Let's take a moment to talk about the old proverbial green hat, more commonly know as a green roof. For years green roofs have been thought of as a nice to have but not really cost effective for most buildings. That perception started to change more recently; manifesting in new policies like the Toronto Green Roof Bylaw . Our campus got in on the action a little while back when we changed our building standards to prioritize green roofs as well. This autumn, the first green roof under this design paradigm is set to be installed on the Perez Building. Since the building is a bit older, our engineering assessment found that a green roof isn't appropriate everywhere, but along the north roof the conditions are just right. This works out fairly well since this part of the building is lower than the other roof sections; meaning that occupants will be able to see the roof from their windows. Stunning views of green roofs from an office or classroom window might be considered the c...

You can't imagine how many emails we get these days asking about the Free Store. Can we still drop off donations, when will the store open, what are you doing about COVID, etc... Well let's dive into some of those questions so that our community has a better idea of what is happening with the Store. In March, the Free Store experienced the beginning of the COVID crisis like everyone. News was starting to float around about the virus; some places were thinking of closing; should we close too? Just as the NBA decided to shut down, the Free Store decided that we didn't want to put people at risk and we closed our doors, uncertain about how long the pandemic would last. Fast-forward to July and the holding pattern for businesses was loosening up. At that point we decided to put together a plan that would allow operations at the Free Store to get going again. How could we not? We were getting messages every day asking about the store and how people could get access.  The Free St...