David Lululemon Suzuki vs. Waste Free

Recycling is the Lululemon of sustainability. It’s hip. I always get a little thrill when I toss some paper into the blue bin. But there is more to recycling than those bins. We have something called Free Stores on campus where people donate clothes, binders, books, kitchenware and much more, and then we give them away.... For FREE. Yes, that’s right, FREE!

This week, I went by the Free Store to help out, and consequently walked away with a pair of rad boots, that only need a little mending on the sole, but that are sooooo comfortable. They’re like foot cocoons. If this sounds appealing, then you may be interested in participating during RecycleMania (an inter university competition in which recycling and waste production is monitored and compared to other universities in North America). 

And if that's not enough, we are also hosting a Lunch and Learn on February 2nd, during which Brigitte will speak about the Live Waste Free pledge. You can sign up for a week if you want to try it out. Or if you like a challenge, sign up for the whole two months. 

To help you along the way, Brigitte will be taking out all the pledgers to a grocery shopping trip in the market to show how easy it is to buy food without all the plastic excess (February 5th). Aaaand did I mention the prize? It’s a secret, but it’s awesome. 

As you can see, recycling can be pretty exciting. Beat that Lululemon!
You can learn more about RecycleMania on our website.

~ kath - campus sustainability coordinator
photo credit - jonathan rausseo

Forced to Live Waste Free for a Week

Jon has proposed a one-week waste free challenge for my next post. I secretly want to refuse, but my childhood shrieks to my parents of “What about the whales!” echo in my head. Instead I ask for a guide and am provided with this: http://www.sustainable.uottawa.ca/recycling.html. Realize quickly that this guide still allows for waste and ask for clarification on ‘contaminated papers’ and dental floss. Turns out floss is a plastic (good to know) and ‘contaminated papers’, which I assume also include used tissue (cleverly polite guide!), are compost.

Realize the location of my city-issued compost bin is unknown to me. Decide that starting a waste free challenge at 11pm on a Sunday is not ideal as it would mean riffling through my garage in -20 to find my green bin. Also, procrastination is fun. And the week always starts on a Monday, right?

Commit to waste free week. Starting tomorrow.

Day 1: Have decided to approach my waste free week by going on the offensive. If I don’t create waste then I don’t have to worry about disposing of it in a non-wasteful way. Seriously consider bringing back the handkerchief, and then contemplate consequences. The battle between my germaphobia and environmental aspirations has begun.

My plan immediately fails when I eat a banana for breakfast and realize I must compost the peel.

I learn the location of my green bin. It is buried under a heap of my brother’s car tools and spare parts, and was most certainly never going to be at risk of being used. The sticker announcing the start of the green bin program reminds me that I’ve had this bin for two years. I emerge from the garage coated in car grease and bleeding quite liberally from one hand, but I am now able to ethically dispose of my banana peel.

Soaked through first band-aid quite quickly. Re-applied, but am left with soiled band-aid that I must dispose of ethically. Google is useless. It is beyond useless, as it is telling me band-aids are 100% waste. Jon has said waste does not exist for me for the next 7 days. I hope wonder if there is a flaw in waste-free week. I do what any sensible person can do while clutching a soiled bandage and staring at the three bins that are my only options. I tweet @uottawasustain and ask them what to do. I wait. I find out I have posed an excellent question, and that it has been kicked upstairs to the ‘waste specialist’. I go on with my day, leaving the soiled bandage to its fate on the counter. I later receive another reply. I must take apart the band-aid and separate the cotton from the plastic. Oh waste-free week, you are disgusting.

