C'est Noël, mais sans cadeaux

Photo credit: www.craftypod.com

Le mois de décembre arrive bientôt, la recherche de cadeaux a probablement déjà commencée pour certains d’entre vous et est peut-être même déjà complétée pour d’autres. Offrir un présent à tous nos proches et s’assurer qu’ils l’apprécieront réellement et qu’ils s’en serviront peut s’avérer être une tâche épineuse et difficile. C’est pourquoi on voit souvent ma tante recevoir un parfum qu’elle n’utilisera jamais, grand-maman recevoir une troisième mijoteuse comprenant 2 ou 3 options quétaines de plus, notre petit-frère et ses 20 transformers/dragons/petites voitures/soldats etc. Et pour finir, papa avec son nouveau coffre d’outils complet, parce qu’il a perdu quelques tournevis dans l’ancien.

Le problème, c’est que ces articles en remplacent d’autres qui auraient encore très bien pu servir et qui n’avaient pas à être changés. De plus, la pluparts de ces bidules qu’on achète sont souvent faits à l’étranger et vendus par des firmes multinationales avec des politiques controversées.

Ce que je dis n’est pas d’arrêter complètement l’achat de biens de consommations en guise de cadeaux, mais plutôt de prendre un moment pour s’interroger sur l’utilité et la provenance du produit. Il existe aussi plusieurs alternatives souvent plus originales et probablement plus appréciées par les personnes qui les reçoivent.

Par exemple, en offrant un cadeau expérimental comme un ticket de concert, un billet pour une partie sportives, un saut de parachute, une journée dans un spa, un abonnement dans un club de tout genre, on s’assure d’encourager l’économie locale tout en faisant attention au problème de surconsommation. Et pour ceux qui sont habiles manuellement, faire son propre cadeau peut également être une bonne idée originale et même si c’est complètement inutile, le temps passé à la confection rend le cadeau plus personnel et lui apporte un aspect sentimental et unique. Enfin, si vous êtes a cour d’idées il reste toujours le bon vieux chèque qui, disons-le, est un peu ordinaire, mais très simple, vite fait et versatile.

Il existe beaucoup d’options pour montrer à nos proches que l’on tient à eux autre que des articles de cuisine ou de rénovation cheaps qui brisent après 2 semaines; il s’agit de faire preuve d’un peu de créativité.

-keven

The ECO Friendly E-mail Signature

Photo Credit: Elise Jerrim

When you really get down to it, there is no end to the amount of a green geek that you can be. Case in point, I just changed my e-mail signature to an eco friendly one. How did I do this you ask.... well, let me tell you, there is more than meets the eye when it comes to formatting for the environment. What follows is a list of the common bad practices that people make when creating their e-mail signatures.

But before we get into that, I think I should mention that there are critical elements that you should always have in your email signature. So, always, always, always include your name, your title or position, and how people can contact you. That is basically all you need to have an effective signature, but to make it a green signature, avoid these common mistakes.

1. The cool picture
I have noticed a lot of people ending their signatures with punchy pictures. Although these are really cool for the people who see your signature, not everyone actually can see your picture. Here at the University of Ottawa, student email accounts are not HTML enabled (this is done to save server space). So any picture you send will end up as gibberish.
The Solution: Don't use any pictures in your signature if you can.

2. Colourful text
This was an eco-crime that I was very guilty of. I mean who doesn't like a little colour in their emails. But the thing you have to consider is that some people are going to print the email you are sending them. And if they do print the email, the colour will technically waste more resources (including money... colour copies are super expensive).
The Solution: If you want to use colours for the purpose of differentiation, use different shades of grey. This is a good idea anyways because if the e-mail is printed in black and white, you will have an idea of how the tones of grey are going to look.

3. Vertical lines (skipping lines)
Many people like to separate the information in their email by skipping lines. This does make the signature a lot cleaner but it wastes a bunch of space. Again, think of the idea that someone might print your e-mail. If you add up all those extra lines, we could be talking about hundreds, maybe thousands of pieces of paper over your lifetime.
The Solution: Use a horizontal banner. Rather than using separate lines to space out your text, use a dash or a symbol to separate your text, but do not skip lines. What you will have is a signature that takes as little space as is required.

