For those who are plugged into the zeitgeist, the number 10,000 probably has a lot of significance. The 10,000 hour rule is a controversial idea that it takes 10,000 hours to master something. 10,000 steps means that you are on your way to a healthy level of fitness. At 10,000 feet you gain enough perspective to see the big picture. But I think that one of the most import things is that it is preceded by 9,999, which as we can all agree is a pretty big number. A decade ago our office came across a really startling statistic... every day on campus 6,500 disposable cups were being used. We figured out a bunch of different ways of representing what 6,500 disposable coffee cups means... if you stacked them end to end it would be 7 times the height of the peace tower, they could fill up 10 tennis courts, it is the equivalent weight of 125 basket balls... etc. For the longest time we kept talking to people about what a huge number this was. The concept that our simple little campus ...

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...

Welcome welcome welcome! The summer is coming to an end and you are probably soaking up those last morsels of sunshine before you head to uOttawa for the academic year. Now for some of you, this is going to be your first year and there is a good chance that you will live in residences. For others, this isn't your first rodeo and you are getting ready to move into a place off campus. In either case, we have a handy guide for things you should and shouldn't pack on your way to campus this year. Thanks to the Free Store, your one stop shop on campus for all things FREE, there is a good chance that you won't have to waste valuable luggage space on these items.  This makes sense for your wallet and the environment. Hangers The Free Store has a virtually unlimited amount of hangers. How? Well a little known secret is that clothing stores have their products shipped to them with the hangers already added. It is cheaper to have workers add them at the factory...

It has been a weird past couple weeks. Like many other students who enjoy living in the relatively progressive bubble here at uOttawa, I feel numb and nauseous in regards to many of actions and statements of President Trump. Since November 8th, I have been processing my feelings, watching a lot of  Seth Meyers' A Closer Look and trying to stay away from the toxic political wasteland that tends to be social media. And I truly hate having to get political online. I commend people who do it, but I do not find the internet to be a safe space and continually sharing a Huffington Post articles is not going to help anyone. However, being brave and standing up for one's beliefs is the only way to incite change. Climate change, the environmental crisis and indigenous issues are not dismissible as "fake news". Yet it is easy to start feeling all of the feelings in incredulous times such as these: anger, sadness, apathy, denial, hopelessness and fear. A steady downpo...

Wow, it really really feels like you don't like disposable coffee cups! In the past couple of weeks I have been getting an avalanche of questions about the infamous Nescafé booth which was on campus during the month of September. I guess the whole story goes something like this. Nescafé is invited by Community Life on campus for an event last year... Things go so well they are invited back for Welcome Week this year. Nescafé hands out heaping cups of coffee to anyone who stops by their booth. Things are going well again until... an infographic comes out announcing how many cups of coffee were handed out over the month. There is a flood of comments on a Facebook post about the coffee being handed out. The post is taken down and Coffegedgon begins... I say the whole thing goes "something like this" because our office was not involved with the event. We just got a couple of sneers and complaints sent our way but we didn't pay much attention to everything h...

As part of Waste Reduction Week (October 19-25, 2015), the Office of Campus Sustainability started working on an independent art project, a photographic essay that hoped to document the lives of adherents to a growing, subversive subculture on campus known only as… “mug life”. Okay, so we set up a photo booth at Muggy Mondays, but the photos were still awesome!! Every day the campus needlessly produces over 6000 paper cups; that’s already a lot of waste, but many wind up impossible to recycle as well. “What most people don’t realize is that you can’t recycle one of those paper cups if there’s still coffee in it: if you toss it in the recycling bin and the coffee seeps into the rest of the paper, it can’t be recycled – it becomes waste”, explains Brigitte Morin, Recycling Coordinator. “That’s why it’s really important to dump the coffee out first. Most of the recycling stations on campus have a drain built in to them, below the orange “liquid” sign, for exactly that.” To enc...

Mainstream chocolate typically comes from cocoa plantations in developing countries where workers are exploited and earn a pittance. Many plantations further resort to child labour to provide competitive prices, exploiting those who are forced to work at a young age in order to support their families. I have heard that some children are “sold” to cocoa plantations by relatives, while others are told that the job provides adequate income. These children are subjected to dangerous work conditions that include prolonged exposure to pesticides without protective clothing; heavy, dangerous equipment, whose use violates international labour laws; and even physical abuse. Child labourers are also typically denied access to education, which then continues this cycle of poverty. Camino chocolate comes from cocoa that is grown and harvested by small-scale family farmers in the South. Farmers who work their own land and are part of a co-operative in their regional area. These farmers have an...

Are you anxious about the new school year? Muggy Mondays has just the thing to make your Monday (and Wednesday) mornings a little bit better! Muggy Mondays offers FREE fair trade coffee, tea, and hot chocolate to anyone who brings a reusable mug. In fact, we gave out 2,289 cups last year! Believe me when I say tremendous effort and love goes into each and every cup of coffee, tea, and hot chocolate we serve. Allow me to pass along just a snapshot of the passion that goes into each mug: VOLUNTEERS Muggy Monday volunteers are small in number, but big in heart. Most of our volunteers don't even drink coffee, seriously like only a quarter of them do, but they still arrive at 7:30am to prepare everything – and they do it with a smile! Their positive attitude will cheer you up even on the darkest and coldest mornings! Interested in volunteering? E-mail us at muggymondaysclub@gmail.com COFFEE All good coffee begins with the beans! Kicking Horse Coffee roasts only the best sh...