Last year for Earth Day, we recapped the top 50 things uOttawa has done in the past decade to be a more sustainable campus. We promised to never try to put out that much content in one day ever again... but then 2021 happened and we didn't have to because everyone else at uOttawa shared their stories for Earth Day. Here is a recap of all the Earth Day messages that we could find shared around the campus. And you can check out our website to see some of the highlights. Impact Rankings uOttawa participates in the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, which track an institutions progress on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. We had some outstanding results this year! Flying Less in Academia Researcher Ryan Katz-Rosene has helped author a resource guide on Flying less in Academia . The guide is meant to help reduce the carbon footprint of academics. Canadian Plastics Pact Sustainable Prosperity, an environmental think-tank on campus, has helped launch the Canadian Pla...

I often marvel at the amount of time that disposable items serve a purpose for us before we discard them. If it takes hundreds of years for plastics to break down , surely we would hope that the useful life of that plastic would reflect its slow decomposition rate. Sadly, if that were the case I probably wouldn't be writing this post. Plastic garbage bag - 2 weeks of collecting waste and then sent to landfill (out of a potential 23,464 weeks before decomposition) Plastic wrap - 1 week to hold your leftovers and then sent to landfill (out of a potential 23,464 weeks before decomposition) Balloon - 3 days (if your lucky) before it deflates and then sent to landfill (out of a potential 164,250 days before decomposition) Styrofoam cup - 30 mins to drink your coffee and then sent to landfill (out of a potential 236,500,000 minutes before decomposition) Plastic straw - 20 minutes to drink your beverage and then sent to landfill (out of a potential 236,500,000 minutes before dec...

Admittedly, starting off with a title that includes the word "policy" is a really good way to lose readers. But wait wait wait wait.... don't go yet. I promise there is some really interesting stuff ahead. Stick with me for a bit. Ever since I started working at the University of Ottawa I have been chasing the holy grail of campus sustainability... a sustainability policy. No really, it is one of the most coveted things any sustainability coordinator desires. And now, uOttawa has adopted a new environmental management and sustainability policy . If really thing about it, a sustainability policy can... lend legitimacy to sustainability issues create procedures for the community to follow obligate groups to create sustainability plans Let's talk about legitimacy for a second. Now I don't want to give you the wrong impression and say that people don't take sustainability seriously, but often when times are lean people tend to rank environmental and ...

The Office of Campus Sustainability is working to change the story when it comes to campus emissions, especially when it comes to fleet vehicles. So don't be surprised this summer if you notice the staff of uOttawa Facilities zipping around campus on bikes. I once heard a talk that emphasized the idea that if you want sustainability to stick, you need to make sure that it is making your life better. It may not seem like it a first blush, but that is exactly what this initiative is all about. So why put people on bikes? Well, there are a couple of reasons. Employees First, the employees wanted it. Although the uOttawa campus isn't huge, it is still a bit of a trek to go from one end to the other, even more so to get to the Lees campus. And there are always a few meetings at the hospital or City Hall. Having some bikes to move around more quickly makes everyone's job easier. The bikes are fixed gear for easy maintenance. They have a wooden box fixed to the back...

 So in our lovely 24/7 Dining Hall we hear about the waste we produce all the time. I mean it’s not really waste it's all compost for us, not as bad as garbage, right. With the Love Food Not Waste event taking place last week, I asked myself the simple question: if we produce this much waste just eating, how much does the kitchen produce making the food we eat? You see the Dining Hall is zero waste but that is in the part where you and I eat. There are no straws, no wrappers, no containers, nothing that can become garbage. What about in the "back of house" where all the food is made? Is that also zero waste? Now figuring this out was a little harder than I thought so I got in contact with Maryann Moffitt from Food Services and asked her to show me around. First there were a lot of elevators and stairs in there, WOW! I would have definitely gotten lost. Luckily I had Maryann to guide me. We went right to the core of the question which meant the she actually too...

T.S Eliot wrote that April is the cruelest month and although for different reasons than his, I couldn’t agree more. Exams are stressful, your thesis might be due, you have to nail down a summer job or maybe even decide what your graduation game plan is. You’re saying goodbye to friends and professors for the summer, or maybe for longer. And on top of all this, you might even have to move out, move in or move home. I see moving as an opportunity to downsize and declutter. One of the central tenets or zero waste is minimalism, or at least that everything you own serves a purpose and was procured sustainably. But how do you get rid of the big things, like a kitchen table or all your glassware, and not just leave them on the side of the road, or worst, throw them away. The reuse economy is the best place to get things and give away things when moving. What is the reuse economy? It is so many things! The salvation army, consignment stores, selling clothing in facebook groups or even...

Sometimes when people ask me what I do for a living I tell them my job is to Save the Planet. Yeah, it's a bit cheeky as far as a response goes, but whatever... and besides, shouldn't everybody's job be to save the planet. I mean after all, don't we all kind of need the planet to survive? I suppose my job is to find different ways to do things that ultimately help save the planet. Consequently, part of my everyday job is to try to walk the talk of sustainability. You would be surprised how little things mean a lot to many people. How the smallest thing can cascade into something huge, or how the simplest message can help inspire others to dream big. Earlier this month, my boss asked me to switch offices. The downside is I had to move, but the upshot was that I would have my very own office. My boss challenged me to try to make my new space as "paperless" as possible. He wanted me to try to model what a greener work space might look like. This was of c...