4. Announcements
The final big thing that I want to mention is the little ads that people add to the end of their signatures. I, for instance, would always add this little line that said "Please consider the environment, don't print this e-mail". I used to think this would remind people to not print the email. In actuality it was more like a distinguishing thing that let people know that I was an environmentalist. And really, I am not sure that it made people print less paper... it did in fact make me super angry every time I saw an e-mail with no reminder.
The Solution: Don't use ads, if you have to just include a link to a website. It will likely take less space and could prompt people to actually follow the link.

Some people have asked me what font they should use to save the environment. I usually say go with Eco Font but really just don't use bold and you should save on ink. And really, that is the true secret to eco friendly signatures, just think about what would use the less amount of resources if someone where to print your e-mail. Here is my new e-mail signature just in case you were wondering.

-jON

What is your waste production’s impact on greenhouse gases? (Part 2)

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo

To recap my last blog on greenhouse gases (GHG’s) and waste:

1. Items sent to landfill NEVER decompose, except organics;
2. When organics decompose in a landfill, they produce methane (20X the impact of CO2);
3. If you choose to compost 1 ton of organics, you will sequester 0.2 tons of CO2;
4. If you choose to send that ton to a landfill, you would create 0.8 tons of CO2

Now let’s talk about uOttawa’s waste production and recycling rate; what do they mean in terms of GHG’s? Do we recycle and compost enough to cover the GHG’s emitted due to waste disposal and landfilling? Before I go on, I must say that whatever the result, nothing needs to be sent to landfill if you choose the right products – nothing will ever make entombing perfectly usable ressources in a landfill reasonable (even sequestering GHG’s!).

Last year, the University sent 1082 tons of waste to the Trail rd. landfill, and 1105 tons of recyclable material (of which 98 tons were organics) to different recycling and reuse plants, programs, etc. which gives us a 51% waste diversion rate. When we plug all these values into the Environment Canada’s GHG’s Calculator for Waste Management, we get the following result (all shown in tons of CO2 equivalent values):

This means that we produced 191 tons (metric) of CO2 during waste disposal, and we sequestered 2,439 tons (metric) of CO2 through our recycling efforts. THAT IS AWESOME! Thank you for recycling! To conclude on my two blogs, recycling (and composting) is the easiest direct action you can take to impact our environment; why don’t you learn to recycle properly on campus? Click here

-brigitte

Quel est l’impact gaz à effet de serre de vos déchets? (Partie 1)

Je trouve que les gens ne sont pas nécessairement conscients de l’impact qu’à leur production de déchets personnelle sur l’environnement. Oui, c’est vrai, la plus part des gens recyclent parce qu’ils ont appris que c’est la bonne chose à faire (ce qui est formidable!) et que nous épargnons beaucoup d’énergie et ressources lors de la production d’un article recyclé (bonus!). 

Mais j’ai souvent le sentiment que les gens agissent comme si le « mouvement » du recyclage est un peu passé. J’utilise des exemples d’étudiants qui ne veulent plus travailler sur des initiatives de recyclage dans leurs écoles (le recyclage est une initiative des années 90’!); ou des personnes qui croient réellement que l’article qu’il ou elle recycle n’aura pas d’impact direct sur l’environnement. Ils se disent : ‘Qu’est-ce que ça fait si je ne recycle pas cette bouteille?’ Ou ‘C’est juste UNE pelure de fruit!’. 

Bien, j’ai des nouvelles pour vous! Cette bouteille et cette pelure ont un impact direct sur l’environnement; si vous recyclez les articles, ils seront transformés en un autre contenant ou produit (éliminant le besoin d’extraire de nouvelles ressources, les transformés, pollué des endroits où il n’y a aucune régulation environnementale ou droits humains, et le transport sera énormément réduit). Si vous choisissez de jeter l’article à la poubelle, l’article sera transporté au dépotoir, et enterré dans un des niveaux de déchets à tout jamais; non, il ne se décompose JAMAIS! Ils ont extrait des papiers journaux des années 50’ dans le site d’enfouissement lors d’un projet d’extraction; il était en parfait état! 

