Do you ever wish you could just turn your parents green?

I don’t mean, of course, to change them into the color green, like Irish Smurfs or leprechauns, but green in deed—that is, an eco friendly lifestyle. Every time I visit my own parents and witness the paper plates and packaging tossed away, my little heart frowns a little. Of course, it’s easy for me to recycle since my city happily comes to pick it up from my house and makes money off of it; it’s harder for my parents, who live in a more rural area.

Still, maybe Green My Parents could help all of us. According to the Green My Parents blog, the program is a “revolutionary, nationwide program to help young people teach their peers and parents how to work together to help the economy, earn money at home, and save the planet through simple, everyday actions.” In short, it’s letting children do what they do best—use their own innovative ideas and imaginations—to help us change the world.

When I worked at YouthNoise.org, that was our fundamental belief—that the youth of the world would be the ones to heal it. I still fervently believe in this concept. Without the constraints, prejudices, and overall hopelessness that so many adults develop throughout their lifetimes—which often lead to “That’s a stupid idea!” and “That won’t work!” ways of thought—kids dream up the most amazing things.

I met a young man who developed a very simple and cheap system to treat water in Africa to make it safe for drinking. Another young woman created a program to get toilets to people who had none. Hundreds of youth are doing things every day that just don’t get much media attention; without it, we tend to lump kids together as lazy bums who don’t care about anything, when the truth is anything but. In fact, every time I hear a person on a talk show or television program talking about efforts being done for this or that cause, it’s almost always got youth at the center.

So it’s no surprise that Green My Parents exists to help get peers, parents, and other adults to really take a look at their environment and how their economy supports its destruction by none other than the help of their own children. A very new movement—launched just this year—it builds upon something already in existence: young people who want to change the world and save their planet.

The movement works in conjunction with several well-known publications and campaigns—such as Ranger Rick, Slow Food, and Donors Choose—as well as via several social media outlets (such as Twitter and Facebook). By hosting workshops and training youth how to turn their passion into action, Green My Parents hopes to help people reduce their energy use and overall consumption, save money, and help the planet in the process.