Windsor family close to $50K grand prize in Live Net Zero competition

The efforts of a Windsor family which has taken "environmentally friendly" to a whole new level are being rewarded.

The Waddell-Shankland family has been named finalists in a national competition to live a lifestyle that would get the seal of approval from Mother Nature.

According to Crystal Waddell, the family bikes everywhere and does not own a car. They also don't have air conditioning and are trying to go one year without buying anything new.

These are some of the reasons they were chosen as one of eight finalists in the new competition by Canadian Geographic called Live Net Zero.

"All the contestants get $5,000 from Canadian Geographic right off the bat ... so you go through a series of six challenges around greening your home and some other things," said Waddell.

"If you are the winner of the full competition, you get $50,000 which you can put toward greening in your home."

The most difficult part around greening their home, Waddell explained, is becoming more efficient on energy.

"Our walls are double-wide which two layers of brick. There's no insulation. It's an old 1940's house," she said.

Becoming more energy-efficient is going to take some hard work and research.

"Everything has a carbon footprint. So if you're going to be doing anything, somebody had to ship it, produce it and burn oil to make it," said Luke Shankland.

The closer the family gets to becoming net-zero, the closer they will be to winning the $50,000 grand prize.

"We wanted to learn more about this and hopefully we can share it and other people can learn something too," said Shankland, adding rebates are one big perk of maintaining a greener lifestyle.

"You don’t have to spend much money and, all of a sudden, you've got much lower electricity bills and just an overall cheaper life."

As for Crystal Waddell, she said these efforts are all worth it in the end — for their family and community.

"We're thinking about seven generations ahead," she said.