City of St. Albert
In 2017, St. Albert became the first municipality in Canada to own a fleet of long-range electric buses.
Mayor Cathy Heron, who served as a councillor from 2009 until being elected mayor in 2017, says the move fits in with residents’ concerns for the environment.
“They would have pushed us if we hadn’t gone down this road,” she says.
The city ...
Inside Education
Steve McIsaac says when experiential learning group Inside Education started doing youth environmental leadership summits for students in 2011, they were answering a need that was already there.
“We believe and we have learned from students that they’re fundamentally disinterested in waiting until some magical day, in quote marks, ‘when I grow up,’ to make a difference,” he says.
The typical summit sees ...
Rocky View Schools – École Manachaban Middle School
In Australia, some schools include semesters spent at remote outdoor campuses where hiking and kayaking are regular features of the curriculum.
When Nancy Pollard returned after a few years teaching in the land down under, she wanted to bring that style of education to Canada.
“I just thought we have to make this happen,” Pollard says.
“There has to be a ...
Edmonton and Area Land Trust
The area surrounding Edmonton is considered the most fragmented and densely populated ecoregion in Alberta. In the 1990s, public support for a local land trust began to build. Six organizations wanting to conserve native habitats through public engagement joined forces to create the Edmonton and Area Land Trust (EALT). With only six volunteers, limited public visibility and no properties with which to rally donor support by 2007, ...
MacEwan University
MacEwan University’s Office of Sustainability launched the Sustainability Leadership Council (SLC) in 2016 as a means for students to make their dream sustainability projects come to life. The SLC’s volunteer squad has grown from 10 to 35 people and has been involved in over 20 projects since its inception.
Since 2017, the SLC has partnered with the City of Edmonton’s Compost Doctor to host four ...
City of Edmonton
With the release of the Government of Alberta’s Primary Land and Vegetation Inventory (PLVI) in 2010, over 75% of rural Alberta was described by this and other provincial land-cover inventories. While the project mapped rural parts of the province, densely populated urban areas were simply classified as combinations of residential or industrial development and neglected to recognize municipal natural assets such as stormwater ponds and urban agriculture which provide ...
SPUD.ca
Sustainable Produce Urban Delivery (SPUD) sources and delivers local groceries to their customer’s doorsteps. Since expanding to Alberta in 2005, the company has modelled how a social enterprise can “change the world, one bite at a time”.
Part of SPUD’s commitment to sustainability has been to model how food waste can be minimized in innovative ways. Pre-ordered online purchases mean no in-store displays ...
Empower Me
More than one in five of Albertan households pay more than double the national average of the percentage of their income on their utility bills. Empower Me, Alberta’s first energy efficiency program targeted at hard-to-reach communities, bridges cultural and language gaps by informing people from multilingual, multicultural, and vulnerable communities about important energy and utility consumer protection education. Michelle Riccetto, Business Development Manager at Empower Me, ...
College Hunks Hauling Junk and Moving
Leon Kassian, after hearing about the College HUNKS concept from his brother-in-law, made the journey to Tampa, Florida to learn more. The one-stop pickup for junk removal with an eco-friendly twist inspired him to open the first College HUNKS franchise in Canada. Whether they are helping a family downsize, decluttering an office, or removing debris from a construction site, over 80% of all items are recycled or ...
Lloyd Dahl was raised on a farm near Donalda, Alberta, which fostered his lifelong passion for the natural world. After working in a sawmill in BC, Lloyd began a lengthy career with what later became Corrections Canada (CSC). He noticed that inmates who worked on campgrounds in wilderness areas and park trails throughout BC gained self-esteem, improved mental health, and had a greater sense of responsibility. Lloyd went on ...