

Congratulations to all of our 2021 Program Graduates!
Team Erase the Waste
Team Members:
Sierra Haziza, Clara Iida, Cate Lee, Jenica Felius, Shira Flann
Team Mentor: Taniell Hamilton


From January to June, our team “Erase the Waste” looked closely at waste management and reduction strategies within Whistler Secondary School. We reviewed diversion data, met with municipal councillors, and researched waste management and zero waste policies within the community and school districts across BC. Based on stakeholder engagement and research, we concluded that something needed to change with how the waste from our school was managed.
After many meetings both as a team and with our project stakeholders, we determined our next step was to take our project to the School Board. In time for the June board meeting, our team drafted a briefing document outlining our research findings and specific ‘needs’ we wanted to be incorporated into a district-wide, regulated, and effective three-stream waste reduction policy in all school facilities. The second part of our proposal to the School Board was centred around aligning SD48 waste management goals with those of their communities, all of which had goals to become zero waste. Our team asked the Board to use a waste management policy as a starting point to develop a Zero Waste action plan with a commitment to achieving Zero Waste to landfill and incineration by 2030.
To conclude our presentation, we asked the School Board to develop and have these policies and plans ready to vote on at the August 2021 board meeting. *Check back for future updates on the outcomes of this project!*
Check out the recording of their presentation to the SD48 School Board calling for an official waste management policy and commitment to achieving zero waste.
Check out the recording of their presentation at the Student Showcase Event.
Slide deck from their presentation to the SD48 school board June 2021
Trash-Talk-Board-Pres-2021Check out their Waste Management and Zero Waste briefing document for School District 48.
School-District-48-Waste-Management-and-Zero-Waste-Presentation-Brief-1Team Fashion Forward
Team Members:
Annie Sproule, Maya Ferdinands, Lauren Hamm, Sakura Lord, Grace Crawford, Addie Crawford
Team Mentor: Kristen Jones

Fashion Forward is a project led by a group of grade 10 students with the goals of raising awareness about the environmental impact of the fashion industry, inspiring small changes among peers, and ultimately creating a conscious consumer culture.
Our group is very passionate about reducing the effects of the fast fashion industry on the environment and wants to have an influence within the community by educating students about this urgent issue and inspiring them to become part of the solution.
“I learned so much about starting and executing a project. I loved working with mentors and creating a project I am passionate about!”
-Maya Ferdinands
Grade 10 Program Graduate
Check out the recording of their presentation at the Student Showcase Event.
Check out the video they created for their peers that they played throughout WSS classrooms.
Check out some of the awesome posters they designed and placed around their school.
Team Eco Actions
Team Members:
Kira Tomcheck, Sophi Lawrence, Ella Andrews
Team Mentor: Claire Ruddy


Hi, we are team eco actions! Our group consists of three girls: Kira Tomcheck, Sophi Lawrence and Ella Andrews. We started this project because we wanted to ensure that our peers are well aware of their effects on the environment.
Our vision was to create a platform for the eco club specifically to spread awareness on simple individual actions that you can do in your everyday life. We created an instagram account called @wssecoclub and made posts about all types of issues including fast fashion, packaging, ocean plastic and much more. We struggled with starting off a bit and lacked communication sometimes, but overall we are proud of what we did and hope we inspired people to do their part!
“Project now is a fun way to stay involved with the community while learning lots about working with mentors.”
-Kira Tomcheck
Grade 10 Program Graduate
Check out the awesome logo they designed for WSS eco club!



Check out some of the informational posts they made for the @wssecoclub instagram.



Team Local Government
Team Members:
Hugo Steiner, Thomas Rasmussen, Abbey Mellor, Brooke Romano
Team Mentor: Luisa Burhenne


Our group felt that the most effective way of helping would be focusing our project on local government and transportation issues. We started out our project by researching RMOW’s 6 big moves. Seeing as transportation is Whistler’s biggest source of emissions, it was no surprise that 3 of the big moves were related to transportation. Once we knew what we wanted to focus on we had to decide what our project was going to be and how we were going to reach the community.
Since we are all interested in filmmaking, we decided that the best and most effective way of spreading our message would be to create an informative video promoting the use of public transport and electric vehicles. With the help of our mentor Luisa, we set about contacting relevant stakeholders within the community to see if anyone was willing to provide us with an interview for our video.
“ProjectNow was a great opportunity for me to immerse myself in the world of climate change and the inner working of government policies. I have learned a lot not just from the weekly presentations but also the networking opportunities that put me in touch with people who are very knowledgeable about climate change and other issues. ProjectNow has taught me skills that I will carry through the rest of my environmental career..”
-Thomas Kanitz Rasmussen
Grade 11 Program Graduate
Check out the recording of their presentation at the Student Showcase Event.
2021 Student Showcase
On June 15, 2021, Project NOW hosted our first public Student Showcase to celebrate our amazing program graduates!
Project Now was made possible thanks to funding from the following partners…


