Stress and Gardening

Gardens have so many benefits that we often forget about some of them. For me one of the biggest benefits of gardening, and a reason why I am so hooked, is the amazing feeling it gives me: Stress relieving.  I have one garden in pots at home, I have a plot in the community garden, and I help take care of the Sustainability Centre’s teaching plot. I am actually looking into planting at my friend’s house and my mom’s yard, plus I spend time helping some other friends with their gardens. Anyways, I just cannot get enough of gardening.  And I am not the only one talking about the stress relieving benefits.

“A recent study in the Netherlands suggests that gardening can fight stress even better than other relaxing leisure activities. After completing a stressful task, two groups of people were instructed to either read indoors or garden for 30 minutes. Afterward, the group that gardened reported being in a better mood than the reading group, and they also had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol.” (http://www.health.com/health/article/0,,20507878_2,00.html)

“Days and days spent indoors and at the workplace prevent us from getting in touch with nature, thus we tend to have limited means to appreciate everything that’s grand and beautiful in life.” (http://www.thevegetablegarden.info/resources/gardening-articles/202-planting-vegetable-gardens-for-stress-relief)

Not only is garden is beautiful in that it has the ability of reconnecting us with nature, but it also gives us something to care about... something that gives a lot back to you. Your garden will never talk back to you or be mean to you. Yes it might not produce the way you want too, but that is just part of the learning curve. 

Ps: gardening is not as hard as they make it to be. It is about a process of trial and error. And like my mom always told me, for your garden just follow your gut feelings. And I would add that if that isn't working... double check online; there is so much help. 

Back to stress relief stuff. Taking some time out of your day to be in a quiet space, playing with the ground, water your plants, helps you reconnect, stay energized, and some even say it is an excellent form of exercise (they must be talking about the shoveling and weeding). Seeing how nature works and getting vitamin D from the sun are also ways to feel connected and I believe it is therefore less stressful. And in the end you get fresh yummy produce. So if you do not want to garden for sustenance or environmental reasons, be selfish and garden for yourself, your mental and physical health.

Things to look forward to if you do not have gardening space,

• contact the University of Ottawa for a plot: garden.uottawa@gmail.com, the fall/winter season is just starting. You still got time for herbs, greens, beets and carrots. (Certain crops can yield a bit of frost)
• Indoors gardening space fall/winter 212 with Sustainable Development SFUO and Campus Office
• Mobile plots and reclaiming of other campus space into garden in spring 2013

~ christine - sustainability coordinator (SFUO)
photo credit - jonathan rausseo

Damn you paperless office, why can't you just happen?

This is killing me. A couple of years ago I read about this lady at UBC who is magically able to make her office paperless - you can check out the article for yourself. Of course I become instantly green with envy (you like what I just did right there). I must have a paperless office too! I mean, if there is an office at the University of Ottawa that is going to be the first to become paperless.... why not our office?

A couple of years later and reality of still kicking us in the gut. My desk is still a monument to paper. And so is everyone else's actually. There are a couple of hard truths that I have been ignoring.
1- I work with engineers and architects and so there is a whole lot of paper lovin' going on here (blueprints)
2- We don't have super modern equipment here... no I-Pads in every corner
3- Almost everyone here is over 50 so the ageist part of me wants to lay the blame on old school thinking

Beyond that, there are also a couple of things that I really like getting in paper format
1- Magazines... they are just so colourful
2- Concept sketches. When it is not done on paper I always think they are unrealistic somehow
3- Reminder notes. I have no good excuse for these

So the article about Lynn's group talks about the idea that going paperless was a journey and that it would take time. F@®% that, I want results now. Our office has been starting to track our work on Basecamp, we are sharing a bunch of our documents on DropBox, and we are doing our meeting notes on a laptop. We even take pictures of the white board and share it with everybody instead of just drawing it out. Okay, here is a more comprehensive list

1. DropBox - for sharing documents online instead of printing extra copies and sharing them
2. BaseCamp - for tracking workflow and tasks instead of sticky notes and endless emails
3. Note pad - for taking the most bare bones notes at meetings
4. EverNote - for meeting notes when on the go (super good for listening to presentations because you can add pictures)
5. OneNote - for sharing concepts and ideas in a nice collage format
6. Google docs - for collaborative work
7. And for good measure, we use recycled notebooks and paper to take notes and post things

But at the end of the day the paper is still there!
I have even started forcing paperlessness on others. I know that I shouldn't but it seems like the only way that this is going to happen. I started using the .wwf Format to force others to not be able to print pdfs (this is a pretty nifty tool be the way). Sometimes at meetings, I don't send people the agenda ahead of time and only post the agenda on the projector.

