Solar Alberta has been providing public education about renewable energy and energy efficiency for 30 years. Over that time, we have transitioned from a largely Edmonton-based club of solar enthusiasts installing their own solar modules, to a province-wide hub connecting the general public to solar installation professionals. We are a trusted authority on solar education and policy.
In the last five years, Solar Alberta ...
YYC Growers is a social enterprise working to distribute wealth in the area of food production and distribution. They are dedicated to pioneering new ways of working and organizing to create healthy, local food systems.
YYC Growers as a farmer-owned cooperative provides Calgarians with a weekly subscription to a box of locally grown vegetables, either for pick-up at a nearby location or delivered right to their door. ...
Pigeon Lake Watershed Management Plan, Steering Committee
This project demonstrates the power of the Pigeon Lake Water Management Plan to strengthen community collaboration and deliver action across jurisdictions. In 2006 and subsequent years, Pigeon Lake experienced blue green algae blooms, fish kills and public health advisories—leaving local residents and politicians, looking for answers. It was quickly acknowledged that collaboration, across all 12 municipalities, was essential to executing effective watershed management. The development of the Plan progressed ...
Eco-Growth Environmental Inc.
Glen Smith remembers the night Eco-Growth Environmental first tested its biomass dehydrator. Employees loaded up around two hundred pounds of food waste and left for home in the wee hours of the morning.
“We weren’t sure if this was going to burn the building down or anything like that,” the company’s vice-president and director recalls.
Fortunately for the building, it was a success. The processor ...
Alberta Urban Municipalities Association and Rural Municipalities of Alberta
The Municipal Climate Change Action Centre (MCCAC) has partnered on over 500 projects with non-profits, municipalities and other organizations since 2009.
A collaboration of the Alberta Urban Municipalities Association, Rural Municipalities of Alberta, and the Government of Alberta, the centre provides funding, technical assistance, and education to realize green projects across the province.
Director Trina Innes says municipalities are on the frontlines of ...
Agroforestry & Woodlot Extension Society
The Agroforestry & Woodlot Extension Society (AWES) was formed in 2010 out of the Woodlot Extension Program, a government initiative to encourage sustainable development of private forests.
The non-profit restructured and added agroforestry to its mandate in recognition of the prevalence of agriculture within and around these forests.
“When it started in 2010, its primary purpose was education,” says executive director Noel St Jean. “We ...
Edmonton Convention Centre
For more than a decade, sustainability has been a focus at the Edmonton Convention Centre (ECC).
The 150,000 square foot convention centre hosts over 500 events and serves 250,000 meals in an average year. The complex nestled in Edmonton’s river valley is a city-owned not-for-profit — a model that helps drive its environmental goals, according to the centre’s sustainability manager.
“It allows us ...
The Viking Bluebird Trail numbers more than 1200 nest boxes and stretches along 275 miles of road in Beaver County.
Pres Winter started the massive bluebird trail in 1977 with just 200 nest boxes given to him by the then-director of John Janzen Nature Centre. At 79 years old, he still tends and bands baby birds with no intention of missing the next season in 2021.
...Sans façon; Watershed+; City of Calgary; AECOM; O2 Planning + Design; Source2Source; Wilco Contractors Southwest Inc.
Dale Hodges Park is at once a stormwater facility, a public park and an art installation.
That threefold purpose was born out of the City of Calgary’s WATERSHED+ program, which brings together planners from Parks and Water Resources as well as artists from Public Art.
Artists like Tristan Surtees of Sans façon.
“The idea was that artists would help create an ...
Cochrane High School Sustainable Development Committee
Around 2004, Stephanie Bennett helped jumpstart the Cochrane High School Sustainable Development Committee alongside another teacher.
The first iteration of the student-run club raised close to $50,000 and installed the first set of solar panels on the school’s roof.
“Everything just kind of took off from there and we just haven’t looked back,” says Bennett. “It’s just one group after another after another ...