Rhiannon and Madison decided that the problem they wanted to work on was that the orangutans in Sumatra are threatened with extinction; there are fewer than 6,600 of them, down from about 85,000 a century ago. One of the big reasons they’re disappearing is that they’re losing ground—real ground; their natural habitats are being cleared to make way for palm oil plantations.

One of the ingredients in Girl Scout cookies is palm oil. The girls were shocked.

Palm oil, they learned in their research, is found in half of all the packaged food sold in U.S. supermarkets, but Madison and Rhiannon decided they would start a campaign to save the orangutans with their own beloved Scouts, which sells more than $700 million worth of cookies each year. They thought the Scouts should live up to what they were teaching in their own programs — responsible involvement in the world. And the instructions for earning the Bronze Award urge girls to engage their world with courage and character.

So the girls formed “Project Orangs” and started circulating petitions, (one of which was signed by their heroine, naturalist Jane Goodall). They spoke to groups, lobbyied other Scouts, secured  endorsements from—among others—the Rainforest Action Network and the Union of Concerned Scientists, they went on national TV, and they pleaded with the Girl Scouts\' administration to eliminate palm oil from the cookies.

Their campaign has taken years. Girl Scouts USA—along with Kellogg’s, the company that actually makes the cookies—initially denied that they were contributing to the extinction of orangutans and the GSA resisted meeting with the girls.

Through it all, Rhiannon and Madison remained stalwart Girl Scouts. As Madison said, “We want them to see the opportunity that they can allow us to live up to the Girl Scout law by making the world a better place and using resources wisely.” And Rhiannon added, “There have been moments of extreme, extreme frustration, but at the same time Girl Scouts is what gave us the opportunity to be where we are now.”

And where they are now is a “partial victory.” The Girl Scouts administration finally met with Rhiannon and Madison at the  New York headquarters and agreed to direct Kellogg’s to use as little palm oil as possible, and only in recipes where there is no alternative. GSA executives told the girls that they plan to move to a segregated, certified, sustainable source of palm oil by 2015.

A spokesperson for the organization said, “This is the first time on record that GSUSA has changed our practices related to the activities of the youth we serve. The girls identified an area where GSUSA clearly needed to provide leadership, and we are delighted to have found a way to do so.”

But. Since then, the girls’ line to Girl Scout Headquarters has gone dead. Madison and Vorva can, however, report real change at other places they’ve lobbied on behalf of the orangutans. Pepsico, Kellogg’s, L’Oreal, Nestle and Mondelez have all signed on. The two girls point out that if those companies can change, “There is no reason Girl Scouts USA can’t do the same.”

“As proud Girl Scout members for the last 12 years, we feel that it is our responsibility to ask our organization to live up to the values they teach millions of girls (especially the importance of “making the world a better place”) by committing to truly deforestation-free and conflict-free sources of palm oil for Girl Scout cookies.”

Madison has since created a website, www.changestartswithapassion.org, to give young people tools for advocacy. She’s also traveled around the world to foster the causes of sustainable development, political reform and female candidates for office.

Keep track of this work at http://projectorangs.org/