Go to Second Cup with a friend, and without thinking order myself a tea. I remember to order my tea to stay in. I think to myself "I don’t have to bring this cup home and compost it as a contaminated paper". I feel proud of myself. I am getting the hang of this. As the barrista hands me my mug of tea, I stared down at the teabag inside and realize what I’ve done. When we leave, I sigh deeply and pick up the tea bag, wrapping it in a (soon to be composted as well) napkin. It quickly soaks through. I must wring out the tea bag and napkin, wrap it up again, and, while fighting the urge to wave awkwardly and inform the cafe that there is nothing to see here, drop the damp tea bag into my coat pocket. I spend my 40 minute bus ride home hoping the tea does not soak through. When I go to dispose of the tea bag, after identifying it’s various components (string, tab, and leaves in compost, bag in plastic) the whole thing explodes all over the kitchen floor.

Accidental garbage use and subsequent retrieval: 3

Day 2: Have not left house. All recycling and composting needs are at my fingertips. I am rocking my waste-free week today.

One dilemma: is the packaging of a Knorr Sidekicks contaminated paper or plastic? Mission to eat foods packaged in easily recyclable containers fails on its first night.

Accidental garbage use and subsequent retrieval: 0

Day 3: Plan to hide at home with my recycling and composting bins was so successful yesterday that I am doing it again. Incidentally, overall life productivity has gone up now that I no longer feel like popping off to a café for tea.

Jon has taken issue with my hide-from-the-challenge plan. He wants me to go out and try to find only recyclable products to use while on the go. I explain the failed incident of the tea bag. He suggests guerilla composting.

Guerilla composting is the idea that since it will all decompose anyway, one can merely ‘compost’ in a discreet location outdoors, such as a bush.

It occurs to me: I DIDN’T NEED TO CARRY A WET TEA BAG HOME IN MY POCKET.
Waste-free week is laughing at me. I can hear it.

Accidental garbage use and subsequent retrieval: 1

Day 4: Plan to safely survive waste-free week by hiding in my house has been foiled by work. Thankfully I left the house prepared—with a bag to carry home my compost and recycling, thus sparing my pocket further humiliation. Said bag also made me the subject of ridicule among my co-workers, who helpfully suggested I just throw my stuff out at the store instead of taking it home, and then stared in shock as I explained waste-free week to them. Shock, ridicule, and incomprehension being the top three responses to this project; support comes in at a very distant fourth.

It is with great relief that I headed home to the comfort of my compost bin and handy recycling box.

Tomorrow will be a long day away from home, but it’s ok. I have a baggy now.

Accidental garbage use and subsequent retrieval: 1

Day 5: Did not need to use baggy today. Instead, I first convinced my friend to take up composting again, and then I got her started by sending her home with my muffin wrap and some damp paper towel.

Remembered not to order tea at all today, and found out that the World Exchange Plaza has a bin for organic and biodegradable waste. It’s the small things that make me want to weep less.

I am getting the hang of this.

But then came the arrival of a book, helpfully packaged in paper and bubble wrap, all glued together. I figured, no worries, I shall play this out Band-Aid style. Of course, I should have known: why would waste-free week let me off that easy?

It wouldn’t, is what.

My counter is now covered in tiny pieces of plastic and paper. I am desperately searching for yet another corner that I can attempt to pull from. I have none. Feel like complete environmental disaster. The whales will have to go on without my help. I don’t have the nails for ethical living!

I refuse to give up to an envelope. Instead, I throw the whole thing into the recycling bin. If someone wants to prove the outer layer wasn’t plastic, they are welcome to rip it to shreds themselves.

Accidental garbage use and subsequent retrieval: 0 (Hahahahahahaha!)

Days 6 and 7: Didn’t leave house (proven method). When waste-free week came to an end quietly on Sunday night, I considered celebrating with a shower of glitter. Realized I would have to clean up glitter afterwards (impossible) and abandoned plan. Also, is glitter recyclable?


Day 1 after waste-free week: Still composting and recycling like I can’t throw stuff out. The past week was painful, but I’ve got some great new habits to be proud of.

~ eleni - associate editor, ottawa arts review

photo credit: jonathan rausseo

Plastic Island

It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no, it’s a massive floating plastic island of sustainability!

