Local news delivered daily to your email inbox. Subscribe for FREE to the rdnewsNOW newsletter.

Two local schools finalists in national environmental contest

Mar 14, 2018 | 9:56 AM

Two local schools are vying to become winners in a national contest recognizing contributions to a healthy environment.

Superpower your School is a partnership between Staples Canada and Earth Day Canada and awards 10 winners (five elementary/five secondary) a $20,000 shopping spree to purchase new technology.

Locally, Aspen Heights Elementary in Red Deer and Lacombe Composite High School have been named to the top 100 entries. The winners will be announced this April in conjunction with Earth Day on April 22.

At Aspen Heights, where staff and students run a well-renowned microsociety, environmental initiatives have been ongoing for seven years.

They include reducing the schools carbon footprint by using hydroponics and aquaponics, running a licensed bottle depot, offering battery and ink cartridge recycling, education about alternative energy and oil spills, and running a licensed urban chicken program, among several other things.

At Lacombe Composite, a geodesic greenhouse is the star of the show.

The greenhouse was built in 2012 and has allowed thousands of students and staff to learn about food, energy, botany and ecology through not just science classes, but community workshops, school tours and community volunteering opportunities.

The greenhouse also produces hundreds of pounds of fresh organic herbs and vegetables year-round for the school’s cafeteria, the local food bank and elsewhere in the community. The greenhouse uses four types of renewable energy – solartubes, geothermal, passive solar and solar electric – and has even inspired a similar greenhouse project at Burman University.

Winners of Superpower your School will be chosen by a panel of judges.

More information is at Staples.ca.