Years ago, I attended the World Urban Forum (WUF) in Vancouver. WUF is a gathering of groups who are obsessed with urbanism and how, if done correctly, it could help solve many of the world's problems.  The gathering, hosted by the United Nations, really is a geekfest of policy ideas, new technologies, and networking opportunities. But the thing that really caught my eye while I was there was an installation representing an Edible Landscape.  For those who don't know, an edible landscape is basically a garden where all the plants are switched for edible varieties. By doing this, people can grow food and have a lovely garden aesthetic (existing in harmony rather than in opposition). Fast forward a bit more than a decade and edible landscapes are starting to take root at uOttawa. In 2021, the Office of Campus Sustainability started filling some planters on campus with edible plants instead of the traditional non-edible ones. An extension of the community gardens, the edible land...

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...

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...

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...

Our wall! What in the world happening to our beautiful living wall?! A couple of months ago the maintenance team started noticing plants dying off and so the detective work began to try and solve the mystery of the dying wall. Here’s a look at the factors which contributed to our beloved wall’s shabby appearance. Lights. Unlike the sun, the energy emitted by light bulbs slowly degrades over time. This degradation which occurred at a rate faster than anticipated means that although the lights were on for 8 hours a day the concentration of light was too low for plants to sustain metabolic activity. This degradation coupled with a sensor failure led to the current situation. A system of sensors is in place to monitor the environmental conditions of the living wall, however when this system fails it can be difficult to determine what the root cause of the problem is as was the case this past summer.  The living wall is a massive six storey high hydroponic system instal...

In lieu of Jon’s recent blog on turning  wooden pallets into furniture , I decided to write my own blog on sustainable student living. Mostly because I have found myself since I started university to be very anti-Ikea. Now, don’t get me wrong, I am sure the Swedes have a lot of unique, mass produced, and cheap furniture to adorn your apartment with (you may sense some sarcasm and contradictions, I apologize Ikea lovers) but maybe I am just too crafty or cheap to commit to buying things. Thus, I have upcycled many a thing since I’ve moved to Ottawa. My tips : Find friends that are moving, or strangers, around the end of the month and pester them for shit they don’t feel like carrying to a new place, or scour the streets on the night before garbage day .This is how I have acquired the majority of my stuff; whether coming across it randomly when walking home or through friends that had no interest in packing it away and transporting it. Once you have found some stuff, customi...