Can a 15-Year-Old School Girl Change the World?

If you’re over 21, you are considered an adult. If you’re 18 or older you can vote. But if you’re 14 or 15, how do you make yourself heard?

Right now, all over the world, young teenagers are making their voices heard. It’s hard to ignore. It’s in the news every week and you can expect to read more about them as time goes on. It’s a global youth movement that is not going away. It’s a worldwide climate strike!

Students in more than 450 countries are choosing a Friday to play hooky for a good cause – their own survival! It’s hard to believe that we as adults have kicked the can down the road so far that we now have a generation that is facing irreversible climate disaster in their own lifetime. As Howard Beale says, in the 1976 movie, Network, “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”

And why should they? They will be on the planet a lot longer than today’s adults. 15-year-old Greta Thunberg has become the figurehead for the school climate strikes that will soon be in your neighborhood. Greta sums it all up in her address to the UN Climate Conference in Poland and subsequent interview.

Climate Change and Entrepreneurship

Because we are big supporters of entrepreneurship, we’d like to examine the school climate strike movement from the standpoint of its implications to the business market. We believe real change, even mitigation of climate change, comes from the way we, as consumers, spend our money. Real change comes from the products and services we choose to buy.

Survivalist Buying Trends

It’s simple! The vendors who get our money use it to lobby to protect their investment in market share. If we don’t give them our money, and better yet, if we give our money to healthy alternatives, then those vendors will have the influence. It all starts with how you choose to spend your money.

These kids know that. They’re not just striking out of class. They’re communicating with each other on a level never seen before in the history of the world! They’re discussing this very premise and what it means regarding their own current and future purchases. According to Nielsen, these new “survivalist” buying trends are already beginning to dominate the market.

Given the fact that in about three years, these teenagers will be voting, and in just about six years, they will be considered adults, shouldn’t today’s savvy entrepreneurs be paying attention to what kind of products and services these kids are going to buy now and in the not-too-distant future?

Green Opportunity

For our own part, we have been looking for, researching, and helping just those kinds of “green” businesses. We know they will be in demand and more importantly, on the right side of history. Why not sell products and services to the student climate strikers? They are a growing market that is quickly becoming educated about the implications of their purchases. This is an opportunity for all entrepreneurs to get ahead of the curve and benefit from the new megatrend. And isn’t this what good business is all about anyway?

When Greta says she’s giving up on our generation to make the change in time, when Greta says that her generation is taking action, she’s not just talking about striking. She’s talking about a whole new generation changing their buying habits. Let’s give these kids what they want and what they need! It may help us, in some small way, to redeem our own generation for being asleep at the switch. It’s happening and it’s happening now!