As you may or may not have heard, the University of Ottawa is again the Canadian Champions of RecycleMania. This marks the 6th straight victory for the uOttawa and a milestone in terms of our diversion rate (we are closing in on the elusive 60% diversion rate). But this is not a blog post to brag about our accomplishments, this is a post to honour the winners of our "Pledge to Live Waste Free" contest. This year's winner is in fact not one person, but the entire uOttawa Health Promotion's Nutrition Team. Congratulations! Only with your efforts can uOttawa truly become a waste free campus. Here is the blog post from the winning team. Living "waste free" was not the most difficult aspect of taking the Recyclemania Pledge. When there was something that had to be "thrown away," there were remarkably few things that did not fit into the any of the recycling categories found widespread on campus: Plastic, Metal and Glass, Compost, and Mixed Pap...

The University of Ottawa recently announced that construction is beginning on the Tabaret / Grand Allée project. Essentially, the whole project is an extension of the Grand Allée (or the Grand Alley in English but no one really calls it that). There are a lot of good things about the project and a few sad things about it too. A recent article in the uOttawa Gazette spoke about the "makeover" of the space and some of the features. But I feel that more should be done to explain some of the details about the project. In fact, the project is more of a restoration than a makeover. So here is our contribution to what is happening in front of Tabaret. As it stands right now, the Grand Allée extends from the FSS tower all the way to Laurier. This new segment would include the other side of the street betweet Tabaret and Academic Hall, essentially bringing the space in front of Tabaret to the same standards as the rest of the Grand Allée. And it kind of needed it, I mean ...

Each spring, I end up looking at my wardrobe in complete desolation.  I never know how to dress when the weather gets too warm to wear my winter coat and boots, but not warm enough yet to wear my favorite summer dresses and skirts.  Adds to my desperation when I sort through my stuff and find clothes that I haven’t worn in years… So this year I decided to see things differently.  Rather than keeping all of my old clothes, I decided to bring everything I didn’t want anymore to the Free Store.  And over there, I was able to find some great pieces that could easily be paired with accessories and basic pieces that I already owned in order to create new and fun outfits.  With the help of other students working and volunteering with the Office of Campus Sustainability, I was able to organize a photoshoot to show you where a little creativity can take you. As the weather gets warmer, sweaters often get pushed over to the top shelf of the closet, never to be seen...

A little while ago I was working at an information table for sustainability and so I had to gather information about the cool research we do here on campus. I asked a whole lot of uOttawa professors about their research regarding sustainable development, and I thought that the coolest out of all of them was that of Professor Robert Delatolla’s. What is so incredibly neat about Professor Delatolla’s research is that he uses miniature spaceships. Sold yet? These honeycomb pasta like plastic thingies are mini-houses for bacteria that clean waste water. MBBRs (Moving Bed Biofilm Reactors – BUT FEAR NOT: you won’t need to remember this) are little bits of plastic that are designed to allow bacteria to grow in a community called a biofilm. These biofilms, or bacterial communities, filter the sludge in water by removing ammonia and nitrates. There are a couple of reasons why I think this particular project is brilliant. We are using what bacteria use against us against them – muahah...