ANYONE can Be the Change!
5th Grader vs Jamba Juice shows ANYONE can Be the Change!
A California fifth-grader just convinced one of the largest juice retailers in the United States to completely phase out styrofoam cups by the end of 2013.
The change came as the result of a petition posted by 10-year-old Mia Hansen on the cause-focused website Change.org.
The young lady, mortified when she learned that Jamba Juice used mostly styrofoam packaging for its products, began the petition with the help of her mother. The page, brusquely titled “Stop using styrofoam cups that kill animals!”, quickly garnered over 130 thousand signatures. Less than a month later, Jamba Juice contacted Hansen to let her know they were willing to introduce more sustainable packaging throughout their product line by the end of 2013.
As this Treehugger article rightly notes, we should all be humbled by the fact that a child was able to spark a major corporate reform in a very short amount of time while the Al Gores of the world stumble over partisan politics and entrenched lobbying interests.
But more to the point, we should be emboldened; in the words of ten-year-old Ms. Hansen, the protest made her realize that: “Anyone of any age in any country can really make a difference in the world.”
Hats off to this young crusader — and to the adults in the room courageous enough to listen!
Read more here and Jamba Juice press release 8/28/2012 here
Category: Sustainable Small-B
