Aspen Heights MicroSociety wins Emerald Award for education in sustainability

Another day, another award for Aspen Heights MicroSociety.
 
This time, students and staff at the elementary school in north Red Deer were honoured by the Alberta Emerald Foundation in the ‘Education’ category for their environmental work.
 
Principal Braden Kilpatrick says everyone was quite excited to learn they were a recipient this year, especially given the amount of work put in.
 
“Some of the projects we’ve done include students exploring their local watershed by raising and releasing trout in a local pond, we have a recycling program that includes paper, cardboard, batteries and ink cartridges. We have one of three established and licensed bottle depots [in Red Deer] and last year we did 15,000 containers,” he rattled off. “We were raising urban chickens, and the eggs we used for our breakfast program. We are getting a geodesic greenhouse and it’s all going to be solar-run for our courtyard. We have a functioning aquaponics growing system. We raise and release insects, we’re doing beehives and bughouses.”
 
Kilpatrick says as much work as they’re putting in now, it’s only going to get better.
 
“We’re just wanting to improve on these things — we’re maybe looking at some more projects,” he says. “The greenhouse will be our next project. Stantec is helping us out with that and it will be built in July.”
 
The foundation received 65 nominations this year for its annual awards. A third-party panel of knowledgeable judges with cross-sectoral experience selected the recipients and finalists. A ceremony was held earlier this week at the Royal  Alberta Museum in Edmonton in conjunction with national Environment Week.