If the earth is sick, you have to make it better. It’s a simple yet powerful statement, and one that three young local brothers are taking to heart.

Henry Culbert, 7, Everett Culbert, 5, and Duncan Culbert, 2, have issued the #wecarewecan2020 challenge, in which they encourage other families to make three small Eco-friendly changes in the New Year.

With the help of their parents Kim and Ian, the family has already eliminated the use of single use water bottles, started going meatless on Mondays, and will soon begin turning the thermostat down by 1 degree to save on energy.

Henry says bringing your own water bottles keeps the plastic ones out of the garbage because some aren’t recycled properly.

“You can refill your water bottle at places like Canada’s Wonderland at the water station, so you don’t need to use a plastic one,” his younger brother Everett adds.

Their parents have also made their own contributions. Kim has launched a compost program at her workplace and Ian carpools to work and uses reusable coffee mugs. In fact, Everett notes, one way to make a positive change is to use metal coffee cups instead of plastic ones: “Then, you still get to have your coffee!”

The boys’ curiosity about the environment peaked when they began learning about it at school. Since then, Kim says the boys have shown an interest in how to help out: “We began talking about how we could contribute to a healthier environment at home and our family realized that we wanted to do something to make a difference and that it doesn’t have to be something big.”

“Our hope is that is we can make three small changes this year, then next year we can add three more and keep building on it,” she adds.

Kim says the boys are very enthusiastic about the challenge and that the initiative is already catching on: “The kids love challenges and have seen videos on YouTube, so they decided to put up a video and share it with their school.”

With the holidays in full swing, the boys are asking families to talk about what changes they can make to help the environment. With a message for all, they enthusiastically add: “We Challenge You!”