EMPOWERING YOUTH FOR CLIMATE ACTION 2025 AWARD WINNERS
The Empowering Youth for Climate Action Award is given annually to the top Action Projects posted on Our Canada Project to recognize outstanding student leadership and contributions to Canada’s sustainable future.
Thank you to Environment and Climate Change Canada for their generous support of LSF’s Youth Forums and Action Project grants and specifically for making these awards possible!
Each of the winning schools will be given a certificate of achievement acknowledging their successful project in addition to a financial prize to be used for future Action Projects:
- First place: $3,000
- Second place: $2,000
- Third place: $1,000 each
- Runners-up: $500 each
Check out the winning projects below!
To all of the students and teachers who participated, thank you for your wonderful projects! We are truly impressed by the level of creativity, the reach and the efforts behind your Action Projects this year!
FIRST PRIZE:
École Christine Morrison Elementary School Greening Project – École Christine Morrison Elementary – Mission, BC
After visiting the Silverdale Creek Wetlands restoration project in 2024, students were inspired to spark some real-world change of their own by creating a Forest Classroom and the new ECME Vegetable Garden! Initially focused on restoring the Forest Classroom by replacing invasive species with native plants, students recognized that the materials they were using, such as greenhouses, UV lights, soil, and compost, could also be used to grow fresh vegetables! To support the school’s breakfast program, they decided to grow corn, beans, pumpkins, tomatoes, lettuce, carrots, and herbs. They worked with local organizations and community for material donations, engaged summer campers to help water plants, supported water conservation by installing rain barrels and water-retention holes, hosted planting events, implemented measures to protect the sites from any disturbances, and participated in Indigenous-informed learning. This project is not only a practical and nourishing solution, but also plays an instrumental role in supporting biodiversity, addressing food insecurity, cultivating cultural respect and environmental stewardship, and strengthening the connections between students, nature, and their community!
SECOND PRIZE:
Composted Vegetables to Fresh Vegetables Right Outside Our Door – Fisher Branch Collegiate – Fisher, MB
Students at Fisher Branch Collegiate noticed at school mealtimes that food waste was going into the garbage, when it could be composted instead and used to produce nutritious food for students at the school. Seeing this opportunity, they used LSF’s funding to purchase an electric composter that would help them turn the food and yard waste from their school into fertilizer for their new outdoor garden. The vegetables grown are then used to teach students how to cook foods from their classmates’ cultures, such as First Nations, Metis, Ukrainian and Filipino. This circular solution not only promotes cross-cultural learning, but also provides students with healthy, low-cost lunches in a way that teaches them about the life cycle of food and the environmental benefits of waste diversion, composting, and growing your own food!
THIRD PRIZE:
REC Ocean Defenders—Because every river leads to the sea – Riverside Education Centre – Milford, NS
The Ocean Defenders is a student-led movement aimed at reducing microplastic and litter pollution in the Shubenacadie River. Their story starts when students started noticing issues impacting the health of the river–erosion, seasonal spikes in bacteria, blue-green algae blooms, and lots of litter. Students decided to go straight to the source and collected observational, water, and biological data to better assess the river’s health. To share their learnings, they designed informational posters to hang around the community, with a specific focus on the community’s favourite activities: swimming, fishing, and dog walking. Even their MP asked for a copy! While the students were relieved to learn that the river was mostly healthy, unfortunately the garbage issue remained, as every visit ended with a full bag. Therefore, they decided to organize a shoreline cleanup and education day, where they collected 20 pounds of garbage and sparked countless conversations about how school litter is entering the river. This project helped show students how motivated their peers are to make a difference and how anyone can start taking action to protect the environment. The Ocean Defenders’ next steps include organizing more shoreline cleanups, creating a garbage art installation to raise awareness about litter, and reaching out to administration to ensure the longevity of the Ocean Defenders for the years to come!
RUNNER UP:
Climate Action Project at Max Aitken – Max Aitken Academy – Miramichi, NB
“Paying Carbon Tax with Climate Action!” is a project that empowers students to come up with creative ways to tackle environmental issues. Students were given a carbon tax invoice and were tasked with creating projects in small teams to repay their carbon debt of 15 tons. Local experts were invited to speak and mentor the student groups, and the project eventually grew to include a public Climate Action Expo, where parents and community members were encouraged to come visit and speak to students about their projects. Some of the students’ projects include hosting a beach cleanup, organizing a plant-based potluck, promoting outdoor activities with a tech-free day, and creating a litterless lunch challenge. In addition to instilling a lifelong commitment to environmental stewardship, this project helped students develop key skills in teamwork, communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving!