It has been a while since I have graced this blog with my presence- my apologies, hopefully I can make it up to you (or at least to my boss).

A while ago I wrote about my Enviro class that did a mock Conference of Parties on Climate Change and mentioned that my group represented the Maldives, a small island nation that is well… doomed, in short. The inhabitants are already experiencing frequent flooding in most areas, the reserves of fresh water are dwindling and severe climatic events, etc. The result will be a population of climate refugees that will seek somewhere to go in the near future (the island is expected to be the first nation made uninhabitable by climate change because on average the elevation is only 1.5m above sea level).

Our group came up with multiple solutions but my personal favourite was built off the idea that they could buy new real estate in another country and move their nation and population there, which would undoubtedly cause much social upheaval but potentially be easier in terms of maintaining identity if the civilization was adequately kept intact. I’m no sociologist, anthropologist, etc. but it makes sense to me anyways… other than the issue of finding some real estate. Who the heck would be up for giving a piece of their land away, in spite of how sparsely populated or much money they received?

Solution! I am not sure how legit this is but a Netherlands architecture group has this scheme to create an island out of all that plastic floating around in the ocean. My non-ENV/GEG friends can learn about this astounding floating gyre of plastic here. WHIM architecture suggests the development of this plastic into an island in the North Pacific Gyre, north-east of Hawaii and has achieved a grant for research.

Intriguing, if it works maybe it could house them Maldivians I got so worked up over last semester. I kind of think that we might have to beef up our plastics recycling program if this is going to work.

See plastic island proposal.

~merissa - campus sustainability coordinator
photo credit - http://www.protothema.gr

The Year of the Green Volunteer?

I want to make a bold statement and hopefully back it up with some observations. I think that not only is volunteering becoming more and more popular, but also that volunteering will help you succeed in life. Not only does it make you a better person, but it makes the University a better place. So why it is so hard to have a good volunteer experience.

Over the past few days I have giving a couple of presentations about sustainability in various courses on campus. I have delivered presentations to a Natural Resources Management course and two introductions to Environment and Society courses (one in English and one in French). I have another course scheduled next week for Corporate Social Responsibility and last semester I presented to some environmental sciences and environmental studies courses.

So why do I go and present in all these courses? Sure I sometimes like hearing my own voice, but the true reason I do it is harvest volunteers. My first year here on campus I had about one or two people come by and ask if there was some volunteer work they could do and I had 8 students do some community service work for me. In this past week, I have had over 20 students ask about volunteer work and I have approximately 400 students doing community service work with the Office. This is quite a difference.

Check out this video and you will get an idea of how uOttawa is trying to focus on community service learning. There are a lot of good reasons why the University would want to do this.

1. Everyone thinks that university is too theoretical and not practical enough... so volunteering gives real world experience.
2. University is sometimes really boring so it takes other interesting stuff (like volunteering in something you believe in) to keep you from losing your mind
3. People who have volunteer experience have a better chance of getting a job than someone who has no experience
4. Every time someone does volunteer work on behalf of uOttawa, the University's reputation grows.

So if you were the University, wouldn't you try to get more students volunteering? 

I also want to bring up the example of We Canada, an environmental organization that is working to raise awareness about the Earth Summit in June. Recently the organization posted a volunteer opportunity for an executive assistant. This volunteer position was full-time and completely unpaid. And if you can believe this, there were dozens of amazing applicants chomping at the bit to get this job. And if you had to ask me why this was the case, I would sum up my response to just one word... experience.

In the past I have blogged about the Living Laboratory project that we are working on. But now the Office of Campus Sustainability is working on creating a new Volunteer Experience program. What we want to create is a something where any person can come and volunteer for us and instantly recognize the impact that they are having. Our hope is to create a program where you can get as involved as you want and never feel that your efforts are being wasted. You should always be recognized and never feel like you are just a number.

