Environmental Student Action Challenge
Empowering Alberta’s Youth to Change the World
Do your students have big ideas about making this planet a better place? About solving environmental issues in their own backyards?
Are you looking for ways to support their ambitions and enthusiasm? If so, the Environmental Student Action Challenge may be the grant program for you! ESAC grants are all about helping turn student innovation into real solutions for the whole community.
A perfect opportunity for some inquiry-based exploration and research, ESAC grants offer up to $1000 per project.
Students are encouraged to share the whole journey: from identifying an environmental need to coming up with a solution, from overcoming challenges to celebrating their successes, so that the whole province can celebrate with them. After all, every story of student ingenuity and action inspires the rest of us. We can’t wait to see what Alberta’s students will do this year!
ESAC Grant Program Basics
Who
- Any team of Kindergarten to Grade 12 students attending school in Alberta that have a teacher supervisor and principal support may apply
What
- Up to $1,000 in funding for an inquiry-based project of your choosing
- Sharing innovative student solutions to local environmental problems
- Connecting with environmental subject matter experts in your local area
- Inspiring others by sharing your work
Get Inspired by Past Projects
When
- Projects for accepted applicants take place throughout the school year
Where
- ESAC projects happen in schools and communities across Alberta
Why
- Because students have the energy, imagination and heart to make the world a better place
Contact ESAC
We encourage applicants to reach out to us for conversation about their ideas so that we can help you make your application as strong as possible.
We’re here to help and we want you to succeed, so be sure to use all the resources we have to support you.
2023-2024 Grant Recipients
- École Secondaire St. Albert Catholic High School, St. Albert, Grades 10-12
- High school students will mentor elementary students on a project focused on building habitat for native bees.
- Jasper Place High School, Edmonton, Grades 10-12
- Students will implement a multi-faceted plan focused on sustainability by turning the school courtyard into a productive place of gardening and deepening their connection with the land.
- Oilfields High School, Diamond Valley, Grades 7-12
- Students will explore methods of sustainable cattle ranching with a focus on rehabilitation and practices to maintain native grasslands and benefit the economy, the social welfare of Albertans and the environment.
- Khalsa School, Calgary, Grades 4-6
- The nature club recognized that the loss of trees in their schoolyard had impacts for both wildlife and people. A dedicated group of 10 students will replace the trees lost during renovation with native plants and grasses to naturalize this importance space.
- Bearspaw School, Calgary, Grades 5-6
- Working collaboratively with Elders from the Stoney Nakoda First Nation, the students will create an outdoor classroom to honour Treaty 7 and the student's efforts in Truth and Reconciliation.
- A.E. Bowers Elementary School, Airdrie, Grade 2
- Students intend to clean up litter in public parks and then develop an innovative approach to encourage others to responsibly dispose of litter.
- A.E. Bowers Elementary School, Airdrie, Grade 4
- Students will observe plants and animals along the Nose Creek corridor, test for water quality, and survey for pollution and invasive species.
- Calgary Girls Charter School, Calgary, Grades 6-9
- Students will consider how to reduce waste in the art studio and explore temporary, compostable and natural art supplies.
- Strathmore High School, Strathmore, Grades 4-6 and 10-12
- Students will create habitat spaces for pollinator species to safely overwinter through multiple hibernation spaces.
- Copperfield School, Calgary, Grade 4
- Members of the school's nature and sustainability club will bring solar energy to their new indoor gardening towers.
- Central Memorial Career and Technology Centre, Calgary, Grade 11
- Students will make drinking bottles with new technology called PHA to help eliminate plastic waste and raise awareness of alternatives to plastic.
- Hillhurst School, Calgary, Grades 4-5 (funded for two projects)
- Students will explore waste reduction in their school through two connected projects: designing a rooftop garden to reduce food waste and create a green space in their school, and designing a robot that can clean plastic wastes from wetland ecosystems in the wild.
Application Information
2023-2024 Applications are now closed.
Please check back for updates on the 2024-2025 school year.
Students in Action
Net Zero Tiny Home Bus Conversion
In collaboration with local experts, New Myrnam students build a net-zero tiny house out of a school bus to learn real-world skills to reduce their carbon footprint.
Reducing Our Carbon Footprint through Community Collaboration
New Myrnam School students build a new hydroponics system to grow their own produce and calculate their carbon footprint of buying food from the grocery store versus food grown through their own system.
Native Plant Garden
Archbishop Jordan Catholic High School students develop their green thumbs with a garden full of native plans – increasing the biodiversity and resilience of local ecosystems.
Beekeeping & Pollinator Garden
Collingwood students create a bee habitat by planting native flowers and shrubs in their schoolyard and building a beehive to increase biodiversity.
Updated: May 22, 2024