And despite all this, paper still persists. What are we missing? What else should we be doing as a best practice?  We tried to get into signing PDFs but that is extremely complicated. We post things on our Social Media sites but people still want their posters.
Please help, I want a world without paper but a world without paper doesn't seem to want me.

~jON - campus sustainability manager
photo credit - jonathan rausseo

Don't Put Your Lunch Bag in the Fridge

A couple of weeks ago an email circulated around our office, the contents of which focused on lunch bags in the refrigerator. The message: don't put them in the fridge. My prognosis... best idea ever!

There are actually a couple of really good reasons why you don't want to put these lunch bags in the fridge if you can avoid it. Our office was doing it because we were running out of space, but allow me to delve into the green side of this issue.

1. They actually do take up too much space
   I remember when I was a kid my lunch bag was nothing more than a brown paper bag that could basically only last 1 week before it was shredded into oblivion. Nowadays, lunch bags are huge, space sucking behemoths. I kid you not, there are some people in my office who use their lunch bags as backpacks and purses.
   
   So what's the environmental impact? Well bigger lunch bags mean less space for everyone else. Think of it as the inefficient packing of the refrigerator space. If my lunch bag takes up the room of 2 paper bags, then only half the number of people can use the fridge.
   
   
2. They make the refrigerator less efficient
   Yeah, I am not lying, big bags equal big inefficiency. Refrigerators work on the premise that they circulate cold air around everything. If things are packed up too tightly, the air can't flow as smoothly and the refrigerator become less efficient. So cold air gets blocked up and no every item in the fridge is cooled evenly.
   
   
3. The bags insulate against the cold too
   It actually doesn't make sense put an insulated bag into a refrigerator because the bag will insulate itself against the cold anyways. It is like wrapping your individual food items up in a parka and putting them in the fridge. The same principle that keeps your food cold in a warm space means that the contents of the bag won't actually benefit from being in the refrigerator anyways.
   
   
4. What's the point? Aren't you going to microwave most of your food anyways?
   Of course I understand that you don't want to have your food spoil before you eat it. But do you actually know how much time it takes for something to go bad? Mayonnaise, for example, can be left at room temperature for hours before it starts to become a problem. If you have it in a state-of-the-art lunch bag (sarcastic), you should be able to leave it for a whole day before thinking twice.
   
   Also, the odds are you are just going to microwave your lunch anyways. I know that you might have yogourt or something that you ant to keep cold but if you are just going to throw your cold left overs into a cold fridge and then microwave it.... well you are just going to have to microwave it for longer before it heats up. This consumes more energy on behalf of the microwave. Also.... the microwave will also be doing some bacteria killing for you.

So the solution? Either take your contents out of the bag and put them in the fridge or don't put your lunch in the fridge at all. Of course this requires a bit of common sense on your behalf. Don't prop your lunch up against a heater and then try to eat it the next day, that would be silly. But do realize that if your lunch bag can't keep your lunch warm for a couple of hours between you leaving to come to the campus and eating your lunch... why are you using a giant space age super duper lunch bag anyways? Maybe it is time to go back to the paper bag.

~jON - campus sustainability manager
photo credit - jonathan rausseo

Spend Less on Your Green Thumb

Gardening is both an enjoyable pastime and a great way to make your own delicious food. If you’re a parent like online savings guru Kate Sorenson, maintaining your garden can be a fun family activity and learning experience. But sometimes the costs can be overwhelming and you might prefer to just stay inside. Before taking your gloves off, however, learn the tricks to maintaining your hobby for as little money as possible.