Here is a quick photo of our volunteer matrix grid. It shows how we would like the journey of each volunteer to be a meaningful one. We haven't figured out all the kinks yet and we need your help to make the best volunteer program on campus.We would be honoured if you could make sure that we are keeping to our goals, call us on our mistakes, and help us when we are struggling. And in return, we will make sure you get the most out of your volunteer experience.

-jon - campus sustainability manager
photo credit - jonathan rausseo

Hi I'm New Here... So How Do I Be Green?

I enlisted in Katimavik hoping to get in right away, but I found out in July that I was on the dreaded 'waiting list'. I figured that was it; I’ll have to try again next time. And then, one day in august I decided to check my emails and found out that I got accepted into Katimavik's eco-citizenship and active life-styles. I quickly went from being so excited to being very nervous. I started thinking that I don’t know anything about being an eco-citizen! What if they judge me for not doing this "green stuff" back at home and not knowing everything about everything when it comes to the environment? When I finally calmed down (stopped thinking of the negative things) I thought well maybe I’ll learn... maybe this is something that I could bring back to my community and make a small difference.

Honestly back in Prince Albert Saskatchewan there is not a whole lot of recycling or composting so most things go right to the garbage (or even, right on the ground). Since I have been here (I just got to Ottawa two weeks ago) I realise how wrong that is and how we could do so much more with almost the same effort. And now I know for sure that we will be making a big difference to help our environment.

Now I am thinking to myself that I don’t just want to only do this for 6 moths and forget about it, I want to take this life-style back home... and not just for myself but everyone around me. Now the question is how will I do this! Well that's what I am here for; to lean as much as I can and bring my new thoughts and experiences back home.

~ lia - katimaviktim (guest blogger)

photo credit - jonathan rausseo

The Second Most Sustainable Campus in Canada

There is a very famous advertising campaign that was created by Avis back in the 90s that still makes me laugh to this day. It is the "We're Number Two" campaign, celebrating the fact that Avis had become the number two provider of car rental services in the U.S. The marketing team knew that being number two wasn't as good as being number one.... but that didn't stop them. The commercials they produced showed an ecstatic group of people waving flags sporting the number two while popping bottles of Champaign. In the commercials, there were people passing out from the shear excitement of being number two. They were celebrating like it was nobody's business.

That was basically what happened at our office last week. The UI GreenMetric World University Rankings for 2011 came out and the University of Ottawa was ranked number 2 in Canada and number 15 in the world. PARTY TIME!!!! And just so you know what the GreenMetric rankings are all about, "the aim of this ranking is to provide the result of online survey regarding the current condition and policies related to Green Campus and Sustainability in the Universities all over the world."

The overall Canadian leader was York University, who scored 7245.76. The University of Ottawa was narrowly edged out with a score of 7241.23 (a difference of 0.0625% - a photo finish). There were four other Canadian universities that made the top 178, including Sherbrooke (21), Laval (51), Simon Fraiser (54), and Acadia (118).

The enthusiasm of the Office actually spilled out into the digital streets, so to speak. For four hours last week, @uOttawaSustain (our Twitter handle) was the number one trending topic in all of Ottawa. We were more popular than #Harper, #Ottawa, #Sens, #StuntManStu, etc...

Most of the buzz was actually generated by two people; a uOttawa employee (Marc-Andre Gougeon), and an alumni (Celeste Cote). Their tweets were picked up by everybody else and the word spread quickly.

So this is the part where I thank each and every one of you for helping make this happen, and seriously you deserve it. Sustainability is not one person in an office working on projects; it is a community of people working together to do the right thing. Sustainability is not a one-off choice to recycle a can or a bottle; it is a lifestyle change to systematically make an ethical choice as opposed to a selfish one. And so I thank every person in the University of Ottawa community for making this possible. So go ahead, pop the cork, colour your face green, paint a number two on the side of the car, and start celebrating.... We're Number Two!!!!!!!!!

