Award types
Environmental Award
Recognizes environmental achievements of a larger scale, such as long-term commitments to an organization or cause, leadership, and projects of significant size and complex scope that have a broader community impact.
Environmental Star
Recognizes environmental achievements of a smaller or individual scale that may serve to catalyze larger initiatives and inspire others.
A maximum of 1 Environmental Award and 2 Environmental Stars are awarded per category.
2023 Environmental Awards
Burnaby and Region Allotment Gardens Association, also known as BARAGA, is a not-for-profit association that has been managing and maintaining a community garden in the Big Bend region for 40 years. BARAGA has been serving Burnaby and residents from neighbouring municipalities since 1982 and provides 372 private garden plots, each measuring 1,000 square feet or 93 square metres, divided on a 14.2-acre site leased from the City.
In addition, BARAGA provides horticultural advice and shared experiences for its members and spreads awareness of the natural processes of food growing. The City partnered with BARAGA to establish a publicly accessible community garden and to encourage its residents to grow and process food within the City. The continuous commitment from BARAGA and its members to creating an environmentally sustainable community garden has been instrumental in the success of this project. What started as a small garden initiative has grown to include community-wide interest in growing local food and increased social interaction.
Caio Conradt has been the President of Earthwise Club for two years, spreading awareness on topics like soil degradation, fast fashion, pollution and ocean acidification. Mr. Conradt has organized games and activities like nature walks, water testing, clean ups, making the Bee Garden, and more.
He has managed the Burnaby Mountain Secondary School (BMSS) greenhouses and facilitated bi-weekly workshops on planting, making seed bombs, hoop houses for winter crops and reusing food scraps from the school's cooking classes in a worm bin. Mr. Conradt is also the Youth Committee Head for the Sprouting Chefs Society, helping with Forest Grove Elementary's Garden Club and cooking classes. Through the project Schooling Fish, which he co-founded in 2022, he took students from BMSS on different excursions to increase ocean literacy and to connect with other students from five high schools, including Burnaby North Secondary and Moscrop Secondary.
In addition, Mr. Conradt is an animal care volunteer with the Wildlife Rescue Association of BC, located at Burnaby Lake, where he prepares meals for birds in rehabilitation and cleans and prepares enclosures for injured birds according to their specific needs and diets. Other involvements include volunteering with the Vancouver Avian Research Centre banding birds for migration tracking and being an active alumnus of the Youth to Sea Program by Ocean Wise, helping spread ocean conservation to youth and communities across the Lower Mainland. These involvements have led him to be chosen as one of the Top 25 Environmentalists under 25 by Starfish Canada in 2022 and a finalist for the Nature Inspiration Award by the Canadian Museum of Nature.