Well it is the end of the year and I guess this the ideal time to talk about the year that was, and what a year it was. Allow me to guide you through what happened this year in sustainability. "2010 is going to be the year of SUSTAINABILITY" were the words of Pierre De Gagné, the Assistant Director of Engineering and Sustainable Development, and this pretty much set the tone for the entire year. The year kicked off with RecycleMania, which saw the University of Ottawa defend its title as Canadian Champs and place 14th overall. In February the SFUO's referendums produced 2 environmental outcomes, the Green Fund and the U-pass program. Both of which will have a dramatic impact on the campus. Earth Hour in March again saw the University achieving a 12% reduction in energy consumption (double that of the City of Ottawa). In March & April the University participated in Bottled Water Free Day. May was the most successful Dump and Run we have ever conducted. Over 2 tonnes of...

Photo credit: Vedrana Martincevic Green Space visualization (www.manyeyes.com) Let’s face it: there isn’t a single human being that willfully engages in the reading of 300 page reports filled with numbers. Some do it from necessity, but there’s hardly any joy to be found in analyzing countless statistics that eventually blur into little lines in front of your eyes. Yes, there are lots of useful numbers in there somewhere, but how do we extract them? How do we make this relevant to our target audience, and anyone else that may be interested? How do we dial back the agony of trawling through numbers for hours on end, praying they’ll end explaining themselves to you? In today’s world, particularly in the world of business, people have very little time. Everybody wants to get in and get out, and get tasks over with. That’s why we have abstracts, executive summaries, blurbs, overviews, and all those differently-named things that are really cut from th e same cloth. However, it is often diff...

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo I don’t know if you’re anything like me, but the fact that the Christmas lights and trees in the Rideau Centre have been up for weeks already alarms me to no end. It’s really difficult to get into the holiday spirit when I’m still wearing hoodies and carrying around an umbrella; not to mention the fact that midterms were still happening when the first wreaths went up. In any case, our lovely materialistic society is preparing to ring in yet another massive shop-a-thon season. Holiday hours are in effect in every mall and store, and I’m already overhearing people PANICKING about buying the perfect gift. Are you serious, people? But actually? For those of us that don’t subscribe to the crazy person’s newsletter, there is a different way to go about things – it’s called: “Let’s not kill our wallets, the environment, or our sanity.” I read a lovely little article this morning (http://www.justmeans.com/Have-yourself-a-Merry-Green-Christmas/38049.htm...

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo Chers cyclistes, Cet été, j’ai eu la merveilleuse occasion de me rendre à vélo jusqu’à une école où je travaillais située à l’ouest d’Ottawa. Au début, puisque j’étais incertaine de la localisation de l’école par rapport aux pistes cyclables, je décide de faire le trajet comme les voitures et d’emprunter les rues Sommerset et Richmond. Quel désastre: poussière, voitures, feux de circulation et paysage un peu trop urbain à mon goût... Après cette expérience, je demande les directions à deux-trois personnes et je reviens de l’école par la piste cyclable située le long de la Rivière des Outaouais. Je respire à pleins poumons, le ciel est bleu, les mouettes s’amusent et je retourne au centre-ville en aussi peu de temps que par la route! Pourquoi je vous compte mon périple à vélo, pensez-vous? Eh bien, vous le savez peut-être déjà, mais le 22 novembre la Commission de la capitale nationale (CCN), ainsi que les villes d’Ottawa et de Gatineau ont dévoilé avoir é...

Photo Credit: www.123rf.com (photo site) La région de l’Outaouais connait année après année une croissance marquée du nombre de personnes qui sont dans le besoin. Centraide à estimé à 21,2% la population de l’Outaouais qui vit avec un faible revenu. Ceci se manifeste par une augmentation significative dans la demande de service d’aide au près des œuvres de charités. De plus, 7000 est le nombre total de personnes qui auront eu recours à l’aide des œuvres de charités. Si vous voulez faire une différence et faire du ménage au même temps, prenez un petit 30 min pour jeter un coup d’œil dans votre garde-robe, bibliothèque et même cuisine. Mettez dans un sac ou dans une boite tous les articles que vous n’avez jamais utilisé et ceux que vous n’utiliseriez plus. Ajouter également à cela tout article que vous pensez jeter en pensant qu’il ne servira à personne. Rappelez-vous, la poubelle des uns est le trésor des autres! Apporter vos articles à une des résidences (complexe 90 Université, à Hy...

Photo Credit: Jonathan Rausseo Yes it is that time of the year again. Everyone on campus hits the malls to start the holiday shopping, starts drinking hot chocolate religiously, and starts getting the skates sharpened for the opening, closing, opening, and closing of the canal (damn you global warming !!!) But it is also the time of the year that sees the residences close for the holidays. As if exams weren't already stressful enough, the university also sends everyone packing for 2 weeks. Which is not such a bad thing from an energy point of view... but we can have that discussion some other time. This conversation is reserved for the Dump and Run. So you are about to leave to go home for the holidays, but... you have a ridiculous amount of stuff. A couple of bags clothes that don't fit anymore (damn you taste desserts !!!) or that you've decided just aren't your style, a few boxes of swag (that stuff you pick up for free at tales but that you never really do anything ...

On Tuesday night I attended a pretty cool event organized by the Telfer Student Council about Tom's Shoes. I am going to stop right here and play my "full disclosure" card. First the event was organized by Danielle Perrault (a former employee of mine). Second, it was a teaser event for the Sustainable Business Conference, for which I am on the organizing committee. But none of that should matter because the event was really cool for a couple of reasons. One, I had no knowledge about TOM's shoes before that night. Two, the event was followed up by a pretty good open forum talk that included Guy Laflamme (the VP Communications over at the NCC and a prof at the Telfer School). And three, about half of the event was conducted in French, making this event a pretty bilingual event. The night started up by a documentary viewing of TOM's Shoes. The movie actually didn't rub me the right way at first. It really started out as a bunch of rich people playing polo and tak...

Photo credit: Surveyonline Il y a deux semaines, j’ai eu le plaisir de travailler sur les sondages de la classe du cours de première année d’environnement…oui! Vous l’avez peut être deviné c’est dans le cadre du cours ENV1101, enseigner par Éric Crighton. Moi, je m’occupais des sondages concernant le recyclage au campus. La grande aventure commençait lorsque mon patron, Jon m’envoie les résultats des sondages qu’il a reçu des étudiants. J’en recevais une dizaine à la fois…au point que ma boite courriel ne fonctionnait pas très bien car elle était saturée de messages. Ma tâche principale était de s’assurer que les données sont bien rentrées dans les diverses pages Excel, pour en suite les jumeler dans un même document. Ça semble simple dit comme cela, mais la réalité était toute autre. Je vous explique. Les problèmes que j’ai rencontrés étaient soit que le fichier ne s’ouvrait pas, car il a été fait dans un ordinateur Mac, soit les données n’étaient pas complètes faute de tricherie d...