~jon - campus sustainability manager
photo credit - jonathan rausseo

Eco-Campus Campaigning

Creating a greener campus takes a lot of work, and for the University of Ottawa, that has meant a lot of green campaigns. With elections coming back, it’s time to take a look back at previous green campaigns—and who's been helping push them through.


The bike co-op came into effect after passing through a referendum in February 2010, creating a space on campus for bike enthusiasts to hang out, swap stories, and help each other with repairs, and also encourages and helps new cyclists.

The U-Pass, a not-uncontroversial issue, has passed through two referendums to offer cheaper bus fare on OC Transpo to students, getting a few more cars off the roads and helping make travel more affordable for students living in the city.

The Green Fund, another referendum measure, added a $2 fee to each student’s tuition in order to create a financing source for green projects on campus. The money helped set up the Sustainability Centre, and supports green initiatives in campus clubs and organizations.

The ban on selling bottled water came into effect in 2010, a year after the first national Bottle Water Free Day on March 11th. In part, it reduces waste on campus, and it also makes healthy tap water a priority for all students.

And the move towards a fair trade campus is underway with the help of Engineers Without Borders and Fair Trade Canada, with Café Alt leading as an example.

So who’s been helping these campaigns along? Two candidates who were involved with a lot of these initiatives were Ted Horton and Sarah Jayne King. Both did excellent community outreach over the issues and intensive research into the initiatives, especially a bottle water free campus and a U-Pass. They also both got re-elected.

Supporting bike initiatives on campus was part of Danika Brisson’s campaigns, which saw her elected to the SFUO twice. Not to mention her involvement with OPIRG.

In 2007, Dean Haldenby started talking about a U-Pass, and over two elections went from VP Finance to President.

And Seamus Wolfe, who’s enjoyed an almost infamous career with the SFUO, was elected to office three times, campaigning on numerous issues, including a Sustainability Centre.

This year, Amy Hammett’s running for re-election, having successfully won as VP Student Affairs in last year’s election with issues like the Sustainability Centre and the bottled water ban.

So I’m intrigued. What’s this year going to bring?

There’s an Environmental Charter of Rights for campus in the works, one of the first to guarantee rights to all parties involved. It seeks to prevent serious environmental harm by any persons or organization on campus, and guarantees a healthier campus by doing things like preserving green space. It also promotes a more transparent process of environmental planning on campus and encourages public participation.

Far be it for me to suggest anything to this year’s candidates…but they might want to have a look at this, since while having a green campaign won’t guarantee you victory, it’s worked for everyone else.


Leni - associate editor of the Ottawa Arts Review (guest blogger)
photo credit - jonathan rausseo

Take Baby Steps.... and then recycle them!

About 6 months ago we posted about how the Office of Campus Sustainability and the Gee Gees are working together to recycle running shoes for the renewal of the Matt Anthony sports field.  A couple of weeks after we posted the blog, the first shipment of shoes was sent out to find a second life.

Well, I am here to report to you that the second shipment was sent out just two days ago. I thought it was important to follow up on this story because I personally hate when projects get started and you never hear about them again. It sucks when a program like this is just done once and when all the cameras are gone... it dies. That's not how we like to operate here.

And apparently, neither do you. This second shipment contained hundreds of pairs of shoes; the donations keep rolling in!. I think that there might have even been more shoes this time then there were in the first shipment. The company was more than happy to accept this second round. And just in case you had forgotten what we use these shoes for, they are recycled to create rubber granules to pad the field.

You can find out more at the Field Turf website. Thanks again everyone for giving us your shoes... the shoes raise quite a stink, but we never will. Don't forget, RecycleMania is just around the corner and if you have a pair of shoes that have seen better days, you can donate them to the cause at either of the gyms on campus.