RUNNER UP:
Travelling Native Plants Sensory Garden for Mental Health and Wellness/Elementary Earth Day Initiative and Native Plants for Ecosystem Restoration – Milliken Mills High School – Markham, ON
The school has 3 special education classes with neurodiverse students of all kinds, many of whom are high sensitivity. Sensory gardens have helped students in the past, so the Green Inc. club saw an opportunity to promote both mental health and environmental sustainability. Thus, the Traveling Sensory Garden for Mental Health and Wellness was born! Students chose native plants that would help support the local ecosystem. These plants provided opportunities to discuss climate change and how plants and gardening can help mitigate its effects. The Sensory Garden was “Travelling” because the plants were temporarily placed in the library to be enjoyed by all students and to be more accessible to others. The mainstream science class prepared planters and garden beds to help assist the special education students with planting. Later, many classes from the rest of the school helped plant plants that reflected their interests and cultural backgrounds, enhancing the sensory garden as well as a local pond ecosystem. Altogether, this project was an incredible way to bring together the school community, amplify student voice, create accessible and identity affirming spaces, and instill a lifelong commitment to environmental stewardship!
RUNNER UP:
Jardins Braeside Trente-Six – The Study – Westmount, QC
Grade 3 and 4 students purchased a hydroponic growing tower to improve their basil production. The students then used the freshly grown basil to make their own delicious pesto to sell as part of a social enterprise. Proceeds from the pesto sales go towards Montreal’s Women’s Shelter, Chez Doris. The money was used to build a garden in one of their homes for abused women, empowering them to develop healthy habits and giving them an outlet to help improve their mental health. The students even developed a consignment system where people paid a $2 deposit for the jar and had to return it to receive their deposit back as a way to minimize waste! Through this project, students are promoting sustainable food choices, supporting the empowerment of women, and providing students with quality education! Looking ahead, they aim to expand their hydroponic growing towers to optimize production and continue to make a positive difference, one harvest at a time.
RUNNER UP:
Creating a Miyawaki Pocket Forest @ W.D. Ferris Elementary – W.D. Ferris Elementary School – Richmond, BC
After three recent extreme climate events in their community—an atmospheric river, wildfire, and a heat dome—the students of W.D. Ferris were mourning the premature death of tulip trees that they had planted on school grounds. They set out to find a more sustainable and cost-effective way of tree planting and came across the Miyawaki Pocket Forest method, a way of densely planting a variety of native species to quickly grow a biodiverse forest. With the support of LSF, students were able to expand their 2 square metre mini Miyawaki Pocket Forest test plot to 45 square metres. To prepare the land, students dug and moved 45 cubic yards of soil and planted 400 donated native saplings, including Shore Pine, Douglas Fir, Big Leaf Maple, along with Raspberry, Salmon berry and other bushes. In addition to the air quality and biodiversity benefits, this forest will help transform school grounds, creating an inviting place for students and the wider community to play, learn, and use. Future plans for this project include creating a summer plan for families and staff to water the forest, having students look after extra saplings before they get planted, expanding the forest to 100 square metres, and teaching other schools how to create their very own Miyawaki Pocket Forest! What a legacy to leave behind for future generations!
HONOURABLE MENTION:
Sentry226: A Low-Cost Autonomous Water Quality Measurement System – Association des Francophones de la Région de York – Richmond Hill, ON
After finding out that Canada is home to 1/5th of the world’s freshwater, Équipe Francobotique students learned that the greatest threat to Canada’s freshwater systems is the lack of water quality data. They learned that current solutions are very expensive ($40k-60k) and most require researchers to go out in the field to obtain the measurements. After conducting extensive research, the Sentry226 was born! Students from the FIRST LEGO LEAGUE robotics team decided to tackle this problem by developing a $1,500 data collection device that can be deployed in most freshwater bodies around the world, with no need for human interaction. The device is solar-powered and collects data at regular intervals and then stores the data in its buoy until needed. After building and testing both a scale model and then a full-size prototype, students confirmed that their data is comparable to the data from a professional sonde. Students then developed a business plan, prepared marketing materials, created a TV commercial, wrote up a report with their results, and even found an industry partner to work with! The Federation of Ontario Cottagers Association (FOCA) has agreed to fund and oversee the construction of the students’ buoy, and help the team deploy the first-ever Sentry226 on a lake this summer, turning the team’s idea into a reality!
