Georgiy, 15, USA - The Next Big Step organization is a non-profit group that operates to convert small communities to more environmentally conscious, “green”, habits. The group will introduce itself to small businesses concerned with being both environmentally responsible and surviving these tough economic times.

NBS will perform an energy audit and calculate the negative impact of the business on the environment and their pocketbook. In particular we will investigate wasteful areas such as: light bulbs, heating and ventilating systems, air conditioning, unnecessary use of electricity, of water, plastic bags instead of paper ones, and the lack of a recycling program.

We will then formulate a method that will create a smooth transition, be partly paid for by NBS and partly by the client. The transition will correct all of their energy inefficiencies and install new, environmentally friendly items into their facility.

After completing the installation we will leave the company and return six months to a year later to evaluate the energy efficiency of their facilities and how much they have saved as a result of the transition. If they have saved as much as we had calculated, then they will return us our original investment thus keeping our company sustainable.

NBS: Georgiy, Oliver, Blake and Mallory

This February, we will organize a Minnesota Campus Energy Challenge (MCEC). This friendly statewide competition to reduce college and high school energy use will promote a pioneering mindset in which energy conservation, efficiency, and revolution become realities across Minnesota. The MCEC is an innovative approach for energy conservation through which students will evaluate, measure, and change their energy use habits. 

The organization of the competition is the responsibility of college students partnering with grassroots youth coalitions such as the Transcampus Energy Action Movement (TEAM MN), local high schools, and college environmental organizations. Beginning with the February Campus Energy Challenge, we will use these partnerships to change first college and then statewide environmental policies.

The competition seeks to educate, engage, and empower Minnesotan students using a variety of methods. Teach-ins, debates, and speakers will be educational. Building weatherization, energy monitoring, waste reduction, and similar projects to normalize reduced energy consumption will empower action and catalyze further community organizing. Other events (such as acoustic concerts and campus campouts) and the prize for the winning school that most reduces its energy consumption will create an exciting and lasting culture focused on sustainability.

Brian, 24, Texas - I’m excited to present you with a program that celebrates the last two Nobel Peace Prize concepts: environment and microfinance.

Electronic waste like cell phones pollute the environment (up to 35,000 gallons per phone) and microfinance has been proven to be an effective poverty alleviation tool. In response to these issues and as a fundraising technique, we created the Recycle to Eradicate Poverty program.

In one sentence, we recycle used cell phones to fund microfinance loans to the poor.

At www.onemillioncellphones.com, we allow anyone who has access to the Internet to get pre-paid baggies and make a difference. After entering in your information, we send as many baggies as you want to you so that you can in turn distribute them among events, in offices, to pass out, etc. Each person simply puts their cell phones inside a baggie and places it into their mailbox. 

Using this process, we hope to beat the One Million Cell Phone Challenge. Recycling one million cell phones across America will save 350 trillion gallons of water (enough to stop Niagara Falls for 72 years) and allow 100,000 women to rise from poverty through microfinance (enough to fill the brand new Dallas Cowboys Stadium).

Nick, 24, El Salvador - My idea is called Aquaponics. Aquaponics is very much like hydroponics but instead of using chemicals to supply plants with nutrients it uses fish and bacteria. Along with solar power this system is almost completely independent and can be placed anywhere (jungles, deserts, etc.). It is 100% organic and environmentally safe. It can provide an excellent source of nutrition from fish to vegetables and fruits.

Because it involves creating an artificial environment crop diversification has no limits thus providing a key opportunity for increased nutrition in rural and/or poor areas. Maintenance is extremely cheap and potentially can provide a steady source of income for poor families.
Thus, it could potentially provide subsistence living support, better nutrition, increase environmental awareness, and educational opportunities for children. The project is designed primarily to create a practical training curriculum to teach Aquaponic techniques to farmers but has many other broad applications as well.

The project includes the construction of a training system and primary training. With this new technique farmers will be able to farm year round, diversify their crops, feed their families, and do it all cheaply without impacting the environment.

Andy Posner, 24, USA - Van Jones and others are showing how a green collar economy can solve both social and environmental problems. My idea is to take that one step further by using the power of micro-credit and targeted green entrepreneurship training and mentoring to ensure that the green businesses of tomorrow are started by women, people of color, and low-income individuals, all of whom have been traditionally left out of the old, “grey” economy.

By providing affordable loans of $500 to $10,000 and combining them with additional support and training, my initiative will create jobs, a more vibrant, inclusive green economy, and solve environmental problems through the power of entrepreneurship.

I am working with experts in the fields of business skills and green job training to create a curriculum to support the entrepreneurs. In addition, I have spent the last five months laying a groundwork for the creation of a micro-finance program in Providence, Rhode island–a city with both high unemployment and poverty rates.

Working collaboratively with a number of community partners, a “buzz” has already been generated in the community. The impact of this program will be that all entrepreneurs with great, green ideas will have the chance to realize their dreams.

Blake, 20, USA - Climate change caused by greenhouse gases threatens our environment. To decrease and halt greenhouse gas emissions we must replace polluting energy sources like oil and coal with clean energy technologies like wind and solar. While these technologies function safely and efficiently, they’re not widely used in the United States.

Young Americans, who will be most effected by global climate change, feel unable to control energy production sources, and many Americans don’t see wind as a practical choice.

My project will empower young people by bringing together a group of high school students over the summer to build a working wind turbine. The turbine will provide power for a local demonstration farm, which hosts a day camp. The turbine will provide both clean energy and an example of implementing wind power on a small scale. Visitors will learn about wind energy’s ability to ameliorate climate change and provide local energy.

The wind turbine team will share our experiences and technical know-how with local schools and businesses. Through workshops, and using the working turbine as an exemplar, we will educate the community on wind energy solutions. We plan to inspire further construction of wind turbines at local schools and businesses.

Clay, 14, USA - I will get my community to use LED and compact flourescent bulbs, and recycle their CFLs, which contain mercury. I’ll install LED and CFL bulbs in a test location. I will do this at the beginning of an electrical bill cycle so that the reduced energy costs can be tracked on the bulletin board for people to see how this effort can save them money.

I will install many different types of bulbs and wattages, so that people will understand that they can get the same effect as incandescents with new, more sustainable lighting options. LED lights use only about 4% of the energy used in an incandescent, and can last for thirty years. The cost/benefit analysis of each option will be highlighted so that people can decide how quick of a payback they will need.

Educating the public through my brochures, presentations, and articles in the newspapers help make them aware of the potential energy and cost savings, potential problems associated with m ercury in CFLs, and ways to face those problems. Making CFL recycling bins available provides a way for conscientious citizens to recycle CFLs. I’ll also teach about LEDs, which will soon become the most cost-effective bulb choice.

Chloe, 16, USA - We are a school club at Lincoln Academy in Maine. We launched four advocacy campaigns. We successfully implemented a school-wide no-idle zone for buses and cars on our campus.

We talked with idling car and bus drivers about the pros, cons, health hazards, and pollution factors of idling. As of this spring of 2008, 6 months after we began the project, we did not see any buses or cars idling. We plan on continuing to monitor the amount of idling on our campus.

A short documentary by American teen, Chloe Maxmin, on the need to eliminate plastic bags.

Link: First Here, Then Everywhere (Official Website)

Every community needs champions for the environment.  In more and more communities, those champions are young people just like you.

You can take the lead in educating your peers as well as adults on key environmental challenges facing our planet, and show everyone what simple actions they can take to make things better.

Green Teens, USA is a great example of such a club.  After launching with seed funding from Ashoka GenV, Green Teens has organized events to promote the use of cloth bags, compact fluorescent bulbs, and biodegradable cups.