How to Green Your Parents

As told to Julie Hayes
photos by Karen Somers

Is it time your parents got their green act together? Here’s how you can help.

If you’re a fan of Ranger Rick, you probably already do a lot to protect the environment. But what about your parents? Are they doing the best they can to make our world a cleaner and greener place? Or are they so un-green that they’re totally embarrassing at times?

If your parents could use a lot of greening up (or even a little), listen up: There’s a new book in town called GreenMyParents, or GMP for short. This book puts you in charge of getting Mom and Dad on the super-green bandwagon. It helps you teach them how to conserve water and electricity and make less waste. You even get to give your parents report cards on their progress! And guess what else? These green actions save money! You can put that money in a GMP Family Fund. And later you can spend it on your favorite charity, energy-saving appliance, or whatever—it's up to you!

Read about how three different kids used GMP to get parents (and other folks at home) to help the Earth, save money, and be less embarrassing!

Be a Proud Kid of a Green Parent!

Want to join 1 million kids who are teaching their parents how to save $100 or more by living green? Go to Green My Parents for details. While you’re there, you can find out how to buy the Green My Parents book (shown at right).

Tyler’s Story

My dad is great, but he likes to take really long showers (below top left). We live in California, where the governor told everyone it’s especially important to use less water because we’re in a drought. That means it hasn’t rained enough to provide adequate water for everyone. Dad, my sister, Danica, and I (below lower left) downloaded the Green My Parents book to learn how to conserve more water at home.

Green Actions
We did the assignment on how to take shorter showers. My dad was bummed about this, which was totally funny. First, I made everyone use a timer to see how long each person spends in the shower normally. We recorded our times on a “Shower Tracker” chart I made. Guess who was the biggest water hog? My dad usually stayed in the shower for more than 8 minutes, even when he was late for work. That’s close to 32 gallons of water for one shower! When I told him he had to cut down to 3 minutes (GMP’s suggestion), he almost cried!

Results
Everybody tried really hard to take shorter showers. My sister did the best on saving water, but she showered only once in four days! I got down to 3 minutes per shower, but my dad was STILL the biggest water hog! The closest he got was 5 minutes. I was forced to give him a B– on his report card. He promises he will try to take shorter showers from now on to make up for it. I gave Danica and myself each a B+. Overall, we saved a lot of water in only a week. We are definitely going to do all the assignments in GreenMyParents. I want to use the money we save to help pay for a Nintendo Wii (which I’ll keep unplugged when not in use)!

Did You Know?

• Showers generally use less water than baths. A large, full bathtub uses about 70 gallons of water. Yikes! Taking a 5-minute shower uses only 10 to 25 gallons, depending on how efficient your showerhead is.
• Standard toilets use 3.5 gallons of water per flush. Low-flow toilets use about 1.6 gallons.

Emily’s Story

My parents (above top left) are filmmakers who work at home in an office downstairs. I (above lower left) bought the book Green My Parents to learn how I could help them do their part to save the Earth. Lucky for me, they thought that was pretty cool.

Green Actions
First, we read the chapter on electricity. There was a lot of stuff we didn’t know, such as how electricity is generated by using water! We also learned how to read our electric bill to find out how much electricity we use in a month, as well as how much it costs. Turns out that using less electricity can save a lot of money. Ka-CHING!

Next, we used the Appliances Action List from the book to help us find all of the appliances in our house that use electricity. How many were there? Well, let’s put it this way: a lot more than we thought. My parents weren’t happy about this. I pointed out that the extra computers, printers, and video equipment they use are necessary: They’re all for their office.

I also reminded them that they don’t drive to work. So they save gas and make less pollution than other parents who do. That made them feel better, but they still wanted to use less electricity.

So we went through the Appliances Action List together (see sample above middle). At the end, we put GreenMyParents Reminder Stickers (they come with the GMP book) on all the electronics in our house. These help my parents remember to unplug or turn things off when they’re not using them.

Results
I gave my parents a B+ on their report card! (See details above right.) According to my calculations, if my parents keep conserving energy, we could save over $100 in less than a year! We are going to use that money to help buy a cool, new Energy Star
refrigerator. (Our current fridge has just about had it.) So next report card, my parents can get an A+!

Olivia’s Story

I (above lower left) love animals. I have a dog, two cats, two parakeets, two chickens, and an Arabian horse. Protecting the environment is important to me, because animals need a clean, non-polluted world to stay healthy.

Green Actions
I was super excited to do Green My Parents with my mom (above top left and top right). My brother, Alec, also got involved. All three of us read the chapter on waste. It told us about a giant “island” of trash that’s floating in the Pacific Ocean because of people littering! And we learned that some baby albatrosses are dying because their mothers are feeding them bits of plastic. (They find it floating in the water and think it’s something good to eat!)

We used the Waste Checklist that’s in the book to figure out what items we could use again. Recycling is good, but reusing things is even better!

I made a special “bottle box” to store reusable water bottles (above lower right) and also made a cool pin for my mom out of one of my grandma’s earrings. We even recently had a trash-free picnic! We made all the food at home, used cloth napkins and reusable plates and cups, and we ate with real silverware! We composted practically all the food waste and didn’t have one thing to toss in the trash! We also went through the Reuse Action List together (see sample above middle)

Results
My mom is definitely greener now. She buys less plastic and even helps me pack my lunch for school in reusable containers. We’re making way less trash this way and not spending $2.25 on hot lunch every day. I’m adding that savings to our GMP Family Fund so that we can give money to organizations that protect animals.

I gave my mom a B+ on her report card, but she will get an A once my cousins from Virginia come to visit and we trade clothes and toys.