This project aims to mitigate the iHuman Youth Society’s climate impact and operating costs through a series of building retrofits that will also be used as an opportunity to train, employ, and empower its program participants. 

The project, which took place at iHuman in downtown Edmonton, included the installation of a 55.6 kW solar system on the building’s roof, the complete retrofit of the building’s lighting to LED, and an upgrade to the roof’s membrane barrier. 

In partnership with Newo Global Energy, the Bissell Centre, and Energy Efficiency Alberta, 6 iHuman program participants were trained and compensated for their time in Newo’s 5-day solar training program. Of the trainees, 2 were hired by Newo to complete the solar and LED retrofits at iHuman. Newo also hired 1-2 trainees from past Bissell Centre training programs to aid in the solar and LED retrofits.

This project’s holistic approach allows an infrastructure retrofit to bring greater benefit to a wider community. The main and most important beneficiaries will be the youth who participate in iHuman programs. 

Some of the youth will be directly impacted by the training program and employment opportunities; however, all will benefit in some form since iHuman will be reducing its operating costs, which allows more funds to be allocated towards programming.

iHuman will also benefit by developing stronger partnerships with other non-profits in the city, such as Newo and Bissell, to strengthen their programs and their community engagement/connections. It is also an opportunity for iHuman to distinguish itself in the downtown core and to show the corporate high rises around it, a tangible and strong visual of iHuman’s innovation to incorporate green energy infrastructure into its operations. 

The project further aligns with the agency’s commitment to action recommendations from the young people that identify land-based teachings for Treaty 6.

iHuman Youth Society

Delivered in conjunction with the Green Calgary rain barrel program, the Summer Sustainability Series aims to equip new homeowners and everyday Calgarians with knowledge and appropriate tools to save water in their home. 

Every summer, Calgary’s water usage goes up by 40% due to outdoor lawn watering and gardening. 

Water efficiency is paramount in ensuring our downstream communities have stable water supplies, especially during dry summer months and flooding season. 

Specifically curated to rain barrel owners and new Canadians, who might not be aware of ways to manage their water utility costs, the Green Calgary program empowers them to make sustainable and cost-effective choices while building a strong resilient community through education. 

Measuring their success with data collection and post-program survey, the Summer Sustainability Series aims to protect Bow River watershed through providing the tools and education for Calgarians to make water-smart choices.

Green Calgary Association

Land managers can play a critical role in repairing ecosystems and mitigating climate change through on-farm, nature-based solutions. 

The Blackfoot Phenology Course, will provide farmers and food growers with an indigenous lens on understanding of the ecosystems and landscapes. 

Young Agrarians aims to shift perspectives of farmers regarding their relationship with the land and encourage a conservation mindset for producing food in ways that harmonize with local ecosystems, regenerate regional water cycles, and mitigate global climate change. 

Participants will contribute to a collection of ecological stories from farms across Alberta based on their learnings in the program and what they are observing on the land bases that they work with.

Young Agrarians

Blackfoot Phenology for Farmers Cultivating Ecological Literacy

This project is a continuation of the Alberta Narratives Project (ANP). This funding will be used to disseminate new communications tools to users of ANP and provide public engagement sessions to strategic audiences. 

Funding will also be used to act in an advisory role for similar projects with external partners and to pay for time responding to inquiries, questions, and emails.

Pembina Institute

Alberta Narratives Project Responding to Project Partner Needs

While many immigrant-serving agencies provide various services, environmental education remains to be a scarce program in the sector. 

Power of Nature introduces underserved, marginalized communities, focused on those that identify as low-income or newcomers to Canada, to climate change and energy conservation in an approachable way with everyday actions to reduce its impact. 

Green Calgary will continue to partner with established community organizations already serving these marginalized communities to deliver educational sessions and follow-ups in a tailored approach to maximize impact. 

Delivered in 1-hour long sessions, our project covers wide range of topics such as Basics of Climate Change, Energy Basics, Renewables and Clean Technology Career Opportunities, and Energy Efficiency.

This project features elements to more accurately capture and encourage behaviour change. This includes administering in-depth surveys on behaviour change as a result of our program. 

While we initially planned to conduct follow-up in-person sessions, during COVID-19 we will ask groups of individuals that already attended an educational session to meet virtually to discuss progress, challenges, ideas in implementing the suggested behaviours from our presentations.

Hosted in a trusted setting, Power of Nature aims to improve participants’ environmental literacy and encourage behaviour change.