Seeds, Seeds, Seeds!
When starting next year’s garden, you might be tempted to buy an already grown seedling plant and save yourself some trouble. FabulesslyFrugal.com warns against this, pointing out that a $2 package of seeds often costs the same as a single plant. They go on to suggest buying heirloom seeds, which can be harvested every year and will save you money in the long run. A recently published article on the Sacramento Bee also explains the importance of seeds, advising to take seeds from your full grown plants and using them next year. Once you have your seeds, allow them to dry in a shoebox before transferring them to a labeled envelope.

Share with Friends and Neighbors
By swapping crops with neighbors, you can maximize on each other’s gardening talents and not let any food go to waste. About.com suggests hosting a plant swap where you and your friends pitch in whatever extra plants you have that year and divide them amongst each other. This way you can get more without paying anything extra. Another money-saver is buying bulk orders of plants, seeds, and especially bulbs. A humongous load of 1,000 daffodils will be a lot cheaper than buying them separately – have a few friends pitch in and divide up all the flowers.

Save Water
When you think about gardening, you may not realize just how much you’re spending on water for the plants. To cut down on this cost, try utilizing a rain barrel: rainwater from your gutter collects in it and can be used to water your crops for no cost. Another great solution is installing drip irrigation. This will both help you to water your plants and waste less water, making it a no-brainer.

Recycle
When you’re done cleaning your garden, don’t let all the “trash” go to waste! Add it to a compost pile, along with dried leaves, and help your garden grow for no cost at all. The plants will thank you for the help in growing and you will thank yourself for the few extra minutes it took to save compost. Along the same lines, save other things you’d normally throw out for your garden. Newspapers can be used as weed barriers and small containers for starting seeds: be smart and recycle!

There are countless ways to save money in the garden and most of them are completely free. Don’t make the mistake of thinking your green thumb is an expensive curse. You can satisfy your desire to garden and even make money by just being smart about your gardening decisions.

~ jess thompson - guest blogger
photo credit - jonathan rausseo

The Living Lab at uOttawa

Welcome to our first ever Living Lab report. There are a couple of things I would like to highlight about the report and maybe one or two things I would like to say about where I see the program going.

The Living Lab is not a novel concept. It is a program that is slowly being embraced by several universities around North America. The basic principle of the program is as follows

1. Problems are identified in the community and on campus
2. Students study the problems and propose solutions as part of their course work
3. The University studies the proposals and implements the ideas that have the best chance of succeeding

This is an incredibility simplistic view of what is in fact a very complicated open-innovation ecosystem. You can read this very technical Wikipedia entry if you want to dig deeper. What it boils down to is this... we have problems on campus and instead of burying them, we open them up for everyone to help solve. The only catch with us is that we focus on sustainability issues almost exclusively.

The origins of this program on campus date back to a course offered by Eric Crighton over four years ago. Our office worked with Eric to create better recycling stations on campus. It was a success. As tghe years have gone by, more and more courses have participated in the program. To date we have had students create sustainability policies, an environmental bill of rights, recycling videos, sustainability plans for natural resources, a biodiversity garden, etc...

This year, the Office of Campus Sustainability worked with the CSL program to find solutions to many issues on campus. This has been our most prolific year to date. We worked with 573 students to create 470 products. This amounted to about 17,270 hours of volunteer time donated.

A big thanks to all the profs, students, and community partners that worked with us this year. I sincerely hope that we can keep up this pace and perhaps delve into more community initiatives. I would like to see the Living Lab help the University solve its operational problems and create more opportunities to improve the sustainability of the campus. Perhaps more studies on how to increase the green space on campus, how we can grow our own food, how we can reduce our energy consumption.

Of course, if you have any suggestions about how to improve the program or make the report better, we want your feedback. You can check out an advanced copy of the report here.

~ jON - campus sustainability manager

photo credit - jonathan rausseo

5 Ways to Stay Green During a Heat Wave

Yes, so it turns out that Ottawa is in the middle of the longest heat wave it has experienced since the formation of the continents some 2 billion years ago. This kind of weather puts environmentalists in a tight spot. On the one side there is the need to look out for Mother Earth: on the other, no one wants to actual experience what it feels like to melt. So, here is our quick guide to staying green when the going gets hot.

