Most students are unaware of the University of Ottawa’s history with making campus buildings more sustainable because it was before our time. I certainly knew only the minimum before working with the Office of Campus Sustainability.    Our first attempt at making a sustainable building was the SITE building built between 1997 and 1999. SITE won many awards prior to construction in anticipation for what was planned. Unfortunately, once the building was built, it failed to be as sustainable as promised. What made this attempt a failure is that the building utilized a lot of energy. A deep energy retrofit, also known as DER, was done between 2012 to 2014 to correct some of the problems with the building. However, the giant south-facing six story atrium (essentially a giant wall of windows) continues to cause pretty significant draws on air conditioning and heating, thus using a lot more energy than what was originally produced in the building design.   To avoid any futu...

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 ...

An often forgotten dimension of sustainability is that of health. A recent survey on sustainability at uOttawa revealed that when students think about sustainability, they usually think about how it relates to the environment and forget about the the social elements, which include health. Certainly the health aspects of sustainability have been popping up in the news a lot lately, even if we don't immediately link it to the environment. Poor air quality and environmental contaminants related to floods, fires, and climate change come to mind fairly quickly, but there is a silent killer in the room and it is stress related to the environment. The recent phenomenon of climate anxiety is washing over youth like a tidal wave. A 2017 report by the American Psychological Association  suggests that worrying about climate change is having a serious impact on our mental health. And as you can imagine, the more we hear about bad things happening in our environment, the more people worr...

We were able to accomplish quite a bit last year to make our campus more sustainable! Take a look at some of the awesome things that happened, from transportation, to recycling, and more. Thank you, uOttawa students, staff, and community members, for helping us make our campus as green as it can be. Record Waste Diversion Rate The University has reached a record waste diversion rate of 64.5%! That means that 64.5% of materials from the campus did not go to the landfill because we reused or recycled them. Thank you for recycling! Thank you, volunteers! This year, our amazing volunteers contributed a collective 4,220 hours towards sustainability efforts on campus. Thank you to our Free Store volunteers, Muggy Mondays volunteers, and Community Service Learning volunteers, as well as those who helped out with other events. Your contributions are very valuable and appreciated.  Introducing VeloGo bike sharing program on campus  You may have seen thes...

I happen to believe that language is essential in creating the images we use to understand our environment, our context, our reality really. Think for instance of how marketing carefully selects words that elicit distinct images in our mind. If I were to tell you that I was going to get a hair cut, you might not give too much thought about where I was going to do that. If I say I am getting a hair cut at a barbershop, immediately your mind will flood with very selective images related to the word "barber". Maybe an old man standing beside a worn leather chair. In his hand he might be holding a straight razor or a lathering brush. The outside of the shop is adorned with one of those telltale swirling blue and red tubes, reminiscent of a candy cane. But what if I said I was going to get my hair cut at a salon? I'll bet the images conjured up in your mind are markedly different from the barber shop. Maybe it is cleaner, with more lights and more mirrors. The stylist ...

The University of Ottawa just became an institutional member of the CaGBC. What does this mean? Well for the most part it means that we are entitled to get cheaper rates for training and certifying our buildings. But if you dig a bit deeper, it means that we are putting our support behind a program that understands how buildings play an immense role in building a better world. As it stands, uOttawa only has one LEED certified building on campus, the FSS Building. But, as we all know, quantity doesn't always tell the whole story. In early 2000, the SITE Building was the latest and greatest thing on campus. The building even won a couple of awards for its environmental design. Unfortunately, things didn't quite work out according to the design once the building was up and running. This wasn't necessarily anyone's fault but it did spur the University to take a harder look at their buildings.  In 2012, a deep energy retrofit of the SITE building succeeded in reducing ...