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It takes just a few seconds for teacher Aaron Dublenko to scale a ladder leading to the roof of Queen Elizabeth School, where five solar panels are propped toward the bright fall sunshine.

But the story behind those solar panels, and how they ended up on this roof, took years to unfold and hit a crescendo this fall when the school was named the Greenest School in Canada by the Canada Green Building Council.

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It’s a fine accomplishment for a high school just north of the Yellowhead Highway where, Dublenko admits, most students don’t arrive with the intent of pursuing environmental projects.

Somehow, they do. Their projects have included tree-planting blitzes across the city, building solar lanterns to send to post-earthquake Haiti, and installing light sensors throughout the school. In December, a student will travel to Paris to present at the United Nations Climate Change Conference.

“I think we really got recognition for taking students out of the classroom, taking their learning and applying it to real-world settings,” Dublenko said.