Unplug everything
Seriously, it may not seem like it but all the things you have plugged in at home are contributing to an increase in the ambient temperature. Think of what happens when you leave your laptop on your lap for too long or when you touch an old style incandescent light bulb. Try to put as many thing as you can unto a power bar and just power down during the day.
Take cold showers
This is a tried and true method to keeping nice and cool. The cold shower not only doesn't use any energy to heat the water coming through the tap, but it can also effectively lower your body temperature by a couple of degrees. The cold water can also have a positive, albeit small, impact on the temperature of your house.

Close your blinds
A couple of degrees cooler is what you can expect. It may not seem like much but when it means the difference between 25º and 28º inside your house, trust me... you will be happy. Close your blinds during the day and keep the heat out. If you want to be a super keener, use curtains that are outside of your house, this prevents the solar radiation from even getting inside in the first place.


Stay away from your house.... let's face it, it's just an oven anyways
No seriously, there are tonnes of little coffee shops and businesses that are running air-conditioners like crazy. Why not leave yours turned off, take advantage of theirs, and provide a little bit of relief to the electrical grid? Stay away from your hot-house and spend some time with friends or getting caught up on some reading.
*Special tip - come by the campus and chill in some of the lounges. The University has to keep their public spaces air-conditioned.

Don't use the stove... BBQ
Yes, this could be one of those great things where you get to say you are being green doing something that you love. Cooking in-doors in the summer time is a big no no. It increases the temperature of your house and consequently makes your air-conditioner work harder. If you don't have a BBQ, hit up a friend that does and tell that you have to do it... for the planet.

~ jON - campus sustainability manager
photo credit - jonathan rausseo

Cuisine communautaire à L'université d'Ottawa

Qu’est-ce qu’une cuisine communautaire?

Une cuisine communautaire ou la restauration collective se défini comme le regroupement de gens dans un contexte formel ou non formel pour apprendre à cuisiner et/ou partager ces connaissances de manière structurer ou non. Donc, une cuisine communautaire peut être un souper entre amis à un cours de cuisines que tu dois payer une large somme pour y participer.

Pour moi, une cuisine communautaire c’est une façon d’apprendre de nouvelles techniques et de mélanges de saveurs, mais aussi d’apprendre à connaitre de nouvelles personnes et à renforcir des liens avec des amis. Enfin, je crois vraiment qu’une communauté forte peut se développer en passant par des cuisines communautaires et est essentiel à mieux comprendre les impacts et les alternatives à nos systèmes de production et distribution de nourriture.

Ottawa est plein de foodies (des fans de nourritures qui aiment découvrir et expérimenter), donc il y a un bon nombre de participants et d’ateliers dans notre ville. Personnellement, j’aime beaucoup http://resilientkitchen.wordpress.com/. C’est locale, super bon et fait à la main. Sur le campus, il y a un élargissement du nombre de cuisine communautaires. 

Il y a bien sûr la République Populaire du Délice (PRD) http://prdottawa.wordpress.com/, qui cuisine des repas vegans fais à partir des donations d’alimentaires biologiques dont leur image a été abîmé, donc ne peut pas se vendre en magasin. Durant l’année scolaire, le groupe se rencontre tous les mercredis et servent à la communauté de l’Université d’Ottawa. Tout le monde est bienvenu à participer d’une façon ou d’une autre. 

Le Centre de Promotion de la Santé offre des cours de cuisines. La Banque Alimentaire offre des déjeuner gratuits les jeudis de l’année scolaire qui est donc une forme de cuisine communautaire, surtout si tu t’impliques et aident à préparer le repas. Finalement, le Centre de Développement Durable FÉUO offre des cours de cuisines et aussi des diners/soupers communautaire qui commencent le vendredi 20 juillet : http://www.facebook.com/events/473107786034081/.

Les alternatives plus écologie et éthique de nourriture qui aident les gens à reconnecter avec leur bouffe, leur communauté et notre planète ne font que s’agrandir. Osez et participez !