~jON

Something Cool To Do During Reading Week

Photo credit: jonathan rausseo

How would you like to help the environment, earn credentials, and learn some professional skills all in one week?
The Centre for Global and Community Engagement (CGCS) recently approached our office with an interesting proposal, alternative study breaks. In short, take a student's boring reading week and turn it into an amazing learning experience with the end goal of making the campus more sustainable.

In case you don't know who CGCE is, they are the group that operates the Community Service Learning program (you know... volunteer as part of your course work). They also run the co-curricular record and are basically a one-stop shop for volunteering on campus.

So in the last little while, the CGCE got a lot of questions from students asking if there were more intense volunteering opportunities (you know.... a lot of intense volunteering in a short period of time). Then the idea was floated to do this during the reading week because there are tonnes of students who don't have anywhere to go or who have community service hours to fill. The cogs starting turning and thus the Alternative Study Breaks were born!

The concept is simple; you and a group of volunteers are brought together with a community partner to work on a project. Over the course of one week you receive training, do some hands on work, and work on reflection pieces to reinforce your learning capacity. This all happens during 5 full days (at least 8 hours a day... not for the faint of heart).

So here at the Office of Campus Sustainability we decided that our project would be to construct our RecycleMania displays on campus. In the past we have built cup towers, garbage bag traffic jams, and cardboard box building blocks (here are some pictures from years past). This year we a re putting the creative control and construction of the displays in the hands of our Alternative Study Break Students.

We got so excited about his prospect that we ripped off the University's  marketing campaign so we could promote the opportunity. For more information about the program, please visit the website.

~jon

Sustainable Families

Photo: jonathan rausseo

Happy New Year dear sustainabilitree friends! I hope you all enjoyed the two weeks off from school and enjoyed the snow! On my part, I was with my huge family in the Eastern Townships where 21 people squeezed into one country house for a week. Some would call it hell; others would say it’s sustainable. For that one week, we produced so much body heat, we had to turn the furnace down and only needed a cosy fire in the hearth in the living room after rolling in the snow. We all received wool socks and warm sweaters in our stocking anyways, so we might as well use them! Furthermore, we sure did lay off the interwebs, as there is no WIFI out there and a smartphone’s screen is small enough to write any email or Facebook stalk… painful.

Also, everything is so far away that we just had to make do with what we had in the house, so gift bags were re-gifted, broken ornaments fixed and the food re-heated. Speaking of which, there was none left. We ate it ALL. What with our daily 8 km hikes and sweaty games of trivial pursuit and talent shows, we had to sustain ourselves. The men in the family were the best at making a 10-layer sandwich with turkey, ham, gravy, stuffing, chilli, rice, tomatoes and cheese. Oh and did I mention pie and fruit cake?

All in all, I believe we did our share to greenify our holidays with our turkeys raised by my aunt and our “leave no food behind” motto. Enough about me, what did you do over the holidays?

~kath

Mes fameux petits gâteaux ( végétaliens ! )

Dans l’esprit de la compétition RecycloManie (qui commence au début février), je vais finalement partager la recette de mes fameux petits gâteaux au chocolat et beurre d’arachides (ils sont végétaliens!). Je vais aussi vous donner des conseils afin de les faire sans produire un seul déchet (je me prépare à vivre sans déchets pour 9 semaines).

Donc, les ingrédients :

• 1 tasse lait soya (choisissez les sortes réfrigérés – le bouchon est presque toujours recyclable) 
• 1 cu. thé vinaigre de pommes 
• 3/4 tasse sucre non raffiné (en vrac aux épiceries organiques) 
• 1/3 tasse huile de canola (en vrac aux épiceries organiques) 
• 1 cu thé extrait de vanille (en vrac aux épiceries organiques) 
• 1/2 cu thé extrait d’amades, ou plus d’extrait de vanille (en vrac aux épiceries organiques) 
• 1 tasse farine à tout usage (en vrac aux épiceries organiques) 
• 1/3 tasse poudre de cacao (en vrac aux épiceries organiques) 
• 3/4 cu thé bicarbonate de sodium 
• 1/2 cu thé poudre à pâte 
• 1/4 cu thé sel 
• moules en papier pour petits gâteaux (choisissez des moules avec un emballage recyclable – http://www.ifyoucare.com/product/baking-cups) 