Green Calgary

Dramatically growing visitor numbers to the Bow Valley during the Covid-19 pandemic, escalating threats to the Alberta’s Eastern Slopes, and the need to increase our understanding of the barriers that under-served, culturally and ethnically diverse communities face in relation to safe access to nature and conservation advocacy, all contribute to the urgency of this pilot project to better reflect and engage with those communities. 

Y2Y will build trust and ‘bridges’ with diverse local groups:

work with them to explore and address barriers, needs, and gaps

engage community members directly in wildlife tracking workshops to increase their connection to nature and their environmental literacy

and reflect their stories and lived experiences in relation to nature and conservation through collaborative multi-media communications. 

Y2Y expects to see growing, measurable engagement with groups and individuals in the Bow Valley, with:

a suite of materials and stories that better reflect the diversity of our society

and, ultimately, a broader network of diverse voices speaking up for nature across the Bow Valley and Alberta.

Photo credits: Karsten Heuer and Kelly Zenkewich

The Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative

Increasing Engagement and Reflection of Diverse Bow Valley Community Members in Conservation

The Rocky Mountain Eastern Slopes Biomonitoring Project, Phase II will provide stream health assessment training for cross-sector collaboration including Watershed Planning and Advisory Councils (WPAC), Indigenous communities, all levels of government, academia, consultants, and industry professionals. 

The project will implement the first stages of a train-the-trainer program. The program will build community capacity.

Local trainers will require less resources spent on travel and provide opportunities for additional CABIN courses that will certify more community-based water monitors in time. By increasing the numbers of CABIN certified monitors, more biomonitoring programs will be implemented leading to more traditional and DNA samples that can be included in developing the CABIN reference models. 

This project will facilitate the coordination of the first stages of the development of a CABIN reference model for the Eastern Slopes of the Rockies. A CABIN field certification will be held in Rocky Mountain House Fall 2021 (COVID restrictions permitting).

Living Lakes Canada

Rocky Mountain Eastern Slopes Biomonitoring Project, Phase 2

Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) Canada’s Alberta Bat Conservation Project combines outreach, education and science to address imminent conservation threats facing Alberta’s bats. 

This project involves a multifaceted approach that is coordinated through two initiatives of WCS Canada: The Alberta Community Bat Program (www.albertabats.ca), which focuses on outreach and conservation science to improve the management of summer bat habitats, and Alberta BatCaver, which will locate and monitor caves used by bats during the winter.

Using new analysis methods, the project will mobilize a network of volunteers and partner organizations to collect scientifically rigorous data on the distribution, health, and status of bats, as well as demonstrate the importance of bats to agriculture. 

Of particular importance to this project is the collection of guano (poop) from buildings and bridges, and subsequent DNA analysis to determine what bats are eating, where they are occurring, and whether they have been exposed to a fungal pathogen causing a rapidly spreading human-caused disease of bats: white-nose syndrome.

Underpinning this conservation work is community engagement and outreach—as citizen scientists contribute to the project, this information is delivered to communities throughout Alberta, to promote change for protection of bats and their habitats.

New discoveries are used to update several online resources designed to foster the free exchange of information that will improve bat management across North America.

Wildlife Conservation Society Canada

The Alberta Community Bat Program

Alberta is experiencing an urgent and dramatic transition with implications for the environment, economy and the future of Alberta’s youth. 

GreenLearning has been working with youth and communities across Alberta since 1986 to ensure that youth are equipped to be drivers of the solutions and architects of their future. GreenLearning’s award winning Re-Energy program turns youth into energy engineers, building their understanding of the potential for renewable energy and clean technologies to have a positive impact by creating sustainable, prosperous and resilient communities. 

Re-Energy engages youth as active participants in shaping a low carbon future. In this project, GreenLearning will work with digital marketing experts, school district staff, and like-minded organizations to expand the reach of Re-Energy to engage 3000 youth across Alberta, particularly in rural and Indigenous communities. 

This will result in an 80% increase in their own knowledge/understanding of energy issues, and increase in energy efficient behaviours and a transformation of mindsets supporting a transition to clean energy. 

The impact of this project will be evaluated through the written and video submissions of participating youth to the culminating Re-Energy Challenge.

GreenLearning

Working together to create a healthier environment for all Albertans. 

We’re looking for people that care about the environment as much as we do. Check out our open positions.

Working together to create a healthier environment for all Albertans.

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