Le seul matériel qui se décompose est la matière organique (tel que la nourriture). Lorsque la matière organique se décompose dans un environnement en l’absence d’oxygène (anaérobique), elle produit du méthane (CH4) qui est 20X plus puissant comme gaz à effet de serre (GES) que le dioxyde de carbone (CO2)! Pour vous donner une idée de la valeur environnementale réelle (et mesurable) de l’action du compostage, à l’aide de la calculatrice GES pour la gestion des déchets (merci Environnement Canada!), pour chaque tonne de matériel organique composté au lieu d’être envoyé au site d’enfouissement, nous retirons 0.2 tonnes de CO2 de l’atmosphère (carbone est entreposé dans le sol). 

Si nous envoyons cette même tonne de matière organique au site d’enfouissement au lieu de la composter, nous produisons et relâchons 0.8 tonnes de CO2 dans l’atmosphère! Composter est une action directe FACILE avec un immense impact sur l’environnement; donc, est-ce que c’est vraiment juste UNE pelure de bananes?

-brigitte

Maybe I Will Become a Snow(wo)man

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo

Hi, my name is Katherine and I am a cycling addict. I bike to school/work every day of the week, rain or shine, though I much prefer the shine. During the summer, I could proudly wear my tight biking shorts, biking shirt and red helmet and zoom through the Gatineau Park like a pro.

Now that the temperature ranges between -2 and -10 (at 7 am and 6 pm), those shorts have joined my bikini and sun hat and out came the long johns and gloves. As much as I felt somewhat attractive this summer, now I feel like a duly padded snow(wo)man: I wear a breathable jacket with long johns, uber warm gloves, a wool scarf and a pink tuque. I could deal with the whole thing until I had to add a tuque under my helmet. I’m toasty warm going down les Allumettières, but I sure hope I don’t meet anyone I know.

By the time I reach campus (12 km later), I have a runny nose, a frozen tushy (and yet sweaty armpits) and only a secure bike storage standing between my hot coffee and I. But this is only the beginning of a thread of cold bike rides, though I’m debating putting my bike through slush and salt, I’d feel bad for it. I would love to be able to bike year-round as it is my downtime, work out and transportation all combined into one awesome sport! Ah, dear bicycle, I shall miss thee!

-kath

Stick that gum somewhere else!

Photo Credit: www.privilegedclub.com

All of last week and most of this week, several employees at the University of Ottawa have been peeling old gum off all those exam tables that will be placed in the gyms. That is disgusting! You mean to tell me that people cannot wait until they are done their exam and throw out their gum? Then some of those people complain that everything is expensive, or that there is not enough money for those things that they care about at the University…well, maybe if staff weren’t forced to waste over seven days of work to peel off every single piece of gum off of thousands of exam tables, these funds could be used on those things that they care so much about! 

Let’s break that down: four to five people for over 7 days of work…about $ 6,000+. What’s worse; imagine that you had to spend over 50 long hours scratching at old gum on the backs of tables, or cleaning up a mess in residences (you cannot even imagine the worst of them)… any volunteers?

The next time you are writing an exam, and feel the need to get rid of your flavourless gum, just think of the person who is going to have to scratch it off. Just wrap it (in a piece of anything!) and please wait until you can throw it out.

-brigitte

“You are the leaders of tomorrow!”

My dear, old French teacher in high school would pointedly announce periodically throughout the semesters, during which he taught 15, 16 and 17 year olds. Mind you, I have another old high school teacher who recently quoted K. Vonnegut on Facebook, “True terror is to wake up and discover your high school class is running the country.” Mixed messages- but they motivated this blog.

Recently, my Environmental Approaches to Geographical Issues course had a mock United Nations Framework Convention on Climatic Change- the class was divided into groups and each was assigned a country to represent in a Conference of Parties to discuss possible mitigation and adaptation policies that were previously set out in a “University of Ottawa Accords 2011”. I’m sure some of you have experienced similar simulations, especially if you are in a political sciencey program of study, but this was my first “debate-style” presentation.

