The Live Net Zero Classroom Challenge features five themes with hands-on activities designed to connect learning with action. Each challenge invites students to investigate, create, and reflect—while making positive changes in their school, homes, and communities. There is also a video challenge which is unique among the bunch!
Below, you’ll find brief descriptions of each challenge. Every activity is ready to use, easy to implement, and available in English and French. Download the full activity for complete instructions, and be sure to register for your educator account to submit your class’s completed challenges through the educator portal.
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. (download full activity)
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. (download full activity)
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. (download full activity)
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. (download full activity)
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. (download full activity)
My Dream Route Map 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. (download full activity)
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. (download full activity)
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. (download full activity)
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. (download full activity)
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. (download full activity)
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. (download full activity)
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. (download full activity)
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. (download full activity)
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. (download full activity)
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. (download full activity)
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. (download full activity)
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. (download full activity)
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. (download full activity)
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. (download full activity)
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. (download full activity)
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. (download full activity)
- Please download the release form specific to the video challenge here.
Why the Challenges Matter
Every challenge is more than an activity—it’s a chance for students to learn by doing, connect lessons to their lives, and see how collective small actions lead to big change. By participating, classrooms across Canada are not only competing for prizes but also shaping a more sustainable future together.