It's hard to imagine the uOttawa campus without some of its most iconic buildings. It goes without saying that a building like Tabaret plays an instrumental role in the identity of the campus. Not only was it one of the first buildings on campus, but it also serves as the inspiration for the modern logo for the University (although there is missing pillar but we don't talk about that). The Tabaret building was even used as the setting for the movie Decoys in 2014. Another pretty iconic building is SITE . Built in 2002 as uOttawa's response to the massive tech craze of the early 2000's, there aren't many buildings with as many unique architectural characteristics as SITE. Big windows, stainless steel vents, concrete fins, exposed pillars and mechanical duct-work... it is one of a kind (except that Lakehead University built a very similar building a few years later). But I want to talk about another type of iconic building on campus. You see, an iconic building might ...

Can you imagine a world without garbage and landfills? In fact there is an easy solution to reduce waste and we can even make something useful out of it.  Composting! Maybe it doesn’t sound appealing at first; you know food scraps, banana peels, dirty napkins….but composting works like magic. Compost is made of organic materials (meaning that they are composed of carbon) and therefore will decompose and eventually, disappear (not quite, but it transforms into soil). To put it more academically: composting is a process in which organic matter is aerobically broken down into water, carbon dioxide, and some residual materials. It is Nature's way of recycling.   When food scraps and paper go to landfill they cannot properly breakdown, because they become buried and eventually run out of oxygen. Instead, they create methane (a potent greenhouse gas that is about 28 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at warming the Earth). After using public transportation and changing ...