A new Web site called www.greenallowance.com combines the urge to save energy with the urge to make money. Their motto is: “Save the Planet, Get Paid.” Green Allowance allows kids to chose areas in and around their homes where they can help save energy, for example, switching out the incandescent bulbs for fluorescent ones, and then shows how many pennies and trees they’ll be saving.
In return, parents agree to split the new-found savings with their intrepid offspring. An e-mailed scorecard let kids and parents keep track of the dollar and energy savings. The kid then gets a portion of the savings added to his or her piggy bank. So the greener the kid gets, the more green he or she gets. (Green Allowance currently has one corporate sponsor, Glendale Water and Power, the public utility company of Glendale, Ca.)
What do you think? Is this a good way to get kids stoked about saving Mother Earth, or just another example of making doing good go hand-in-hand with "getting what’s mine?"—Desiree Ferenczi
Previous
Post a comment
Comments: