Sometimes it is all too easy to look at the deluge of environmental bad news and feel helpless in the face of the impending doom. Rising sea levels, species in decline, toxic air floating over toxic lakes. Current events fuel distopian nightmares of a future that has droughts on top of floods, ice storms on top of heat waves, and an environment turned topsy-turvy. But we have to remember that the future is not written in stone. For every environmental woe there is an environmental win. As you read these words, there are cities banning plastic bags, countries signing into law aggressive emissions standards, and globally, the rate of growth for renewable energy is outpacing fossil energy. This summer our office decided that we could do something more to improve the campus footprint and so we launched an agricultural demonstration project. This is not new idea. McGill and Ryerson are two institutions that already grow food on campus and reap the benefits. A little known fact; gro...

Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) Have you ever heard of it? The concept is simple, you give a farmer some money and they grow food on your behalf. Every week you get a box full of fruits and vegetables and the farmers get paid for their hard work. Quid pro quo. This past semester an intern student from France joined our office and worked on a project designed to increase community agriculture on campus. Coraline's idea was to get a CSA started on campus and help build a more sustainable food system. Here's the thought process; People on campus need more access to locally grown food. Partnering with a local farm that has the capacity to deliver food to uOttawa greatly increases the chances that the community will take advantage of it. Access is one of the greatest challenges people face when trying to make healthy food choices. The easier it is to get your food, the more of it you will eat. Bringing healthy foods right to the campus will make it easier for more people ...

J’ai enfin terminé ma troisième année d’étude collégiale à La Cité dans le programme de Technologie de l’environnement. Le 1er mai 2015 était le jour où j’ai commencé mon stage à l’Université d’Ottawa et c’est à ce moment où j’ai pu faire la mise en œuvre de certains apprentissages de mon parcours scolaire. Jamais je n’aurais cru qu’une institution pouvait aller aussi loin, entre autre au niveau des 3R : Réduire, Réutiliser, Recycler. La barre est haute pour les nouveaux défis de l’Université d’Ottawa, par exemple, il voudrait atteindre zéro déchets d’ici 2020!!! Et c’est possible! En ce moment ils réacheminent plus de 60 % de leurs déchets. C’est en ayant implanté des projets comme le Déposer et Dégager ainsi que la gratuiterie qu’ils sont en mesure de dévier plusieurs tonnes d’objet des sites d’enfouissement. C’est objets sont des dons des étudiants mais aussi de la communauté. J’aimerais ajouter un petit mot de remerciement aux bénévoles et les féliciter de leur travail puisq...