Where Are All the Guys? Redefining Who Cares About the Environment

by Daniel Jackson, 2024-2025 Young Texan Ambassador

If you were to ask ten different people this question, you’d probably get ten different answers. Some may picture activists who’ve tied themselves to trees. Others may think of politicians in expensive suits shouting at each other on the floor of the Capitol about carbon taxes and regulations. Or maybe you imagine someone lecturing you about your carbon footprint while sipping a $7 oat milk latte.

But here’s what I’ve learned through starting EcoBike: all of those are nothing more than stereotypes. None of those images capture what environmentalism really looks like—or at least what it should look like.

After a trip to Colorado a couple years ago, I knew I wanted to spend my life studying and fighting for the environment. The Rocky Mountains and their beautiful meandering streams, aspens, pines, and biking scene had fully convinced me that this was a cause worth dedicating my life to.

So when I began high school, I joined environmental clubs and went to sustainability events in my community and around the country. But after some time, I kept seeing the same thing: mostly girls and older men and women were attending and leading these events. Now don’t get me wrong, they’re doing incredible and necessary work. But where were all the guys my age?

I started asking my male friends what they thought about environmental issues. And after three years of high school, boys locker rooms, and conversations, the responses were not surprising: “It’s not really my thing,” “Do I look like I have blue hair to you,” “I don’t want to be lectured about my lifestyle,” and, “Bro, do you think I care.”

It was pretty disturbing at first. Since when did wanting clean, beautiful spaces become something only certain types of people worry about? And why had environmentalism become so politicized that people felt like they had to pick a side before they could even care?

I realized that modern environmentalism wasn’t speaking to young men like me and my friends. It felt boring, political, and frankly, I was guilty of being that person before I saw why it wasn’t. More than that, it just wasn’t attractive. I mean who wants to spend their Saturday evenings picking up trash? It was clear we needed something different.

That’s why I started EcoBike. I figured that, as a young man myself, if traditional environmental groups weren’t connecting with young men, maybe I could create something that would.

And what do most high school guys love, myself included? Good ol’ adventure, competition, hanging out with friends, and yes—bikes. Especially biking on a mountain, going fast, when you’re playing with death at every turn. But road racing is also another huge thing we do. We usually pair these rides with group cleanups where our members bring trash bags, pick up trash, beautify the area, and then throw away the bags at the dumpsters there.

In essence, EcoBike turns something familiar and fun—group bike rides—into environmental action, education, and community service. We serve high school boys (and everyone else who wants to join!) in the Dallas-Fort Worth area who might not otherwise engage with environmental causes. Through group rides, community cleanups, and advocacy projects, we’re building a culture of leadership and brotherhood around environmental stewardship.

Our mission is pretty simple: to show young men why the world is a gift, not just that it is. There’s a difference between being told you should care about something and discovering for yourself why it’s worth caring about. Discovering your own revelation, as philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson would say, is the most powerful way to believe in something.

The genius of it (if I do say so myself) is that we’re not asking guys to become someone they’re not. We’re showing them that caring about the environment can be adventurous, physical, and fun. It’s just about going outside and doing something good together.

One of our biggest projects this year was our Eco-Action Day. As you can tell by the pictures, we had an amazing turnout.

To make the biggest impact, we partnered with Keep Flower Mound Beautiful, which was an incredible experience. Working with them and going to their board meeting taught me so much about how environmental organizations actually function at the community level.

What I learned is that using resources already available in your community is a must. They’re often super organized, strategic, and way better connected to the community than you are, especially as a newer organization. Working with them meant paying attention to the budget, coordinating volunteers, and reaching out to as many local businesses and nonprofits as possible.

The key to our community engagement success came down to three things: showing up in person, being genuine about our mission, and yes, promising really good pizza. (In my experience, local pizza shops have absolutely bomb pizza, so favor them over Domino’s or Pizza Hut if you can.)

To promote the event, I did a whole lot of announcing over the PA system at school (probably an annoying amount) and also posted our flyers everywhere I could, both physically and digitally.

I want to heavily emphasize the digital part—you can reach a lot more people over the internet than you can with physical fliers that are hard to share with other people. I also presented at school to try and recruit as many volunteers for the event as possible. Promising volunteers hours for their honor societies is a great strategy to coerce (I mean convince) volunteers to come to your event!

