• by Peter Groome , May 5, 2010

It's increasingly clear to me that the most creative, interesting and fresh ideas come from young people.

We recently executed two green marketing programs in schools all over the country. The optimism, creativity and thoughtfulness the students displayed were both eye-opening and encouraging. The most surprising trend was that the schools actually used the frameworks of our programs as launching points to do even more good for the environment.

If the creativity displayed in the ideas and actual work these schools submitted for both programs is any indication, we should definitely listen more carefully to those whose futures will be most impacted by individual and corporate environmental efforts. Not only do they have the most to win or lose, they also fully understand and appreciate the stakes involved.

In short, when those of us in the industry create something for consumers to get involved in and pass it along, it can take on a life of its own and become something bigger than we ever could have imagined.

Here are some tangible examples.

We launched a cell phone recycling effort for a major cell phone manufacturer recently. Schools had to compete against each other to see which one could recycle the most phones. The incentive offered to all participating schools was $2 per old phone collected, and the schools could put the proceeds toward whatever they wanted. Though we fully expected the money to be used to spice up the prom or for things like new gym equipment or vending machines, the students put the money toward:

• Sponsoring a student group at Envirothon (a not-for-profit organization)

• Investing in energy-saving motion sensor lights for the school

• Planting a sustainable garden

• Sending a student group to South Africa to set up JoJo Jugs to help supply clean water to local communities

In another initiative, we launched a program to encourage school bus ridership as a means to cut down on emissions. It set out to identify "America's Greenest School" -- in both current practices and to inspire ideas for the future. Entries came from thousands of schools all over the country and from students of all ages. Here are just some of the creative programs we heard about:

• Building rain barrel gardens -- collect rain water and snow to water gardens and use the food grown in the gardens in the local school cafeteria

• Re-engineering buses and school vehicles to run on vegetable oil

• Raising worms for compost soil and school gardens

Not only were the ideas inspired, the delivery of the ideas was extremely thoughtful, creative, passionate and enthusiastic. We saw it all from a third grade class' faux newscasts covering green news at the school to older students' music videos and performance art celebrating the importance of the school going green ... and much more.

While we intentionally designed each of these programs to encourage participation from those who would benefit most from the program, we were surprised by the level of enthusiasm and depth of participation. What we've learned from these programs is the more involvement the better -- especially with students and especially with green programs.

Give them the foundation and tools but let their passion, optimism and creativity build from there. We know from our recent experiences this open-ended approach will improve the program both in marketing effectiveness and true green contributions.

If traditional marketing is meant to inspire consumption, green marketing should inspire green practices. These students showed us that they both agree with this premise and will more than deliver on the promise.