By Kevin Maimann, Edmonton Examiner
September 1, 2010

An Edmonton student advocating for sustainable transportation was one of just four Canadians to take home a $2,500 ECO Canada scholarship last month.

About to enter his first year of engineering at the University of Alberta, 18-year-old Keita Hill has already made great strides by initiating a transportation subcommittee on the City of Edmonton Youth Council.

"There's a good recycling program in this city, I think there's a growing movement toward LEED certified architecture, but we still have so much to do in terms of transportation," Hill says, citing reports that name Edmonton the most car-dependent major city in Canada.
 

In his two years on the youth council, Hill has worked on projects like Wiser is the Path, which maps walking and biking paths on web applications like Google Maps to help people find efficient ways to travel without driving.
 

A dedicated bike commuter, Hill says he's persuaded his parents to buy a Smart Car and a Toyota Prius, and to use them as little as possible.
A key part of his vision is to encourage youth to commit to sustainable transportation options.
 

"If people don't buy a car when they're my age, then they're actually able to sort of commit to the transit network and commit to going car free, and they're all the more likely to stay with those options," he says.

Hill gained a deep appreciation of nature growing up in the Northwest Territories, and took on his first environmental leadership project when he moved to Kyoto, Japan for a year in Grade 6 to get acquainted with his heritage.

Despite speaking very little Japanese, he managed to spearhead a recycling program at his school.
 

Full Story