Lacombe Composite High School has recently been recognized for some of its many environmental initiatives.

The competition is called Greenest School in Canada and it recognizes schools across the country that go above and beyond to create a greener learning environment.

Lacombe Comp tied with Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario.

Steven Schultz is a teacher at the school, and a winner of Lacombe’s citizen of the year award for many reasons.

He said it is a big honour and comes as a nice surprise after his students have been working so hard.

“It means a lot for them to be growing as leaders, I think is the biggest impact that this is having on students.”

There are so many reasons the school seems to stand out above the crowd, from their environmental club installing solar arrays, to outdoor gardens with 40 raised beds, 125 fruit trees, 10 picnic tables, birdhouses, bat houses and evergreen trees.

Schultz says they are also doing well with their beekeeping club that has three hives to work with.

Not to mention their kitchens composting system where approximately 25kg of organic waste gets composted each month.

Schultz says the award wouldn’t have been possible without his students being innovative.

 “They run the programs themselves in the sense that they dream about the idea, then they do all the research, they do the fundraising, the community collaboration, they start planning and implementing the projects.”

They prize for the award is two thousand dollars, and the two winning schools have split the amount equally.

Schultz said the money will go towards more ways of making the school even greener.