Classroom Challenge

The Live Net Zero Classroom Challenge

Thank you to all the educators and students who participated in the 2025 Live Net Zero Classroom Challenge! The contest portion of the program closed on November 15, 2025, and we are thrilled to celebrate the incredible effort, creativity, and climate leadership shown by classrooms across Canada. 

Although this year’s contest has ended, the full set of Live Net Zero Classroom activities remain available for download at the Live Net Zero Classroom Challenge Portal. Teachers are welcome to continue using these bilingual, K-6 and 7-12 activities at any time to support classroom learning, climate action, and sustainability initiatives. 

Congratulations to the winners! The prize draw winners for both divisions have now been announced:

K–6 Division
Grand Prize — $2,000 – Janet Leung’s Class (5B) — Stonebridge Public School — Markham, ON
Second Place — $1,000 – Sergii Obraztsov’s Class (Zerorunners) — Immaculate Heart of Mary School — Winnipeg, MB
Third Place — $500 – Pam Drews’ Class (BCS 45) — Base Christian School — Bloomingdale, ON
Participation Prizes — $100 each – Heather Sinclair’s Class (Terrific 2’s) — Agnes Hodge School — Brantford, ON; Lauren Delcourt’s Class (6A) — Kanata Highlands Public School — Ottawa, ON; Lauren Delcourt’s Class (6D) — Kanata Highlands Public School — Ottawa, ON; Erin Richard’s Class (Green Team) — Drake School — Drake, SK; Anne Trepanier’s Class (Pagtape) — Wejgwapniag — Gesgapegiag, QC

7–12 Division
Grand Prize — $2,000 – Caitlin Hilferty’s Class (7/8-1 FI) — Rolling Meadows Public School — Burlington, ON
Second Place — $1,000 – Jeanette Schramm’s Class (CGC1WF 7–12) — Grand River Collegiate Institute — Kitchener, ON
Third Place — $500 – Lisa Laundry’s Class (Kleo – Senior) — Kleos Open Learning — Quesnel, BC
Participation Prizes — $100 each – Christine Russell’s Class (7F 2025) — Walnut Grove PS — Brampton, ON; Peter Murphy’s Class (Global Geography 12 B) — Riverview Rural High School — Coxheath, NS; John Prezio’s Class (Eco Club) — Pope John Paul II — Thunder Bay, ON; Andreanne Lortie’s Class (FRL1W) — École secondaire publique Rockland — Rockland, ON; Caitlin Hilferty’s Class (8-1 FI) — Rolling Meadows Public School — Burlington, ON

Support your students in taking part in climate action through the Live Net Zero Classroom Challenge.

When: September – November 2025

Who: Educators in elementary and high school classrooms across Canada

As part of the multi-week Live Net Zero Classroom Challenge, students take on one or more real-world sustainability challenges, from reducing food waste to rethinking how they get to school; from cutting classroom energy use to celebrating in low-impact ways.

Each challenge is hands-on, curriculum-linked, and tailored to the age group, with bilingual resources available for both elementary and secondary levels.

Educators must register on the portal. Classes then submit what they’ve done to show the impact they’ve made, share their creativity, and celebrate their progress. Along the way, they’re eligible for cash prizes.

Whether your class is taking its first step or already leading the way, Live Net Zero makes it easy to get involved, learn together and make real change happen.

We have 21 activities your class can engage with!

Our Homes & Energy

• Power Down Challenge: Track how devices use energy at school and at home. Create a plan to cut back for a day, explore simple energy-saving habits, and reflect on how it affects energy use, routines, and wellbeing.
• Water-Wise Challenge: Track your water use and explore traditional or cultural connections to water. Create a personal pledge to reduce waste or honour water in your daily life.
• Green Building Challenge: Design a low-impact home, classroom or building using sustainable features. Learn where buildings waste energy and how design choices can reduce environmental impact.
• Cold-Wash Challenge (Take-Home): Try switching to cold-water laundry at home to save energy. Students track and reflect on the experience and share what they learned.

How We Get Around

• Transportation Equity Challenge: Map how to reach important places in your community by walking, biking, transit, and car. Compare options and reflect on the benefits, challenges, and gaps in making transportation accessible and sustainable for everyone.
• My Dream Route Challenge: Imagine and design a safer, greener route to school or another destination in your community. Propose changes that would make streets more accessible, sustainable, and welcoming for everyone.
• Around the World Challenge: Plan a trip between global cities by exploring different routes and travel options. Compare choices like trains, boats, buses, and planes, and consider the trade-offs between speed, cost, convenience, and emissions.
• Getting Around Challenge (Take-Home): Work with your family to try out a more eco-friendly way of getting to school, the store, or another local spot. Reflect on what made it easy, what was tricky, and how your community could support greener travel.

Our Stuff

• Clothing Rewear & Repair Challenge: Choose one piece of clothing to repair, thrift, swap, or restyle. Share its story and reflect on how rewearing and caring for clothes can reduce waste and support more sustainable fashion choices.
• Upcycle Your Stuff Challenge: Repurpose an old or unused item and share the story of its new life. Explore how creative reuse reduces waste, sparks innovation, and gives everyday objects a second chance.
• True Cost Challenge: Investigate the full life cycle of a product and explore its environmental and social impacts. Consider alternatives and share a more sustainable way to meet the same need.
• Stuff Swap Challenge (Take-Home): Host or participate in a swap for toys, clothes, books, or tools. Reflect on how sharing items reduces waste, builds community, and encourages sustainable habits.

Our Food

• Rescue My Lunch Challenge: Track and reduce lunch waste at school. Share ideas, recipes, or strategies for using leftovers and cutting down on food and packaging waste.
• Know Your Food Challenge: Research where your food comes from and explore its journey from production to your plate. Reflect on how food processing, transport, and disposal affect the environment, and how local or seasonal foods can support community resilience.
• Community Food Connections Challenge: Explore local food businesses and community initiatives that support sustainable practices. Reflect on how these connections contribute to environmental sustainability and community resilience.
• Protein Swap Challenge (Take-Home): Try a plant-rich meal with your family and reflect on the experience. Explore new recipes, taste different foods, and consider the environmental impact of protein choices.

How We Celebrate & Play

• Our Traditions Challenge: Reflect on a personal or cultural tradition and explore ways to make it more sustainable while keeping what makes it meaningful.
• Sustainable Celebrations Challenge: Explore ways to celebrate with a lower environmental footprint. Create decorations, cards, or gifts using reused or recycled materials, and reflect on what truly makes celebrations meaningful.
• Nature Restoration Challenge: Take action to restore or care for a local green space. Plant native species, clean up an area, or participate in a citizen science project, and reflect on the benefits for nature and your community.
• Costume & Decor Challenge (Take-Home): Design and create a costume or celebration decor using reused or recycled materials. Share your creation and reflect on how creativity can reduce waste and make celebrations more sustainable.

Video Challenge

• Live Net Zero Video Challenge: A Message to Canadians: Create a short, powerful public service announcement (PSA) that calls for Canadians to step up and take responsibility for a livable future. Show why climate and sustainability action matters, and how people across the country can help create positive change.