Published on October 2, 2024

Bring Your Environmental Idea to Life!

The City of St. Albert is committed to maintaining a healthy natural environment and ensuring sustainability for future generations. The Green Community Grant, formally known as the Environmental Initiatives Grant is a fun and easy way to encourage sustainability projects that align with the City’s Municipal Development Plan, Flourish, and Green Environment Strategy. The Grant lends up to $5,000 to support projects which foster environmental stewardship. Special consideration will be given to applications that exceed this amount. This year, environmental projects are encouraged to align with the categories: Air & Energy, Land, Climate Change & Resilience , Water and People.

Any school, federally or provincially registered non-profit society, or community group located in St. Albert are welcome to apply with any project or activity that demonstrates environmental benefits or improvements and is consistent with City policies. This includes projects that support community environmental education, natural area enhancements, natural area reclamation, waste reduction, land, air or water quality preservation, public awareness, environmental monitoring and more.

Last year, the Grant program funded seven projects that supported water conservation, biodiversity, pollinators, soil health, enhanced food production, and creating an outdoor space with a connection to the indigenous knowledge and medicinal uses of native plants.

One such project was led by Dale Ford, a 2023 grant recipient from The Coal Mine Road Community Garden group, who shared an update on the successful expansion of their rainwater harvesting system and construction of onsite composting facilities.

person in snow with a jug

two people working around water tanks

How has the grant contributed to improving the local environment?

Environmental conservation, restoring degraded land, climate change mitigation and building community are all very important motivators to me. Taking care of the land stabilizes our ecosystem and protects biodiversity.

This project increased sustainability by allowing people to grow their own food locally and reducing their own carbon footprint. We promote sustainable practices such as chemical-free gardening, rainwater capture and compost sharing.

In what ways has the grant impacted our community?

In the first year of our community garden, we had to truck water in using one water tote that was filled by a water truck. Doing so was very expensive - a couple hundred dollars per fill. With the money from the Grant, we were able to purchase 34 water tanks. Our rainwater harvesting system eliminated this barrier and made our garden much more accessible.

Having access to rainwater allowed us to add an additional 22 plots, greatly expanding our community garden, and allowing more St. Albert gardeners to grow organic food sustainably without having to truck in any water! One plot was also set aside for the St. Albert Food Bank and Community Village. We installed some community berry plantings, will continue to build perennial fruit gardens for all visitors to share, and further expand the open community shared orchard area because of our new system.

Since the completion of our project, many St. Albert families came out to garden, learned about rainwater capture, and learned how to grow local, healthy fruit and vegetables as a community.

What advice would you give to others who are considering applying for the Green Community Grant?

Define your needs first and clearly identify your objectives, then reach out to the community and form partnerships. Finding allies and friends to help you bring your project to life is also helpful!