,000 km to reach your kitchen, which affects freshness, taste, nutrition, greenhouse gas emissions, high energy costs and local economic health. By serving locally grown food, you help reduce these effects.
- Listen: Find out what your teenager is thinking about, angry about and worried about when it comes to the environment, and then help channel those feelings into actions that can have lasting, positive effects.