In June 2025, the Équipe Francobiotique attended the FIRST LEGO LEAGUE International Championships in Massachusetts, where they won the Engineering Excellence Finalist Award & were selected by the judges at the international event to present their project live during Closing Ceremonies. Canada’s watersheds are in great hands!
HONOURABLE MENTION:
School Gardens Revitalization Project – Buckhorn Public School – Buckhorn, ON
HONOURABLE MENTION:
Gander Elementary Peace Garden – Gander Elementary – Gander, NL
The whole school was invited to join the Gander Elementary’s garden group to help create a safe, inclusive, and curious environment to explore gardening, food resourcing and resiliency in the face of climate change and economic obstacles. The goal of this project is to encourage problem solving, teamwork skills, and to learn how to grow healthy foods. The students not only got their hands dirty by planting seeds and potatoes, but have also eagerly learned what can and can’t be composted during their year-long efforts of gathering food scraps. Now, they eagerly await the return to school in September to measure the results of their fall harvest! The hope is to celebrate the learning and successful growing of food and plants followed by a yummy meal cooked with their harvest!
The garden is named the Peace Garden after Mr. Kean, a very special teacher who exemplified growing, gardening and sustainability.
HONOURABLE MENTION:
Création d’un hôtel à insectes et réalisation de jardinières qui attirent les pollinisateurs et les papillons – Loyola High School – Montreal, OQ
Students from Club Vert decided to revitalize their school’s green space with plants that encourage biodiversity. They bought materials, prepared the soil, planted bulbs to attract monarch butterflies, bees and birds, and watered them regularly. They also worked with students from the Technical Education class to build an insect hotel in the shape of a beehive, with each cell hosting different species thanks to a variety of materials: drilled logs, rolls of recycled paper, mulch, stones, broken pots and branches. Another class also grew flowers and vegetables at home, then transplanted them in the spring. They installed birdhouses and a vegetable garden, and will soon be planting shrubs and plants to enrich the garden’s biodiversity and provide a soothing space for students and staff. What started as a project by Club Vert has now been taken up by students from different backgrounds and of all ages. This project has helped students learn about the different phases of creating and maintaining a garden, as well as the joy of seeing their hard work benefit their local ecosystem. For many students, it was their first time gardening and now lots of them are interested in helping with their family garden or even starting a garden of their own!
HONOURABLE MENTION:
Hygiene Bags for the Unhoused – Studio9 School of the Arts – Kelowna, BC
The Make a Difference (MAD) club consists of students who volunteer their lunch break time to make a positive impact on their community. To help reduce landfill waste and improve the health and quality of life amongst the unhoused population in Kelowna, they decided to create individualized Sanitation Packs to hand out. The students used recycled fabrics and decorations (which would have otherwise gone to landfill) to sew 50 reusable bags. They then identified the most useful items to help unhoused individuals stay safe from health challenges and communicable diseases. The students collected over 600 hygiene products, including shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, socks, soap, razors, hand sanitizer, toothpaste, toothbrushes, lip balm, feminine hygiene products, tissues, wet wipes, and lotion to put into the reusable bags. The final hand-made bags—overflowing with hygiene products—were then collected by the Unhoused Solidarity Collective Okanagan (USCO) and distributed to those most in need. What a creative way to reduce waste, protect the environment, and help fellow community members!
HONOURABLE MENTION:
Wesmor Public High School Community Garden and Food Forest – Wesmor Public High School – Prince Albert, SK
Wesmore students had dreams of a Food Forest—a free-access garden for the community to enjoy—and the school decided to turn it into a reality. Students helped build a greenhouse and develop a piece of unused lawn into thirty 12′ x 12′ garden plots. Tons of work was put into preparing the land, such as tilling the earth and spreading wood chip mulch. Individual students, classrooms, families, staff, classrooms from neighbouring schools, and other community members are encouraged to adopt a garden plot to grow plants. With seeds and plants in the ground now, they’ve also created a website, participated in their local Seedy Saturday, and given away free pumpkin seeds to promote their garden! Garden plots are actively being adopted and planted. Looking ahead, the team aims to add raised beds, irrigation, wood chip paths, and provide free seeds to their community. They also hope to grow staple crops like potatoes, onions, and carrots for the school food hampers, supporting students facing food insecurity!
For more information please contact:
Sam Gawron
samantha@lsf-lst.ca
1 877 250 8202