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 …
Edmonton’s Neighborhood Renewal program is a longterm approach to replacing and upgrading urban infrastructure within individual neighborhoods in a focused, integrated process. Upgrades include underground drainage, streetlights, curb/sidewalk replacement, and road reconstruction, all within the same construction season. While this process provides certain efficiencies, it is extremely stressful on adjacent trees, particularly mature trees providing the greatest environmental benefits. Intensive construction near trees can cause long-term health effects to trees, …
Let’s Find Out is a podcast about the history of Edmonton/Amiskwaciwâskahikan. They take questions from curious Edmontonians about local history and then we find out the answers together. In 2019, Let’s Find Out created an 11-episode season about how humans and nature have shaped each other in our city. In each episode, they took a question from a listener, and then researched the answer together by taking field …
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 …
The Eco-Leaders Program is a youth environmental leadership initiative that delivers environmental and climate-literacy and fosters environmental and climate leadership in Calgary’s youth. The program is open to school‐based student groups in grades 1 to 12 and provides guidance and resources to research, design and implement curriculum-linked projects in their community that will contribute to addressing environmental and climate change issues. The program provides awareness and understanding of climate change …
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 …
EcoVision has developed many activities over the last 12 years, including:
6.0kW solar project including a portable solar module.
Geodesic energy-efficient tropical greenhouse with 4 renewable energy systems.
Commercial aquaponics system raising tilapia fish for consumption.
2 acre garden with 125 fruit trees, 50 raised vegetable beds and potato, squash, garlic patches.
Outdoor classroom with 10 picnic tables, bat houses, bird houses.
Beekeeping Program with a bee apiary containing …
The Solar Energy Society of Alberta (SESA) is dedicated to advancing the awareness, understanding and use of solar energy as well as other renewable energy and conservation technologies. SESA is an EcoHero because they have been teaching Albertans about these technologies since 1991, partnering with provincial and municipal governments, academic institutions, and other community organizations.
SESA offers:
Free Public Seminars on various solar and energy efficiency …
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’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 …