~ christine - coordinatrice du centre de développement durable (FÉUO)

photo credit - jonathan rausseo

Fruits et légumes frais! En voici

Vous cherchez des fruits et légumes locaux dans la région d’Ottawa-Gatineau, voici quelques choix. Chaque fruits et légumes a sa saison de cueillette par exemple : les asperges sont prête en Juin; les fraises en fin juin jusqu’à environ mi-juillet; les patates, les haricots, les pois mange-tout, les ognons, les carottes, les framboises d’été sont tous prêt en Juillet; les carottes, les poivrons, les concombres, les courges, le mais sucré, les tomates et l’ail sont tous prêt en Août; les framboise d’automne, pommes, les patates d’hiver sont prêt en Septembre; et évidemment les citrouilles sont prêt à cueillir en octobre pour l’halloween.

Si vous voulez une liste plus complète des fruits et légumes ainsi que les viandes et fromages, voici la liste produite du Marché de Fermiers d’Ottawa.

Vous trouverez souvent des marchés qui en vendent dans la région comme exemple le Marché de Fermiers d’Ottawa qui se situe à quatre localisations : au Parc Brewer, à Ottawa tous les dimanches de 8h00-15h00 entre le 6 mai et le 28 octobre, ils ont aussi de très bons déjeuners et c’est un endroit très familial; le Plaza Centrum à Orléans, tous les vendredi de 11h00-18h00 entre le 16 mai et le 5 octobre; dans le Bayshore shopping, et le centre-ville d’Ottawa les mercredi de 11h00-18h00 entre le 16 mai et le 3 octobre. 

Vous pouvez aussi vous rendre dans le marché dans le centre-ville tous les jours l’été pour acheter des fruits et légumes, dans le marché Hintonburg tout près de Westboro sur la Parkdale.

À l’université d’Ottawa, dès la rentrée étudiante, nous devions avoir un marché pour la communauté du campus et autour du campus avec des fermiers qui vendent des fruits et légumes une fois par semaine. La date n’est pas encore cédulée, mais si vous vous inscrivez à notre lettre de nouvelles, nous allons vous tenir au courant dès qu’il est temps.

~ alex forest - campus sustainability coordinator
photo credit - jonathan rausseo

Sustainable Student Stress Syndrome: Green Moving Guide

Are you a student? Are you stuck doing that thing where you pack your life into boxes and relocate to another place in the near future? Are you stressed and overridden with tonnes of stuff that you realize you don’t really need in your new place?
(If you answered yes to any of these questions, you should probably continue reading. If not, maybe read anyways or continue browsing this blog for something more applicable to you.)

Moving sucks, the effort that is required to sort through your junk and meticulously wrap your breakables is an arduous task at best. Hopefully some of these tips will help make the process a bit easier.

1. Gather the necessary packing equipment 

DOs:
Boxes- can be found on campus in “cardboard” recycling bins, be sure to recycle them after/give to others in the moving process!

Crates- ask local stores (such as grocery stores) if they have any that you can borrow, some are surprisingly friendly if you offer to put a “deposit” down

Grocery Bags- finally a use for all of your reusable grocery bags that you have been hoarding and best of all, they have handles! (then you can also recycle those bags on campus afterwards)

DON’Ts:
Garbage bags- the amount of stuff we gathered in the dump and run that was in garbage bags… they rip, people. Those tv commercials that show them being dragged to the curb are inflating the truth, trust me. After they tear, not reusable=sad landfill.

Tape- you use so much tape? Be stingy with your tape, your boxes are not going to come unfolded if you pack properly and load them strategically into your moving vehicle.


2. Take your time


DO:
Start early and take your time sorting through all of your possessions- by early, I mean weeks early. Do a bit here and there so you do not get stressed trying to sort through things when time is running out.

Create different piles- to determine what is coming with you and what you want to donate. The University of Ottawa has a permanent freestore location beside the King Edward community garden that has a large wooden donation box on its’ front stoop to place your stuffz in. Use it!

DON’T:
Leave it to the last minute- pulling your hair and having a breakdown is NOT conducive to proper mental moving health. The night before is not a great time to go through all of your worldly possessions and decide what stays or goes. Not to mention, you will end up throwing a tonne of stuff to the curb rather than recycling, composting (all that delish food you have been piling up in your fridge and freezer), and donating your unwanted goods.


