Launched by Canada World Youth in 2006, Green Miles is a bold environmental project through which our Canadian and foreign participants plant trees to offset the carbon dioxide generated during their international flights.

The trees are planted at the centre of the Canadian and international communities that host our groups of young people during their programs. Using a formula developed with the Tree Canada Foundation (download the pdf), participants calculate the number of trees needed to neutralize the carbon dioxide emitted during their flights.

In the fall of 2006, three teams, each made up of twenty African and Canadian participants, planted 1,250 trees in the Canadian communities of Granby, Quebec, and Fergus-Elora and Thornbury, Ontario. Over the next twenty years, the trees planted through this project will absorb the quantity of carbon dioxide equivalent to the amounts produced during their round trip flights, thereby offsetting the carbon emissions of their travels from Canada to Africa!

In order to expand the Green Miles project, CWY Canadian and Kenyan participants will plant trees in Canada and overseas in 2007-2008. The project will also include environmental education for CWY participants, and public engagement via interactive workshops and presentations.

In Ontario, young people will plant trees in partnership with the Tree Canada Foundation on the Sudbury land reclamation site, a spot once so barren that astronauts used it to simulate the moon! CWY’s Kenyan partner, KENVO (Kijabe Environment Volunteers), which specializes in reforestation, will organize an overseas planting operation in the community of Kimede Township, Kenya.

Remarkable concrete results

The Green Miles Project is an ecological and educational project with a remarkable impact on the participants and their host communities. It allows CWY to:

• reduce the ecological footprint of CWY and its groups of young people
• promote responsibility among participants and educate them about environmental issues
• help participants and their host communities set up similar environmental initiatives.

Why Green Miles?

Canada World Youth wants to do its part to combat climate change. Green Miles, which was created by CWY’s environmental committee, is in line with both our mission - to support the development of sustainable societies - and our commitment to promoting respectful environmental practices.

For us, it is particularly important to take responsibility for our share of flight pollution. Because they are emitted at such high altitudes, the hazardous emissions generated by planes have a greater impact on the climate than those produced at ground level. The popularity of air transportation is also growing exponentially, so air pollution is on the rise and contributing more and more to climate instability.

Finally, it is important to note that the carbon emissions produced by air transportation are not addressed in the Kyoto Protocol. This means that no countries, companies, nor individuals are currently held legally responsible for the massive amounts of carbon dioxide (the major greenhouse gas) pumped into the atmosphere by air travel. The Green Miles Project educates people about the dangers of climate change while introducing the exciting and innovative idea of carbon neutralization. It also gives participants and their communities an opportunity to implement concrete measures promoting sustainable development.

Green Miles in the news

Montreal’s daily newspaper, The Gazette, highlighted the dedication of CWY’s Environmental Committee to “green” the organization by featuring The Green Miles Project in a January 2007 article.