Green teen entrepreneurs of tomorrow

Over one hundred people attended SDForum’s fourth annual Tech Titans of Tomorrow: Teens Plugges In 2010 conference on April 23, 2010 in Mountain View. Hosted by Microsoft, attendees ranged in age from middle school, high school, college, and a few ‘grown-ups’ (per the teens reference), comprised of enthusiastic teachers, mentors, organizers, sponsors, and parents.

The event highlighted outstanding teenage students' initiatives of a generation that not only lives in a world enveloped by technology, Internet, social media, cell phones and other technological gadgets, but also has influenced these substantially.

When intersecting technology and environmental activism, meet two teen entrepreneur teams who are changing one school at a time:

Emily Gran and Julia Sommer, a Sophomore and Junior at Menlo-Atherton High School (M-A) in Menlo Park, CA, represented their Leadership Environmental Committee and showcased their initiative: the team developed a climate change curriculum, increasing student awareness and encouraging personal behavior change. The teen group collaborated with mentors from Stanford University and develop a 5-session educational curriculum for teaching 9th grade students through the science program at M-A.

The curriculum covers climate topics, effects of transportation, sufficient food, and how these are all related to climate change. Furthermore, the program makes suggestions and empowers every teen to make a difference in their own personal lives. The team incorporates practical suggestions, for example participants are asked to measure the length of time they shower or whether they turn off the lights and computers at home, when these are not in use. As the students progressed through the course units, they reported reduction in water and energy use.

To demonstrate their program, Emily and Julia opened their presentation with a short video which broadcasted a strong and captivating message: “Can you hear?” bringing attention to current and future climate and waste issues.

‘Behavior change or climate change’ – The team educates their schoolmates on carbon emissions, the connection of high levels of Greenhouse Gas emission levels to potential hunger, weather changes, and unhealthy planet.

The team communicates a powerful message to students (and all of us): it’s our responsibility to take care of the environment. “We are determined to make a difference in climate change,” said Emily and Julia. Being role models to others, they hope to inspire fellow students to become increasingly passionate about the environment, and “change the world together.” The program’s motto is ‘We learn; We act; We teach, We disseminate (information); We will change the world!’

We often hear ‘green’ terms in the media, at school, at home, and from other sources which can be confusing and are not always clear as to what each of us is supposed to do. The M-A environmental team found out that as students go through the educational units, they get more familiar with the terms and learn of practical actions, that simply by learning the terminology, students’ awareness has increased and prompted them to make lifestyle changes.

The materials for the educational program are about $ 5 for the kit, which is available to any student in every high school who wants to join the initiative. At such insignificant cost, Emily and Julia stated that “We (students) are making our footprint – it’s time you make yours”.

     The next presentation was by Shreya Indukuri, a sophomore from HARKER School in San Jose, CA. Shreya co-founded SmartPowerEd, an online networking program seeking to connect schools with smart energy tracking systems in order to cut carbon footprint and reduce energy consumption. Schools not only benefit the environment by joining the program, they also save significant costs in their energy bills.

In November 2009, Shreya was a youth climate representative at the Governor’s Global Climate Summit and her project was filmed by UNICEF, as part of a youth climate documentary. Furthermore, her project won a $ 5500 grant in 2009 from the Alliance for Climate Education (ACE), a youth organization that educates high school kids about climate change. ACE currently has close to 11,000 fans and encourages youth to sign the Declaration of Independence from Fossil Fuels on their facebook page, which broadcasts the slogan: Written by youth, for youth, urging our leaders to take bold climate action!

Shreya presented one of the biggest challenges her generation faces – global temperatures are rising, climate extremes prevail, energy cost is going up, and although environmental awareness is growing – schools’ budgets are going down. At the same time, we also know that buildings contribute 40% of Greenhouse gas emissions, including school facilities. She also noted that there are over 22, 000 public schools in the US, each with several buildings. Her research work discovered that the average high school energy usage comprises of 25% of heating and cooling and 50% of lighting. She also found out that, similarly to many businesses and residential dwellings, currently school administrators have very little information on how their energy is utilized.

Shreya talked about the need to track and meter school buildings’ energy usage so each facility management can make wise decisions to reduce costs. She said that savings could be directed to other projects, preferable educational programs, which might be otherwise cut. With high concerns in California education cuts and environmental initiatives, implementing ‘smart energy’ in every school will help to reduce energy costs and carbon footprints. “Smart energy is a solution for both,” Shreya said. SmartPowerEd’s primary solution uses smart meters and software on a public dashboard.

Once the solution was implemented at Harker School, in the first week the administration discovered there was a surprisingly high energy consumption over the weekend. Once investigated, they found out that air-conditioners were running the entire weekend at the gym, while the building was locked. As result, AC systems were turned off on weekends and lead to a reduced energy bill.

Shreya summarized the benefits for schools in three areas: Financial (reduce cost and save on energy bills), Going green (reduce CO2 and consume less energy), and Educational (teamwork; increase awareness; inspire and motivate students). She encouraged every student at any school to start the ‘smart energy’ initiative. SmartPowerEd provides step-by-step tools for students, including information about the process, benefits, smart meter data examples and even current available rebate programs. For more information check SmartPowerEd.org.

Both teen entrepreneurial teams called youth to join them with energy initiatives encourage their fellow students to do something about the climate crisis, and apply learnings to their schools. The message is loud and clear: our planet is our only home and we must all take care of it.

Tags: teenage entrepreneurs, technology and teenagers, teen initiatives, high schools go green, environmental programs in high school, energy savings in schools, school programs, facility management in schools, energy savings in building operations, energy savings in schools, green schools, students take green action, funding teen initiatives, funding school initiatives, mentoring environmental initiatives