Lynn Colwell has always been a saver and re-user, someone who repurposes empty containers and turns out the lights when leaving a room. When her kids were small, she would explain that doing these things helped the family save money. But these days, with her grandkids, she also talks about being good to the earth.
“They used to call me cheap,” she says, with a laugh. “But now they call me green.”
Lynn got into environmentalism through her daughter, Corey Colwell-Lipson, who became an eco-conscious vegetarian at age 15. Now 36 and a mother of two girls, Corey is even more passionate about saving the planet. “I want to give my children the healthiest world possible,” she says.
With that shared goal in mind, Corey and Lynn—who live about 15 minutes from each other in the Seattle suburbs—collaborated on the book Celebrate Green! Creating Eco-Savvy Holidays, Celebrations and Traditions for the Whole Family.
We asked this mother-daughter green team for some kid- and planet-friendly ways that families can make their lifestyle more environmentally friendly.
1. Start a garden.
Ideally, “every child should have a garden,” says Lynn, who regularly conscripts the grandkids to weed and pick veggies from her own backyard patch.
“Kids should learn that food doesn’t only come from a grocery store.”
Even if you can’t plant your own, you can show your children how food grows by getting involved in a Community Sponsored Agriculture (CSA) program. As a CSA member, you’ll get a box of freshly picked seasonal veggies once a week during the summer. Many CSA farmers will invite members for tours and to help out during harvest. Some will even trade work for free produce.
2. Shop locally.
“I grew up in a greener time, a simpler time,” Lynn writes in the book, “when we certainly never topped off a Thanksgiving dinner with grapes from South Africa or pears from Chile.”
These days, of course, we can get all sorts of fruits and vegetables all year round. But the environmental costs of transporting them are high. Instead, enjoy an abundance local fruits and veggies in the summer and preserve them the old-fashioned way. At the height of peach season, throw a neighborhood canning party.
3. Play with worms!
“Kids love worms,” Lynn says. And the little squirmers (by which we mean the worms) also happen to be really great at turning kitchen garbage into rich, dark soil for your lawn and garden.
A worm composting system is easy to set up. All you need is a wood or plastic box, some shredded newspaper and a bunch of red-wiggler worms, which are available from various sites, including PlanetNatural.com. (For more on the process, check out SavvyGardener.com or CityFarmer.org.)
“You can do it in the house, and it doesn’t take a lot of space,” Lynn says. “The kids will totally get into it.”
4. That’s a Wrap
Back in the day, Lynn insisted that her children save the wrapping paper from their birthday gifts. She would carefully fold the paper and put it away to reuse again the following year. “But now,” she says, “I don’t wrap the presents at all.”
When Corey’s daughter Zoe turned 8 in January, Lynn and her husband bought her a book. Instead of wrapping it, they hid it behind a pillow on a couch and had Zoe play the “you’re hot-you’re cold” game to find it.
“Not wrapping presents saves waste and money,” Lynn says. “And the focus is more on having fun, instead of just, ‘What present am I going to get?'”
5. Good Cops
Want to teach the kids economical and eco-friendly lessons about closing doors and turning lights out? Make them the family the enforcers of these rules.
“We call our kids the Energy Police,” Corey says. “We even made badges for them.” It’s a great way to change wasteful habits, and it’s a lot of fun—especially when the Energy Police get to “arrest” Dad for using too much hot water in the shower.
6. Green Traditions
Lynn and Corey emphasize family traditions that are about treasured time together, not tons of presents. “We’re always talking with the kids about ‘meaning, not stuff,’ ” Lynn explains.
When Corey was a girl, Lynn sewed her an advent calendar. In each pocket, she hid a slip of paper with a family activity on it. “One day, it would say, ‘Decorate the tree,'” Corey recalls. “Another would be ‘Sing carols at the retirement center.'”
Now Corey has the calendar and uses it every December with her girls. “They’re always so excited to see what’s in each pocket.”
7. Reuse, Reuse, Reuse
Corey’s puppy, Ivy, is currently in what she calls the “chew-everything stage.” In March, for example, Ivy ripped up a pair of beautiful pink organic-cotton pajamas belonging to Corey’s 4-year-old, Finley. Corey was heartbroken, but Finley didn’t seem upset.
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“What can we do with this?” Finley asked, holding up the tattered pj’s. “We shouldn’t throw it away.” When she heard that, Corey recalls, “My heart just swelled with pride.” Her eco-friendly lessons were sinking in. She and her daughter decided to sew some dried herbs into the fabric to make sachets as presents for Finley’s friends.
“Green isn’t something you just sit down and tell the kids,” Corey says. “You do it every day.”