3. Know your resources

DO:
Sustainably transport - pool your friends and see what sort of transportation options are available to you. Do you require a UHaul (if so, pick a date that you and a few other friends can use it) or can you make a few trips by bike for the smaller items and simply need a team of fit individuals to walk a block with your mattress? Think logically, and sustainably (what are the environmental, social, and economic impacts of my move?)

Take advantage of your campus Freestore- give us your stuff. We have an awesome house that is dedicated to gathering your unwanted goods and redistributing it around campus and the community. Remember: Reduce, REUSE, and then Recycle! Come visit us with your donations!

DON'T

• make seventeen trips across the City through rush hour where you will be stuck in traffic
• idle your vehicle while unpacking (just turn on your emergency flashing lights)
• park in front of curb cuts that people need for accessibility reasons (cough cough Brooks Residence Complex cough cough)
• Dump your unwanted stuff on the curb!

There you go, follow these steps and hopefully your move is blissful and sustainable!

~ Meriss - sustainable campus coordinator

photo credit - kira lamont

Top 5 Ways to Save Energy on Campus

When I was an undergraduate student at uOttawa I was really excited when the government of Canada launched the doomed 1 Tonne Challenge program. The program had only good intentions but it completely and utterly failed to be inclusive. As a student there were a bunch of things that were being suggested by the program that I just couldn't do. Buy an efficient furnace or car, insulate my house, purchase offsets?!?!? I didn't own a home, couldn't afford a car, and what the hell was an offset?

Since then I have always had a hate on for things marketed to students that students have no control over. If I told you to turn down the heat in your classroom, would you even be able to do it? So here is a list of 5 actual things that you can do on campus to reduce the campuses environmental footprint.

1. Don't use the elevator when you don't have to 
   I never understood why people didn't get this but elevators suck their fair share of energy. On a floor by floor basis, a typical elevator uses 2.5 Watt/hours (which is enough energy to half charge your smart phone). To take an elevator to the top of the Desmarais building and back down costs a little over 1 cent per person ($0.0116). Multiply that by multiple elevators and hundreds of trips a day over the course of the year... the energy adds up.
   
   Now I am not suggesting that you never use the elevator (especially when going twelve floors) but do try to take the stairs if you are just going up or down one floor. (Energy calculation based on the Otis Elevator Energy Use Calculator and an energy cost of $0.10 per kilowatt hour)
   
2. Don't use the Door Assist Button if you don't have to
   This is basically the same argument as above. Again, the amount of power used by one individual is nominal, but multiplied a million times over and we've got a problem.
   
3. Change your light bulb
   This is seriously the easiest thing you can do if you live in Rez. Housing Services uses energy efficient light bulbs but if you bring your own lamp, please for the love of God use a compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL). You will help eliminate a little over 10 kg a month worth of CO2. (Emissions calculations follow Environment Canada's g CO2 / kWh for 2010)
   
   *By the way, if you bring your old CFL to the front desk, they will recycle it for you.
   
4. Turn off your computer at night
   "But my computer goes into sleep mode so I am not using any energy". Yeah, that's completely false. When your computer is in sleep mode the energy use does go down but it still exists. A computer in sleep mode can get down to just under 15 watts of energy use, which is still about the amount of energy your light bulb uses. So technically it is like leaving a light on all night for no reason. I know it sucks to have to wait 75 seconds for your computer to boot up in the morning but come on, really... it is a small price to pay. (information gathered from EnergySavers.gov)
   
5. Use a Power Bar and turn it off
   A tremendous amount of energy is lost to phantom loads. This occurs when you think your electronics are turned off but they continue to draw energy. You know... like when you turn off your stereo but for some reason there is a light that goes on to tell you that it is turned off. Phantom loads can account for up to 25% of your energy use.
   
   The simplest way to take care of this it to put your electronics on a power bar and turn that power bar off when you are not using those electronics. It is super easy to do and works at the push of a button.

This is by no  means an extensive list but it is a start. I would love to hear your ideas about saving energy on campus so please send them along.