I want to congratulate all of the students that took part in the mock conference (and of course Prof. Jackie Dawson); a lot of work was put into researching countries and attempting to come up with feasible policies which I had not honestly expected. You know those awkward “class discussions” where the prof generally has to spur conversation and usually only one or two students contribute at all or the contributions are not really relevant at all? Well, this mock debate gave me faith in our “future leaders”. Some students in the course have actually attended some UNFCC/similar conferences and really knew their stuff; others clearly researched their countries and got into character. There were some tense moments and I think I can speak for the entire class and say that we now have an appreciation for the difficulty in decision-making especially concerning such a complex subject as climate change.

If you were wondering what sort of policies we discussed:

• The reduction of GHG emissions (much debate on the %, baseline year, annex 1 vs annex 2 requirements, and the associate tariffs per tonne overage)
• Whether countries reliant on oil production as a main source of economic income or growth should be exempt from these regulations (created quite an outcry from most countries)
• Policies regarding Cap and Trade global emissions trading systems
• Clean Development Mechanisms as a means to promote transfer of technology from Annex 1 countries to Annex 2 countries
• Developing climate refugee immigration programs
• Adaptation Fund allocation and those able to claim from it discussion and negotiation

As a representative of the Maldives, the small islands country that will be the first to experience major effects of sea level rise—we were adamant about the last two points in particular. I am kind of thankful now for the whole process. I think that it is important that as students, we get the chance to be a part of these kinds of discussions and to walk in another person's shoes.

-meriss.

http://thesustainabilitree.blogspot.com

Des jeunes qui ont choisi de vivre sans déchets pour un an? | Youth choosing to live waste free for a year?

Absolutely amazing! I just had to talk about these four Kamloops, BC-based youth who have chosen to take the challenge of living waste free for one whole year. Inspirés par le projet Clean Bin (The clean bin project: http://www.cleanbinmovie.com/), ils se sont promis de vivre sans magasinage, articles matériels, ni le luxe des emballages jetables. How many of you (at the age of 18) would have thought that living waste-free for a year was possible? Ça ne m’aurait même pas traversé l’esprit à 18 ans!

Almost a year ago, Marie-Pierre and I pledged to live waste-free for two months, which was a wonderful learning experience. Je planifie déjà mon prochain défi de vivre sans déchets lors de la compétition RecycloManie 2012 (devrais-je prolongée mon défi à 10-12 semaines?) Anyone interested in joining me? (I am just saying if these four champs can do it for a year; what’s one or two months?)

Check out their blog at: http://nottrashyreport.blogspot.com and encourage them to keep going.

Voici leur blogue: http://nottrashyreport.blogspot.com; encouragez-les de poursuivre leur aventure.

-brigitte

http://thesustainabilitree.blogspot.com

Trick or Eat

Photo credit: Marie-Pier Demers

Je viens de manger mon tout dernier bonbon d’Halloween. mmm. Trop vieille vous dites? Bien sûr. J’ai franchi, il y a longtemps, l’âge acceptable pour passer l’Halloween. Cependant, il existe un évènement absolument génial qui m’offre la parfaite excuse pour me déguiser et faire du porte à porte chaque 31 octobre. Trick or Eat, ça vous dit quelque chose?

Le but de Trick or Eat est de redéfinir l’Halloween pour les plus grands en une collecte de denrées non-périssables pour les banques alimentaires. Des milliers d’étudiants y participent chaque année dans des centaines de villes en Amérique de Nord.

Cette fois-ci, au lieu d’aider la Banque Alimentaire de la FÉUO, j’ai décidé d’aider celle de mon quartier. Mon copain, ma sœur, des amis de longue comme de courte date et même un « Couch Surfer » Australien ce sont joint à mon équipe. Sous le pseudonyme de « Dead Samaritains » nous avons fait le tour des rues de Westboro déguisés en zombies sanguinaires! En plus du montant de 350$ amassé auprès de commanditaires sur internet dans les jours précédents l’Halloween, nous avons remplis deux gros paniers d’épiceries de dons!

