Do you know a teen who wants to change the world? By Kids For Kids and their social networking site for teens, Idea Locker, launched a new contest for teens. The Going Green Challenge, a partnership with The Weather Channel, asks teens to create new products or services that could aid is solving global environmental problems, including climate change, drought, and famine.

The teen with the winning idea will not only win $10,000, but will win an "connection to reality" prize: an opportunity to blog on the "11th Hour Action" website, a tie-in to Leonardo DiCaprio’s climate-change film, The 11th Hour. The winner will also get to shadow one of the experts from 11th Hour Action in their work environment. The challenge officially runs from now until December 31st, and all youth under the age of 19 are eligible to participate. Teens who want to enter must do so via BKFK’s website.

"The connection-to-reality prize is especially exciting for us at BKFK, " said BKFK Founder and CEO Norman Goldstein. "As it empowers the winner to have their idea heard along with one of the most captivating movies of our time."

Idea Locker is a social networking site marketed towards teens that allows them to add friends, chat, and share ideas online. It is the brainchild of By Kids For Kids, a global marketing, branding and licensing company dedicated to make teens’ ideas a reality.

When Amy wrote about green magazines, she mentioned GOOD as being one of her favorites. I, too, a self-described magazine junkie, am a big fan of GOOD since it’s inception last year. With all the depressing news out there on any given day, GOOD always reaffirms my faith in humanity. Its focus is, like its name implies, good stuff: those things that are making our world a little bit better, and when I’m feeling down about what’s going on around me, GOOD usually perks me up. It’s a rare magazine that doesn’t need an annual "green" issue: sustainability has been a priority since the magazine was founded.

The latest issue (Sept/Oct 07) is no exception. The issue, which commemorates their one-year anniversary, focuses on design solutions. A topic I covered a while back, green schools, gets a feature nod from Eva Steele-Saccio. Steele-Saccio highlights different schools’ efforts to reduce their footprint and become more energy efficient, and acknowledges that there are benefits beyond energy savings: "Green schools create a healthy atmosphere for learning that has measurable results. The combination of natural light, fresh air, open plans, and multi-use facilities that encourage community involvement has helped student test scores rise by 20% and reduced asthma rates by 39%."

There’s also a feature about a village in England that launched a community effort to reduce their carbon footprint, with the ultimate goal of becoming the first carbon-neutral village in the U.K. GOOD’s product reviews almost always include items produced with sustainability in mind, and in this issue, they create a proposal for better CFL packaging: create a package that can be used to ship burned-out bulbs back to the producer for proper disposal. There’s also a profile of Rogan Gregory, founder of clothing company Loomstate, who was virtually responsible for bringing organic cotton to the fashion industry though his work with Loomstate, and his other two companies, Rogan and Edun

Even subscribing to GOOD can make you feel good: 100% of your $20 subscription costs goes to your choice of twelve charities, including the World Wildlife Fund and Oceana. Good is printed on 30% recycled post-consumer paper that is EcoLogic certified, and 100% offset by projects Good is actually involved in.

The September/October issue of GOOD is on newsstands now.

In the age of overconsumption, even the thriftiest among us find themselves with perfectly good items that we no longer need. Green folks want to keep that stuff out of landfills and give it a new home. Websites like Freecycle and Craigslist provide forums for people to advertise things they'd like to give away, but St Louis-based web developers Peter Schmalfeldt and John Kramlich wanted to provide a more user-friendly medium for those looking to connect their reusables with new owners. They’ve created Gigoit, which stands for "Garbage In, Garbage Out", a free web-based service that’s aiming to simplify reusing. Gigoit has only been live for less than a month, and strong communities have already sprouted in the St Louis and Memphis areas.

“Most people who could be using a service like this are really deciding between using something like Freecycle or just throwing [the item] in the trash,” says Schmalfeldt. “That is a huge decision. It has to be super easy to donate an item, and it needs to be fast…they should be able to get the item out of their hands as quickly and painlessly as possible.”

How does Gigoit differ from Freecycle? Simply put, it's easier. For one, users don’t have to go through a lengthy registration period just to access items up for grabs. Anyone can immediately see what's available near a given zip code. By eliminating the “mailing list” model, all information is centralized, and it’s much easier to find what’s relevant to the user, his or her area, and what her or she is looking for. Once an item has been picked up, it’s taken off the board by the giver, without having to post a message for everyone else on the site to filter through. Users only receive messages related to their own transactions, and RSS feeds allow users to quickly access the latest items in their area. Users also manage their own profiles, which can be as elaborate or as simple as they want, and users aren't limited to certain geographical areas–you can access items from all over the country on the same site.

In short: Schmalfeldt and Kramlich have done their homework. Despite its small start, the relative simplicity of using Gigoit will have it surpassing Freecycle and Craigslist in no time.