Just came across this fantastic article/radio story by Monica Brady-Myerov about a group of 4th graders in Boston who have taken up the Margins campaign.
MONICA BRADY-MYEROV: These 4th graders from the private Atrium School in Watertown are walking the halls of power on an environmental mission. They want to get everyone in the State House to change the margins when they print documents. The simplicity of the idea appeals to 10 year old Allie Reilinger.
ALLIE RELINGER: We heard about it and we thought it would be a good thing we could do and not that hard and we could really make a difference by doing it.
During their quest, the 4th graders spoke with aides to Governor Deval Patrick and Frank Simzik, who chairs the Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture. According to the article, both were impressed with the students' facts and figures about how Margins can help the environment.
Between the kids in Sao Paolo and those at the Atrium school, I've realized that working with school children is a new tactic in the large-scale adoption of Efficient Margins. If kids start using Efficient Margins when they are small, they'll grow up with that as the norm. It's much easier to begin a habit when one is younger than it is to get people to change their habits when they are older.
Here's a link to a video the kids from the Atrium School made about the campaign!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_71mKrB7tDI
I am in LOVE with this idea. What a total AHA! moment. I wrote about it in my blog post and included a link to your blog, which I hope will drive some additional traffic and interest your way. In the meantime, I'm going to both of my children's schools to see about putting a program together with them to get kids on the bandwagon. You're right -- starting with kids is a terrific idea -- and let it roll from there. In addition to changing their margins, companies can save tons of paper by setting their printers to the automatic duplex mode -- so they automatically print two-sided. Thanks so much for what you're doing. Best, Alison
Posted by: Alison | May 01, 2008 at 10:46 AM