Honestly, I learned a TON from being a Young Texan Ambassador, and if you’re a high schooler who wants to really make the world a better place—really, this isn’t a hyperbole—then you should apply to join the program. It teaches you so much about how to organize events like this and reach out to your local community members.

What I also learned is that people do want to help. They just need to understand why it matters and how exactly they can contribute. If you make it too complicated for them, they most likely won’t want to help as much.

With that in mind, I try my best not to start by lecturing kids about what they should be doing. Instead, I first invite them out for a ride and a cleanup. Then, after they’ve had that realization, that click, that connection, where they can now see the value of our environment, I start teaching them how we can all make better, more environmentally-friendly choices.

And yes, promising 40 pizzas to people who showed up definitely helps bring attention to whatever you’re doing. Food brings people together. It’s just a universal fact.

The day itself was amazing, with KFMB recording 432 vehicles streaming through the event, dropping off over 3,500 pounds of document shredding, 2 full roll-off dumpsters of trash and recycling, 415 books collected, a full truck of electronic waste, 92 eyeglasses, 1 large box of pens, 60 pounds of medicine, and 12 large garbage bags of plastic bags.

But what really touched me was watching kids from EcoBike (we had around 25 of our volunteers show up from the high school) who had never thought about environmental issues start asking questions about why people litter, where trash goes, and what they could do to help. I also watched friendships form between kids from different schools who discovered they shared a love of biking and wanted to do more projects together.

And that’s not all EcoBike does. While helping with community events is great, our biggest impact comes from our own regular cleanups, which we do twice a month at different trails and parks each time. We bike to our cleanup locations with trash bags and cleaning supplies, which means we’re getting exercise, exploring new areas, and doing environmental service all at the same time. (And having a ton of fun of course.)

Over the past year, we’ve collected over 250 full, large bags of trash and logged over 1,500 miles of biking combined. Since founding, we’ve contributed 800 volunteer hours to our community. But again, the numbers don’t tell the larger story.

One moment that really stuck with me was when a little guy, maybe 12 years old, asked me why we were doing this work. I explained that we wanted to take care of the places we love to ride and hang out. He nodded and said, “That makes sense. Why don’t more people do this?”

That question captures everything I love about this approach. When you frame environmentalism as taking care of places you love rather than following rules someone else made, it just starts to make sense to people.

Running EcoBike has taught me so much about leadership, and I couldn’t have done it better without Keep Texas Beautiful’s YTA program.

After one and a half years of leading EcoBike, I’ve learned that effective leadership isn’t about always having all the answers or acting like you have to do everything. It’s more about letting other people contribute their unique skills and ideas.

I also learned that community service through leadership is both harder and more rewarding than I expected. It’s hard because it forces you to get out of your comfort zone. To be successful and actually engage the community, you have to seek discomfort.

So what’s next for EcoBike?

In the short term, I want to host more group clean ups and rides. Right now, we do two group rides and cleanups a month, but I want to start adding in some more educational components, like having environmental scientists and urban planners come to our school and teach us about what we can do to make a difference.

Long term, EcoBike is going to expand to other communities around the region. Students from other cities and schools have emailed me asking how they could start their own chapters of EcoBike, so that’s something we’re working on this summer.

As for my own future, these experiences have made me want to study environmental science and philosophy in college, with the goal of eventually going to law school to become an environmental lawyer.

As for YTA, I’m definitely planning to be a Young Texas Ambassador next year. The program is a straight 11/10. It teaches you how to lead, how to communicate, how to organize events, and so much more.

Which brings me back to my original question: what does it mean to be an environmentalist?

Being an environmentalist means understanding that change begins small and then grows from zero. It’s going from nothing to something. It starts local and then goes regional and then national.

Daniel Jackson

Daniel Jackson is a rising senior at Flower Mound High School and the founder of EcoBike. In his free time, you can catch him biking (who would’ve guessed?), playing violin for the Greater Dallas Youth Orchestra, writing on his blog The Noble Entrepreneur, or sprinting on the track. 

Keep up with more from EcoBike at their Instagram @ecobikeclub or website: www.ecobikeclub.org/