~jon - campus sustainability manager
photo credit - jonathan rausseo

Recyclage des meubles - le déchet d’un, le trésor d’un autre…

Avez-vous déjà remarqué, lors des grands déménagements (mai, juillet et septembre) tous les meubles qui sont laissés à ramasser et jeter par la ville? J’en suis certaine! C’est le même cas sur le campus de l'université d'Ottawa; lors de grands déménagements ou rénovations, l’Université se débarrasse presque toujours des meubles. Ces meubles se sont fait jetés; jusqu’au jour où nous avons commencé le programme de recyclage de meubles.

Le Programme de recyclage des meubles (PRM) a été instauré en 2008 dans le cadre d’un projet pilote visant à évaluer le potentiel que pouvaient offrir la réutilisation et le recyclage des meubles sur le campus. Après l’acquisition de la propriété située au 200, avenue Lees à la fin de 2007, l’Université s’est retrouvée avec une grande quantité de meubles qui avaient été laissés dans l’immeuble. Au lieu de jeter ces meubles et d’en assumer le coût connexe, le Bureau du développement durable (BDD) et le Service des immeubles (SDI) ont examiné la possibilité de conserver les meubles en vue de les réutiliser sur le campus ou de les recycler correctement.

En 2009, le PRM a été utilisé pour la première fois à grande échelle. Le programme a permis de fournir des meubles aux nouveaux occupants du 200, avenue Lees (environ 200 postes de travail). Il a aussi permis d’économiser un montant important (estimé à environ un million de dollars). De janvier 2009 à avril 2012, le PRM a permis à l’Université d’Ottawa d’épargner environ 3,4 millions de dollars (coûts d’élimination des rebuts et d’acquisition de nouveaux meubles), et de réutiliser plus de 5,200 morceaux (au lieu de les envoyés au site d’enfouissement).

De plus, le programme est devenu assez organisé que nous pouvons offrir des vieux meubles (non-standards sur le campus) à des organismes de bienfaisance – telle qu’une vielle école abandonnée (réclamée par un organisme) dans un cartier défavorisé.

Lire notre rapport pour 2012

~ brige - coordonatrice de recyclage
photo credit - jonathan rausseo

Sustainability Badges for Foursquare

I, Merissa Mueller, am the conqueror of cartography, maker of maps, artist of the atlas, and most recently the foursquare flunky.

See, I’m new to foursquare. I have heard of it, mostly because sometimes on Facebook my homepage decides to tell me the locations of my drunken friends. Other than that, the concept is quite familiar because of my work with mapping but I had no experience with it until recently.

I had created a foursquare account quite a while back for the office to which I added “lists” entailing where on and off campus you should visit along with a short “tip” about the building/location. Since I have no access to a smart phone (hell, I don’t even have a real calling plan on my crappy phone, just texting) I couldn’t go much further with our profile than that. I could not “check in” to places, upload photos to my profile, become the “mayor” of a spot and most unfortunately, I could not earn a single badge which made me feel horrible. I mean, even if you’re crappy at tying knots in girl scouts, I think they’d give you a badge for just showing up.

The solution to this problem was Jon, as usual, and his ipod thang that has built-in GPS and wifi capabilities. He started checking in places and making the office’s presence known around campus. Social media is strange to me in the sense that we seem to do a lot of making ourselves known and available to the campus community. Whether this involves adding uOttawa students, plastering buildings with “tips” about the awesome sustainability features, or just becoming the mayor of buildings so our presence is known when someone checks in (and subsequently becoming interested in us) is in some way what branding is all about about.

Where does the conqueror of cartography, maker of maps, and artist of the atlas come in? Well, it seemed natural to assign such Geo-positional type social media to me which means I am revamping our foursquare account, “tips”, “lists”, etc. I have looked into getting badges created for the office which means you could grab up a badge for completing a green tour of campus or a thrifty tour of Ottawa’s second-hand stores! I would rather have those badges than one for tying knots or learning to start fires any day.

If there are any cool sustainability badges that you really want to see on campus, I am harvesting requests as we speak.

~ meriss - campus sustainability coordinator

photo credit - jonathan rausseo

Composicle: the ultimate way to compost

I was mobbed by a group of onlookers with a bunch of questions at my condo today. My crime?....having discovered the most amazing way to compost. (note to reader, I didn't actually discover it but I fancy myself a pioneer)

Let me start this post by saying that I understand that composting is hard. It's not like recycling. Recycling means you put one thing into a container and voila, nice and easy. There are no odours, there are no bugs, and you can recycle almost everywhere. No so for composting, and in my case composting is doubly difficult because condos in Ottawa don't have a standard composting system.

