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...

De ces temps-ci, les organismes génétiquement modifiés (OGM) et nos systèmes alimentaires sont un sujet chaud et il y a beaucoup d’information flottant, comment clarifier le tout? En Novembre, l’Université St. Paul a joué l’hôte pour le symposium d’OGM d’Ottawa. En l’honneur de cette occasion, nos amis au laboratoire d’études interdisciplinaires sur l’alimentation (LISF) ont organisé une présentation spéciale à propos des OGM et les régulations Canadiennes. C’est quoi un OGM?  Pour comprendre les OGM il faut d’abord faire un survol pour comprendre l’ADN. Imaginez l’ADN comme le plan maître de tous ce qui est dans notre corps. L’ADN contient le code pour arranger les acides aminés qui créent les protéines dont nous nous servons dans diverse réactions ou pour former différent tissues et membranes. Les tout est une science relativement nouvelle mais qui a fait beaucoup de chemin, surtout depuis le projet du génome humain (qui a séquencé tout le génome humain et identifiés les g...

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and our food systems are hot topics nowadays and there is a lot of information floating around out there. This past November, St Paul’s University played host for Ottawa’s GMO symposium. As part of this event, our friends at the Interdisciplinary Food Lab (LEILA) hosted a special guest lecture about GMOs and related regulations in Canada. What is a GMO? To understand GMOs we need to look at DNA. Think of DNA as the blueprint for everything in our body. DNA holds the code for arranging amino acids, which create proteins, which we use for different reactions or to form different tissues and membranes. Although this is still a relatively new science, it has come a long way in part because of the Human Genome Project (in which the whole human genome was mapped and the genes responsible for coding specific proteins were identified). When an organism is genetically modified we cut and paste DNA from another organism into the original organism’s...

In case you missed it, this past Sunday (August 10th) was International Biodiesel day, in honour of this momentous occasion I thought I would dive into the pros and cons of this alternative fuel source. Fossil fuels (such as natural gas, coal and petroleum) are pouches of organic matter which have been pressurized and decomposed over long periods of time. In contrast, biofuels are made from live organic matter (ranging from canola, maize, sunflowers, animal fats and soy). Thus they provide a more sustainable alternative to the material depletion associated with traditional fossil fuels while performing in many of the same ways. As the cost for fossil fuels continue to rise, part of the appeal of alternative fuels sources is their potentially low production cost. We should also consider the environmental impact of growing crops for fuels, CO2 (of of the greenhouse gases released through the combustion of fuel) is taken up by the crops. In other words, biofuels can provide a carbo...

Au cas où vous l’auriez manqué, dimanche c’était la journée internationale du biodiesel! En honneur de cette journée importante j’ai décidé d’explorer les avantages et les inconvénients de cette source alternative de carburant. La différence entre les biocarburants et les combustibles fossiles (tel le gaz naturel, le pétrole et le charbon) est la source de production. Les combustibles fossiles sont des accumulations de matière organique décomposé et mis sous pression pour plusieurs années. En contraste, les biocarburants sont typiquement composés de matière organique toujours en vie telles les récoltes de canola, de maïs, de tournesol, de soya et parfois des gras animaux. Puisque nous pouvons créer et gérer la production de biocarburants, ils représentent une alternative durable pour contrer l’épuisement de ressources naturelles associé avec les combustibles fossiles. En contraste avec les augmentations continuelles des prix des combustibles fossiles, un aspect qui risque de sti...

Photo credit: Merissa Mueller Recap: Merissa attends Sustainable Business Conference on Friday February 11th, in order to finally prevail over her siblings during a dinner table discussion regarding globalization. She learns plenty of interesting things about incorporating sustainability into the business workplace and how it is NOT detrimental but beneficial to businesses (example: identifying steps within a product’s life cycle analysis that waste can be limited by remanufacturing/recycling material, saving money and my planet). Furthermore, she eats delicious vegetarian and vegan foods because the conference was catered by Depanneur Sylvestre and finally understands the term “Business Casual”. Overall, Friday was an amazing success and congratulations to the Tefler School of Management for holding such an informative conference featuring some incredibly knowledgeable people. Application: Interestingly enough, the next day I stumbled upon some sustainability in practice, or rather,...