Directives :

• Préchauffé le four à 350°F et ajoute les moules en papier dans le moule à muffin. 
• Fouette le lait soya et vinaigre dans un grand bol et laisse cailler (1-2 minutes). Ajoute le sucre, l’huile, et les extraits à la mixture avec le lait et faire mousser. 
• Dans un bol séparé, tamisé la farine, cacao, poudre à pâte, bicarbonate et sel; bien mélanger. 
• Ajouter la mixture sèche à la mixture humide en deux ou trois parts et fouette (aucun gros mottons). 
• Verser dans les moules (à ¾) et cuire 19-21 minutes, jusqu’à ce qu’un cure-dents ressort propre. 
• Refroidir avant de glacer. 

Le glaçage :

• Une tasse beurre d’arachides crémeux (en vrac aux épiceries organiques) 
• ½ tasse margarine (choisissez les variétés sans pellicule de plastique ou recyclez-la sur le campus!) 
• 2 tasses de sucre à glacer (en vrac aux épiceries organiques) 
• ½ cu thé vanille 
• 3 cu table de lait soya 

Fouette tous les ingrédients ensembles et ajoute du lait soya pour obtenir la consistance désirée.

Bonne année et bonne chance avec vos petits gâteaux!

~brigitte

Green New Years Resolutions for Students

Let me start out by saying that I hate New Years resolutions. They kind of piss me off for two big reasons. First, they are almost always vague. Lose weight, be healthier, listen to more people,... seriously? None of these actually mean anything. Second, they aren't really resolutions... most people choose things that are better classified as common sense. So this year I propose GREEN resolutions that are precise and demonstrate resolve.

1. Get a reusable mug and actually use it!
I know you have been told this like a thousand times but seriously.... get a mug and use it. I know it is tough to carry a clunky mug around with you everywhere but I am sure you can deal with it. Find a solution that works for you and go for it. You will save yourself about $20 to $50 bucks a year and you will be taking a chunk out of landfills.

2. Submit your homework electronically
It is tricky handing things in electronically. The classic argument is that their professors won't let them submit their work electronically because it hurts their eyes or something. Well from our surveys we found that there are very few profs that don't let their students do this. And if push comes to shove, you didn't hear this from me but send a letter to the dean of your faculty explaining your outrage and I think you will get some results.

3. Make an effort to recycle properly
I get it, recycling is complicated.... so many different products going to so many different places. But, this is an institution of higher education. If you can't take the time to figure out how to recycle properly what chance does the rest of society have? It only takes a minute to figure things out and if you need some help, check out our website for a recycling cheat sheet.

4. Practice your ABCs (Anything But a Car)
Admittedly this is a tougher one; not everyone has easy access to the campus. But this is also the one that can have the biggest impact on the environment and your wallet. The campus offers an avalanche of tools to get here by foot (foot patrol, pedestrian malls), by bike (bike share, bike parking, bike coop), by bus (u-pass, eco-pass), and even by car (car share, ride share, carpooling) if you have to.

5. Eat a little less meat
I would love to shock with all the facts related to eating less meat (better for your health, your wallet, and the environment) but I simply don't have enough room. I also understand that getting some people to eat less meat is like asking them to cut off a finger. So I will only ask that you try eating one less meat meal a week. The impacts are huge and it will give you something interesting to talk about with strangers (you know.... if you are into that kind of thing).

I realize that this list is pretty big. I am not saying to do all of them. Try one or two or three if you would like. Just keep in mind that making an impact for the environment is not a one-off, it takes a shift in lifestyles. One day at a time you can make the planet better!

~jON

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo