Three Canadian schools doing three completely different projects, all with one common thread.
By now, we can see that climate action doesn’t take just one shape. There are so many climate solutions that exist in this world, and it is particularly through the creativity and audacity of youth that we can implement them in the epicentres of community: schools. Sometimes, it’s a bike event that nearly 200 people show up to, or a compost bin that accidentally became a garden over summer break, or a dusty shed that a shop class turned into a net-zero community hub. Across three schools in the Canadian provinces of Newfoundland & Labrador, Ontario, and Prince Edward Island, students have been building, growing, and pedalling their way toward a greener school and pulling their communities along for the ride.
Most students at École St. Matthew’s in St. John’s, Newfoundland live within two kilometres of their school, yet most arrive by car anyway. The school set out to change that habit with its annual spring community event: Bikefest.
Their annual community cycling Bikefest, held in May, drew 164 registered participants (double last year’s 82), plus walk-ins that pushed the total close to 200. Their local Member of Parliament and the provincial Minister of Education both attended, and 15 children were matched with refurbished bikes and scooters and given helmets through a re-CYCLING initiative the school plans to expand next year. Additionally, one of Canada’s most prominent youth climate action journals, The Starfish Canada, even interviewed and published a piece on the project a few months later.
Behind the event is a longer project that has installed bike racks, a repair station, and solar lighting at the school, while hosting safety courses and family cycling days. Student lead Sawyer wrote letters to local businesses asking for helmet discounts and volunteer support, and he received more responses than the emails his teacher sent. The city is starting to notice, too! “The city’s starting to see that shared use pathways are an opportunity,” said teacher lead Mr. Shoemaker. “We can get people walking. We can get people more healthy.”
This next project started during lockdown, when a group of friends attending Eden High School in Ontario discovered they liked plants. When school returned in person, they formed a greenhouse club, only to find their school’s greenhouse had sat unused for decades, overtaken by overgrown plants and falling into disrepair. They cleared it out, researched how to repair it, and got to work.
A student at Eden High School tends to their plants in their school’s greenhouse. Photo courtesy of N:OW for Net-Zero.
The greenhouse is now fully functional, sealed against winter heat loss and actively used by students learning sustainable agriculture. A composting program ran successfully alongside it until the compost bin spontaneously became a volunteer garden over the summer, which is honestly a great problem to have.
More recently, the school received a Go Wild grant from WWF Canada to build a wildflower pollinator garden beside the greenhouse. What began as a club fixing a broken structure has grown into a broader ecological vision for the school. “In a way, this project has launched our school into somewhat of a larger eco project,” said teacher lead Mike Idzenga.
A Grade 9 student put it simply: “With all the tips and tricks that I learned this year, for the rest of my life I can do that to plant my own garden.”
Three Oaks High School doesn’t shy away from hosting events: sports games, races, community presentations. When they finally built a new outdoor sports field, it came with an awkward problem: it was far from the kitchen where food for events was prepared. The TOSH Cares Club and shop program decided to fix it by using the unused shed sitting on school property.
Students gather at Three Oaks High School to retrofit their multipurpose outbuilding. Photo courtesy of N:OW for Net-Zero.
Students across programs retrofitted the building, insulating it, wiring a solar system, and turning it into a net-zero multipurpose outbuilding that can now host classes, clubs, and events. Many TOSH Cares students had never taken shop before, and many shop students had never engaged with environmental education. The project brought them together, and both groups left changed.
A sign on the shed now describes its net-zero impact to anyone who walks by. Gabby Cierra, a Grade 12 student, said something worth sitting with: “It kinda feels like we almost can’t make as much of an impact because we are not old enough to start big programs… but I think this is an example that we can.”
All three of these schools came to N:OW for Net-Zero, a pan-Canadian student-led climate action program, with a real, tangible wish to improve their school grounds and, ultimately, enhance the living conditions of those attending and surrounding them. If this isn’t proof that climate action looks like whatever young people decide to make it, then we don’t know what is!
