The Energy Diet Challenge…the winner is…

Our role as mentors to the six families has been an amazing journey; we blogged, posted, tweeted and commented along with the six families chosen from across Canada in this national contest co-sponsored by Canadian Geographic and Shell Canada.

Kitchen-Kuiack Family - Yup, they won a new Toyota Prius Hybrid

After 3 months of intensive competition AND conservation the wining family has finally emerged. The Kitchen-Kuiack family from the Yukon was able to learn, adjust, modify, and adapt their choices and routines to conserve an impressive amount of energy and water.

Household Electricity: 34%
Home heating (in a very cold climate): 33%
Cooking fuel: 51%
Transportation Fuel: 10%
Water: 57%

All of this was achieved through simple inexpensive means. The other 5 families also produced similar conservation numbers. This goes to show that these levels of conservation are possible for most Canadian families.

From following all six families on their conservation journey, it was apparent that they were all having fun and growing closer as a family. Conservation didn’t mean that they had to give up everything that was important to them…it just meant that they changed their habits, routines and programming.

The six motivated families did an amazing amount of dot connecting between energy, water, resources, packaging, toxic materials, biodiversity, nature, food, local economics, community, family, efficiency, phantom loads, task lighting, low flow, kWh, solar, re-cycling, re-using, second hand, homemade, embodied water, embodied energy, transportation, etc.

Gord and I are so proud of these families and feel honoured to have been able to share their journey.

Gilles Gagnier (Canadian Geographic), Currie Dixon (Yukon's Minister of the Environment), and Ashley Nixon (Shell Canada Ecologist)

We were also privileged to have worked with a great group of people from Shell Canada and Canadian Geographic and especially Lauren Mangion (eco-coach) from Conscious Homes in Calgary who did a fantastic job in designing the families journey.

We learned that regular people can conserve HUGE amounts of water and energy without giving up their quality of life…in fact they achieve a better quality of life as they develop closer relationships with their families, their communities, and the earth’s resources.

Now we know what IS possible…what are you waiting for?

All the stories and links are still available on the Canadian Geographic website. Pick a family and follow all their posts/videos and their unique journey from the beginning to the last post. Conservation alone won’t solve the climate crisis but it is a BIG step in the right direction. You can also check out lots of information in the energy section and read all of the Eco-Sense posts. Here are the links: