For 20 years, the Biosphere Institute of the Bow Valley has promoted sustainable communities and environmental stewardship; engaging youth, residents, area visitors and businesses with educational programs, research and outreach workshops.
Past achievements include an Aquatic Restoration program (over 8 tonnes of invasive weeds and garbage removed from the region), and the innovative Natural Steps to a Sustainable Canmore program. Youth have benefitted from the Biosphere EduKit ...
Arbour Lake School
Many schools have outdoor courses or one-time camp experiences, but Calgary’s Arbour Lake School goes further with its Environmental Wilderness and Outdoor Club (EWOC). Operating as an option class with lunchtime meetups, EWOC’s grade 6-9 members take part in outdoor adventures, action projects and regular environmental learning opportunities.
After attending the 2017 CAWST (Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology) Youth Wavemakers Summit, EWOC members were inspired ...
Alberta Environment & Parks
For 10 years, Working Well has been educating some of the estimated 100,000 Alberta households that rely on water wells for drinking water about well design and construction, operation, protection and maintenance. From farmers and ranchers to acreage and recreational property owners, Working Well’s efforts insure that rural Albertans who rely on groundwater have a safe and secure supply.
Through a series of hands-on workshops, technical experts ...
Winnifred Stewart Association
Recycling programs abound, but how many offer homes, businesses, schools and community facilities free collection containers and bags, free pick-up service and a tax receipt for donation of empties? The Winnifred Stewart Association (WSA) Empties to Winn (ETW) program does just that, diverting over 46 million containers from landfills in its 12-year history—that’s a half-million containers collected and recycled each month. ETW operates in over 300 Edmonton neighbourhoods and ...
Nutrien
At facilities near Edmonton, Nutrien (formerly Agrium) is taking an innovative approach to reclamation and the beneficial use of phosphogypsum (PG), a gypsum by-product of the phosphate fertilizer industry. What may be the first-ever forest planted on a PG stack, the project is inspiring other industrial landowners to consider different approaches to reclamation.
By establishing woody crops—primarily willow, hybrid poplar and white spruce–on 325 hectares of PG ...
Devon Canada
The Regional Industry Caribou Collaboration (RICC) was born of necessity. Because boreal woodland caribou are a threatened species, and because their large ranges overlap with oil, gas and timber resources in Alberta, a group of energy and forestry companies in the Cold Lake and East Side Athabasca River (ESAR) caribou ranges of northeast Alberta chose to go beyond individual efforts.
Formed in 2012 when Devon Canada Corp. ...
Steve Donelon
In his 35-year career with Alberta Parks, Steve Donelon has never been the business-as-usual type. Instead, his time has been marked by a dedication to Alberta’s natural spaces, making a positive impact on air, land, water, flora, fauna, biodiversity and youth engagement through innovative approaches to park management.
Donelon’s focus on insuring minimal impact to park spaces started early on, when he was a Park Ranger and ...
Calibre Environmental Ltd
What began 16 years ago when painting contractor Calibre Environmental Ltd. wanted to find an innovative way to deal with leftover paint, is now a company reaching the three million gallons of recycled paint mark, with six million kilograms of paint cans kept out of the waste stream.
Calibre Environmental Ltd. Is a key player in the Alberta Paint Stewardship Program, collecting post-consumer paint throughout Alberta and ...
Dirk & Nanja Struck
Talk about inspiring—leaving a job (and pension) just three years before retirement because you see a need for change. That’s the story of Dirk and Nanja Struck, whose dedication to sustainable living set them on a different path 20 years ago, one that helps Calgarians live in a more environmentally-friendly way.
The Barrelman is a small family business that produces rain barrels from food grade barrels that ...
Carbon Credit Solutions Inc. (CCSI) has gone from start up to Canada’s most successful clean tech company, growing a whopping 805 per cent since 2014 and becoming the largest aggregator of carbon credits in North America. The 40-member CCSI staff (and growing) are global leaders, with an advanced software platform for measuring, reporting and verifying greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and creating carbon credits.
When the company emerged ...