These creates three possible solutions. The first is to become a composting ninja. Wake up super early and find a house somewhere in your neighbourhood that composts. Quietly, without waking anybody up or drawing too much attention to yourself, open up their compost bin and depose the goods. Full disclosure, I have been caught doing this once before and I can tell you that people don't like you composting in their bins (even if we all pay the same taxes and the compost all goes to the same place).

The second solution is to compost it yourself. There are many many composting systems out there than get the job done. You could create a backyard composter, you could do some vermi composting, you could buy a rolling composter, hell you could burn the stuff and use the ashes for fertilizer. But of course there are space constraints and well you know.... if you don't have a fire pit.

The third solution is to transport your compost to somewhere that offers free public composting, this is my preferred option. Of course this option still leaves you with the same issues of odour and insects but I have a solution for that. COMPOSICLES!!!!!

Take your compost and shove it in the freezer. That's it, done and done. You could put it in the fridge if you would like but the freezer has an added environmental benefit (it actually helps use less energy if your freezer - not fridge - is nice and full). Then you need only transport your frozen content to its final destination. The beauty of it being frozen is that even while transporting the compost you don't have to worry about odours or moisture.

By the way, you can use a plastic container or a pail to store the compost in your freezer but I recommend placing it in a brown bag. The brown bag is nice because you can compost the entire bag afterwards without having to scrape out frozen or soggy bits of compost. I do my composting on campus so this is super convenient for me.

So I'll be the first to admit that the title of this post is a little misleading. There is no ultimate way to compost, just an assortment of ways that present fewer challenges. In the end the best way to compost is what works for you.


~jon - campus sustainability manager
photo credit - jonathan rausseo

The end of one era is the beginning of another

This past week the University of Ottawa installed new exterior recycling bins on campus. Now I promised myself I wouldn't cry so please bare with me while I pay homage to the old bins before getting on to the new ones. I really liked the old exterior recycling bins that we had on campus. Yeah they had there short-comings; they broke really easily, they were separated bins (I'll talk about that I a minute), and quite frankly they weren't a very good design. But they also represented one of the first real risks that we took to improve recycling on campus.

Unlike any bin before it, and unlike the new bins, the old bins were transparent, you could actually see right through them. I know this doesn't seem like anything new today, considering Toronto is littered with transparent bins, but when we installed those old bins on campus, to my knowledge we were the first in Ottawa. Of course the benefit of doing this is that the transparent bin forces people to put things in the correct bin or suffer the consequences of being socially austrosized (or something like that).

 I still remember my first waste audit of the outdoor bins. The results weren't great, not by a long shot. In most outdoors bins the contamination rate was somewhere in the range of 60% to 80%. For all intents and purposes, everything was going into the garbage bin. The likely culprit was the lack of recycling bins outdoors. I hypothesized that by simply adding some outdoor bins in key locations, we would dramatically decrease contamination. I was right, we were able to get contamination down to 40%. Not great, but not that bad either.

Well today is a new day and so we have added new bins outdoors. As you can see from its picture, the new bins aren't transparent. But they are combined bins so that means that the waste and recycling options are all one right next to each. The new bins are also pretty sleek. They are all uOttawa grey and rocking the university's logo. They are also decked out with our quintessential "what you can recycle" icons.

I should also mention that the new recycling bins are made from composite recyclables. They are in fact made out of a couple of thousand recycled bottles of water (yes, the irony is not lost on me since we are a campus that banned water bottles a couple of years ago). So in the end, we now have bins made out of the stuff that was recycled in them. How's that for a paradox?

My hope is that the new bins will be a shot in the arm to our outdoor recycling problem. We have never been able to achieve the same level of recycling indoors and outdoors but I have faith. These new bins, the brainchild of our groundskeeper Alexis and our waste diversion coordinator Brigitte, we will be able to do better than we ever have before.

~jON - campus sustainability manager
photo credit - jonathan rausseo