Les gens sont parfois un peu surpris quand ils nous aperçoivent au lieu des mignons petits enfants qu’ils s’attendent à voir sur le pas de leur porte mais ils sont, pour la plupart, ravi de nous offrir quelques cannes de conserve… et une tonne de bonbons en bonus!

Trick or Treat fut, encore une fois, une vraie partie de plaisir. On est jamais trop vieux pour s’impliquer dans notre communauté, donner de la vie aux bonnes vieilles traditions et mêler l’utile à l’agréable.

Pensez-y pour l’an prochain!

- Marie-Pier

http://thesustainabilitree.blogspot.com

SUDCOM... the geek out edition

WARNING: about to geek out really hard. Beware.

It is already pretty impressive when I get to explain to people what I do here at the Sustainability Office on Campus. I can rave for hours about how great it is to be working in a field that is legitimately connected to my field of study- how applicable what I learn in the classroom is to my some of the projects I am working on here at the office. Beware, I am about to go on one of those tangents… concerning the Sustainable Development Committee (SUDCOM) at the University of Ottawa.

The committee is comprised of three faculty, five admin staff, two students, and two community members and its role is to provide advice and insight to uOttawa’s Administrative Committee on matters related to best practices and socially responsible behaviour. This boils down to being a committee of persons who seek to make our campus green.

The first meeting took place during reading week and went really well—luckily for myself, being that I had spent the last portion of the summer attempting to recruit members who seemed most adequate for the task. It proved difficult at times but I am happy with the end result and they all seem excited and enthused by the tasks ahead of them.

The committee is going to be setting goals for sustainability themes on campus, some goals already exist but they are reaching the end point of their timeline (2012). Ten themes exist which will have new goals created by the SUDCOM and they are:

Energy, Water, Waste, Food, Greenspace and Buildings, Emissions, Economy, Community, Sustainable Transportation and Curriculum

Personally, I get to help facilitate these meetings that committee members attend, help generate ideas for new five year goals and act as a resource for the working groups that will eventually be created to work on the objectives that will aid in successfully completing these goals. The implementation of projects such as bottled water free, the mechanical composter, and the Upass have been accomplished by the committee in the past. It may be a long, arduous process but in the meantime I get to throw planning terms such as “mixed-scanning approach” that I learned in Natural Resource Management. Huzzah!

-merissa

http://theSustainabilitree.blogspot.com

Back When I was a Kid, Halloween was Waste Free !!!

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo

I love Halloween with a passion. I plan my costume months in advance, coordinate with my boyfriend so that we can make an awesome duet. Last year we dressed up as Cesar and Cleopatra, along with bronzer and sandals (yes, it was cold). This year, we are dressing up as the Queen of Hearts and the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland. We ransacked our wardrobes and hit the local Value Village and found that awesome costumes could easily be made from scratch: I wore a long red skirt I had made for a costume a few years ago, went all out on the blue eye shadow and heart-shaped lips, taped hearts to my skirt, wore a tiara I had from my birthday party and made a staff with a stick and cardboard hearts.

Pretty simple, eh? It took some time to assemble everything, but those pre-made, plastic wrapped costumes just don’t do it for me. Partially because the fabric is really cheap and practically rips looking at it, but also because I’ll only wear the trashy little red riding hood costume once…and it’s hard to modify as all the pieces of the outfit are stitched together. I’d much rather mix and match and have something I can re-use. Call me old-fashioned, but I like hanging on to nice things (good quality clothes) and busting them out for parties.

Besides factory made costumes, the fact that every candy distributed needs to be individually wrapped in layers and layers of plastic does make me vomit a little in the back of my mouth. I absolutely understand the hygienic and safety issues (needles in apples…for example) and have been thinking of alternative ways of distributing candy on Halloween night. If you have any ideas, feel free to jot them down in the comments, I’d love to hear ‘em!

