Elmo and Frank Chapin, Millennials at Heart? Doubtful.

I get frequently told how today’s young people are concerned with sustainability and using our natural resources wisely. I hear people tell me all the time about how millennials want to know; their employers are socially conscious and not wasteful.
Good. Glad young people are concerned. However, hopefully, they don’t think they invited the idea.

I’m fifty. During my fifty years, the two people who did the most to conserve precious resources are my Grandpa, Elmo Chapin, and my Great Uncle, Frank Chapin. They would be in their mid to late nineties if they were still alive today. The only influence either had on today’s young people is they raised nine people, mostly baby boomers, who became the grandparents to several dozen millennials.

Elmo and Frank ran a company, Willmar Electric, with the core value of Thrifty. By thrifty I, the textbook definition of “using money and other resources carefully and not wastefully.” I’m not talking about being cheap.

My Grandpa and Great Uncle also looked out for the environment in direct ways. They picked up trash when they saw it on the ground. They shut off the lights when they left the room. They walked when possible.
The best example of thrifty at Willmar Electric throughout our history is Pillsbury paper. This movement was brought on by my father, John.

The Pillsbury Company was a Minneapolis, Minnesota-based company that was one of the world's largest producers of grain and other foodstuffs until it was bought out by General Mills in 2001. My dad got us access to large amounts of paper Pillsbury was getting rid of because the promotions they were using the paper was for had run their course. To them, the paper was waste. To us, because the back side of the paper was still blank, it was only half used.

We stocked our copiers and fax machines with this still usable resource. All internal documents got put on the back side “Pillsbury” paper from the late 70s into this millennium. Our stock of paper outlasted Pillsbury itself!

In 2019 being Thrifty means sending tools, we no longer need but are in good working condition to mission organizations who can put to the tools to use serving a high calling.

What does all this mean in the big picture? It means I don’t like having people telling me the world is going to end if we don’t force everybody to change their behaviors.

Two quotes I think make this point well.

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”
― Rumi

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”
― Leo Tolstoy

Elmo and Frank Chapin lived a life devoted to using money and other resources carefully and not wastefully. On a personal level, they raised their children to do the same, and those children raised a couple dozen or so grandchildren to do likewise. Then we took it to the next level with dozens more. I’m sure my children’s generation will do the same regardless of what others are doing, not because of peer pressure but because it is the right thing to do. On a professional level, the same generational movement happened within Willmar Electric because My Grandpa and Great Uncle lead by example and it’s making a big impact.

So let’s start with ourselves and see where it leads.