27th Annual Emerald Awards
Emerald Awards recognize and celebrate outstanding environmental achievements across all sectors in Alberta. A third-party panel of knowledgeable judges was tasked with selecting a maximum of three finalists per category, one of which will be named the category recipient at the Emerald Awards ceremony.
The 27th Annual Emerald Awards were presented on June 5 at Theatre Junction Grand in Calgary.
As part of the 27th Annual Emerald Awards, Calgary’s former poet laureate commemorates the event with a new poem about the natural world.
Government, land owners, producers—it’s tough to bring people and groups together and agree on how to address a problem. In this case, it’s about the increasing conflicts between large carnivores and agricultural land users in southwest Alberta. But, using neighbour-to-neighbour coffee table discussions and with research and government support, the Waterton Biosphere Reserve’s Carnivores and Communities Program (CACP) is successfully tackling the complex issue of human/wildlife conflict with a ...
After 40 years serving Calgary communities with a number of environmental programs, Green Calgary has found a new niche as the voice for those just starting their ‘green’ journey. From youth programs in waste, water and energy efficiency to adult efforts on food sustainability and green cleaning, Green Calgary is refocusing its attention on environmental literacy, awareness and action for all Calgarians.
SAIT’s Green Building Technologies (GBT) Lab and Demonstration Centre is Calgary’s first net-zero commercial building—a living research lab that is an innovative example for the green building and structure sector to see, feel and understand how to design, build and live more sustainably. Working with government and industry partners and available for research and development to post-secondary students (capstone projects) and for public tours, the GBT Lab is getting ...
If there’s an example of taking the classroom out into the real world, Innovate has to be it. In fact, there’s no classroom at all with this unique program. Instead, Edmonton high school students host and attend career fairs on urban agriculture, create gym-sized maps to understand the migration routes of bears, and install solar panels on school rooftops. 
Lonny Balbi offers the secret of success for Calgary’s Bike to Work Day, a one-day event now in its 12th year with over 5,000 participants peddling into the city core – keep it simple.
When a large corporation in Alberta’s oil sands teams with a neighbouring First Nations community to repurpose reclaimed land, it’s a good thing. But when a threatened species of wood buffalo flourish, creating a genetically pure line of animal that is culturally significant to this and future generations of the First Nations people of Ft. McKay, it’s a great thing.
Calgary students and residents know the gem they have in the Fish Creek Environmental Learning Centre. For over 35 years, its home in a 1,300 hectare urban park has connected people with nature: the birds, animals and landscape not only create an outdoor classroom for 15,000 students each year, it’s also a space for the 180,000 residents in 18 communities bordering the park to enjoy cycling or a walk. ...
Have you ever wondered where rain and snow melt goes beyond the storm drain? Some assume such water is treated and then sent out into the river, but that’s not the case. Now, thanks to CreekWatch, citizen scientists are finding out exactly what pollutants are in these water sources—everything from concrete and plastic to garbage and animal droppings.
When Redemptive Developments (RD) started as a social enterprise in Edmonton seven years ago, its aim was to create employment, help diminish poverty and invest in the community. Becoming one of the biggest mattress recyclers in Western Canada was never on the radar. 
Fort McMurray junior high students Chintan Desai and Krish Shah aren’t your everyday 14 year-olds. After wildfires ravaged the area in 2016, the pair—who had already been part of the RM of Wood Buffalo’s Green Teen program—wanted to do something to help replenish what nature had taken away. The result was Eco YOLO: Eco, for the environment, and YOLO, because you only live once, so protect the planet, explain ...