Claire Lee
2025 Youth Climate Activism Award - Essay Entry
Clair Lee is a 15 year old from BC.
Eco-Palette received second place in the student vote by Brookside Elementary students (5-12 years)!
I learned about the value of nature young. My dad took me outside often to appreciate my surroundings, and he constantly encouraged me to help care for the community. We’d test creek water, and paint yellow fish at storm drains. We’d plant trees, and help get rid of invasive species like Himalayan blackberry bushes. And, afterward, he’d take me to explore fisheries and go for hikes to remember what we were working to protect. This is when my interest in the environment began.
I signed up to be an Earth Ranger and spent my 8th birthday knocking on doors with my friends, collecting all my neighbours’ loose change to fundraise. I strived to be more like Greta Thunberg, who was my role model as a child, and I found myself at the city’s nature centre so much that I ended up in their paper!
To my disappointment, there wasn’t much an 8-year-old could do to save the world from what seems like our awaited defeat to climate change. So, I took a different route.
I started art lessons when I was 5, and it quickly became my passion. Every Wednesday after-school, I’d go to art school and spend a couple hours working on the given ‘assignment’. We ultimately had freedom, which I took advantage of, to paint pieces depicting my interpretation of climate change. During these classes, we worked with watercolours the most because of its fluidity and versatility, but I couldn’t help but notice the water waste that remained after class.
Litres of dirty, paintbrush-rinsing water was going down the drain every class. Water that could have been used for something greater. So, I took matters into my own hands to create Eco-Palette. Eco-Palette is a watercolour paint that is sustainable, eco-friendly and packed with nutrients for plants. After painting, artists can throw the remaining water used to clean brushes in their lawns or houseplants!
In creating Eco-Palette, I surveyed teen artists to discover similar interests in the targeted issues, I reached out to other art companies with aligning values and missions, and made multiple prototypes, backed by endless research, all to create a final product. A product that nurtures the environment but doesn’t compromise artistic quality for sustainability. Not only are the paints non-toxic to plants, they’re also kid and animal friendly.
The results of the Eco-Palette project hold significant meaning for both the art and environmental community. By successfully developing watercolour paints infused with plant nutrients, Eco-Palette offers a sustainable solution to reduce the environmental impact of traditional painting practices while keeping artistic expression alive. I got to take Eco-Palette to the 2024 South Fraser Regional Science Fair, as well as the 2024 Youth Innovation Showcase, where I became a semi-finalist. I got to turn my passion, art, and the core of my interests, the environment, into a project that I am extremely proud of, and I’m grateful for this opportunity to showcase it.
Watch Claire’s present her Eco Palette Watercolour Paint to the Youth Innovation Showcase.
Claire’s project board on Youth Science Canada.
You can see my YIS project submission here if you’d like to see the digital portion of my submission where I go more in-depth about Eco-Palette.
“ I think all people need is a little push and positive peer pressure to realize that they can make a big impact for the community.”
~Claire Lee
As part of the submissions application we asked participants to answer these 3 questions in addition to their essay or video.
What future goals do you have around your environmental and climate work, and do you have any future projects in mind?
I love discovering problems and finding solutions and I'm going to keep innovating to create sustainable solutions for real-world problems. I'll keep creating artwork to visualize the impact of global warming and spark awareness, and encourage my artistic peers to do the same.
At home, I want to consistently reflect sustainability by practicing a greener lifestyle, and I will continue to find volunteer opportunities to give back to the environment.
If you could share one message of hope for your community, what would it be? Briefly explain why you would choose this message.
There are so many little ways that we can help our community, just by making the extra steps to throw out garbage and keep the streets clean, or taking shorter showers to reduce water waste. When it's just one person, the effects are minimal, but when we work together, we can make things happen. Small actions make big change.
I think all people need is a little push and positive peer pressure to realize that they can make a big impact for the community.
Who or what inspires you to work on climate change?
My earliest memories are those of my dad bringing me outside for walks in the forest behind our home in Ottawa. We'd admire the falling leaves in autumn, and the luscious greenery in spring. He brought me on adventures; took me camping in the summers, and sight-seeing at Niagara Falls. My earliest memories are those of my dad teaching me early on that the world around me is beautiful, and never limited.
Now, dad takes me backpacking, to enjoy nature, and on garbage pick-up walks, to protect it. My dad helped spark my curiosity for the environment, and he gives me inspiration to give back to the community in any way, just as he does.