Local Green Team wins big

The University Highlands Green Team won big at the first-ever 2023 Climate Project Challenge on May 18, hosted by the Burnaby Youth Sustainability Network (BYSN), Simon Fraser University (SFU), and Burnaby School District.

The Climate Project Challenge invited student groups to submit proposals on how to make their communities more sustainable, and the University Highlands Green Team was one of four finalists who showcased their proposals at a “Dragons’ Den”-style presentation.

All four teams won $1,000 to help bring their sustainability proposals to reality.

The funding for the event was provided by SFU, but the BYSN played a large role in helping to select the finalists.

BYSN is a student-led group that focuses on driving sustainability across the school district. Luciana Brewer, co-chair of BYSN, is a Grade 11 student who has been involved with BYSN since Grade 9, and helped to run the Climate Project Challenge.

“I found out about [BYSN] through attending this environmental conference and I thought it was such a cool thing because it's like this organization of youth from all these different high schools, not just one national club at one single school, but all across the district and the city. And I thought that was so cool,” said Brewer. “I really wanted to be part of that because it gives you an opportunity to have a much bigger change than just your own school.”

The idea for the Climate Project Challenge came when SFU offered the BYSN a $5,000 grant, and suggested that students present their sustainability ideas. BYSN then helped SFU to develop the “Dragons’ Den” finalist presentation.

“It was a really cool experience. I think it's one of the biggest, most community involving initiatives that the BYSN has done,” said Brewer.

While SFU and the school district helped with some of the more technical planning details, BYSN still had plenty of involvement with the process. They had the chance to advertise to students across the district, and were able to read the proposals sent in by different student groups.

“It was so cool to see all the submissions, because some of them—all of them—were so, so amazing. It was really cool to see how all the students were really invested in a project and were using it as a chance to actually take really good action in the community,” said Brewer.

The four proposals that BYSN helped select as finalists presented at the Dragons’ Den presentation night. Among the winners were University Highlands Green Team microprojects, the Burnaby Mountain Secondary garden project, Phase Out Plastic Bottles project at Burnaby South Secondary, and an ecological restoration project at Moscrop Secondary.

At University Highlands, the money that the Green Team won will be going towards a variety of projects that they have in the works.

They showcased many of their current and future projects in their submission to the Climate Project Challenge, and worked collaboratively to decide which projects were the most important to them.

With the funding, they hope to improve and expand their rain and pollinator gardens, which they use to serve a schoolwide lunch using the vegetables grown there. They also want to put up more signage around the school to help people understand how to recycle better, add signage to their gardens so that people know what the gardens are for, and expand their yearly plant sale.

The Green Team was founded by teacher Kristina Carley seven years ago, and each year the team has continued to grow and expand the projects under her leadership.

For this year’s submission, the student pooled their ideas together and were assigned an individual presentation slide that they had to put together and present at the Dragons’ Den dinner and to the school.

“I think that our inspiration for a lot of it was that somebody needed to take charge of something and say that we have to do some stuff to make the world, well, not this,” said Galia Shantz, a Grade 5 student. “We were just the ones to start it but lots of other people are helping with the process.”

Although many of the students said they felt nervous presenting to a big audience, they were also proud of their work and what they accomplished, sharing that they had a great time celebrating after their presentation.

“I think it’s nice to show everyone, not just your school but maybe more schools, how we can make it a better place for everyone,” said Keilana Dearing, a Grade 4 student.

The Green Team’s concerns focused on the effects of climate change, the preservation of endangered animals, and reducing the amount of waste and littering that they see in the school and community.

For many of them, joining the team came down to a simple reason: building a better world for themselves and future generations.

“We started Green Team to support the animals, the land, and how we can affect the land in a positive way and help them,” shared Olivia Navas, a Grade 5 student.

The BYSN hopes that the Climate Project Challenge will return again in the future.

“I think if we were able to get the funding to do this kind of thing again, it would be amazing to do again because a bunch of the groups didn't get chosen for funding,” said Brewer. “So they could try again in the next few years.”

Learn more about the winners of the 2023 Climate Project Challenge.