Lastly, I don’t want to brag but! My boyfriend and I carved the coolest pumpkins ever. The first one (on the top step) has great big eyes and flaring nostril, as well as a huge mouth spewing pumpkin seeds and goo into the awaiting mouth of our second pumpkin (on the step below) which is on its back, with its mouth overflowing with nasty goo. My better half enjoyed adding big spoonfuls of it onto the porch steps.

Good luck getting past those two party animals, kiddo!

-katherine

http://thesustainabilitree.blogspot.com

The Hidden Life of Disposable Cups

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo

About 3 years ago the Brige (our waste diversion coordinator) found out that we use about 6,500 disposable coffee mugs on campus every day. If we stacked those mugs end to end, those mugs would be 7 times higher than the Peace Tower of the parliament building. Stacked side to side that would be enough coffee cups to cover ten tennis courts.

Now it has been a couple of years since we checked up on the number of disposable coffee mugs used on campus daily but the odds are that this number has gone up. So what's the solution? How can we get people to use fewer disposable mugs? First thing to do is to flip the question on it's head. Why would people want to use a disposable mug? Well it turns out that there are many reasons.

For one, all the disposable mugs are branded. That means there is an associated status that goes along with the cup. You know... that really expensive logo that indicates that you are better than all those other doops that drink the coffee of the commoners. A few years ago the students in the Faculty of Law wanted to have a Second Cup in the Fauteux Building because it was of better quality than the generic Chartwell's stuff. When the Desmarais building was built, Starbucks was a "must" because that is what trendy business people drink. Sure, you could just buy a reusable branded mug but they are usually super expensive.

Next, disposal mugs are very convenient. Let's face it, you don't have to drag around a dirty mug everywhere you go. Disposable mugs even have those little sleeves that protect your hands. How cute. But most of all they are more mobile, which is more convenient for your busy lifestyle. You can zip from class to class with no worries.

And on the stranger side of arguments..., I have even heard the arguments that the disposable mug makes the coffee taste better and that it cools the coffee down to just the right temperature before you drink it.

So now that we know a bit about the appeal of the disposable cup, we can start to talk about the solutions. I guess the first thing to do is make disposable mugs incredibly uncool and socially awkward. There are studies out there that show that people buy the Toyota Prius much more than any other hybrid because it looks like a hybrid (most other hybrids look like normal cars, nothing special) and so everyone else knows how environmentally friendly the owner is. So basically we need to do the same thing with reusable mugs.

Just as an aside, one really interesting idea I heard was to have warning labels on the side of disposable cups. You know, just like the ones on the side of cigarette packages. "Warning: this cup contributes significantly to the destruction of the environment"

Second, we need to reduce the convinience cost for disposable mugs. This is a tough one because it is hard to undo the convieniece of something that is... well.... very convenient. One thing to do is to change the pricing structure of disposable mugs so that the convinience cost is offset by the financial cost. An easy fix is to reverse the benefits structure so that rather than offering a discount for using a reusable mug, have a tax for disposable ones. This will push people to bring a mug in order to avoid being taxed (even if the cost is the same as what they have always been paying).

Another neat solution that fights fire with fire is the idea of mug hotels. Cafe Alt has a little nook where you can leave your mug until the next time you stop by for a coffee. The picture below is of the Cafe Ecolo where they have increased the convinience of reusable mugs by placing mugs right beside the coffee dispensers. What could be easier that grabbing a mug just as you are about to pour your coffee? Muggy Mondays is yet another example of how if you put things out there for people, they will take advantage of the convinience (in this case free coffee with you have a mug).

And finally, a little education can go a long way. Focusing on little details that will make people second guess the health and environmental costs of disposable cups can be very powerful. What about the potential chemical load of all that plastic and wax? What about the rapidly depleting space in landfills?

There are a lot of things that can be done to reduce the number of disposable mugs out there. But the first thing is to reset your mind frame. These cups are more damaging than one might think, and not just to the ecosystem. A survey in Eastern Canada about litter revealed that Tim Hortons coffee mugs were considered the most popular form of visual pollution. So next time you are at a home and about the rush out to your busy day, think about popping that mug into your bag.

-jON

http://thesustainabilitree.blogspot.com