A couple weeks ago we hosted a “No Idea Too Green” event to discuss the designing of a green Student Center. The new Student Center will take a couple of years to build and will be attached to the current Jock Turcot building. This building will be by students and for students, so we can make it whatever we want! At the “No Idea Too Green” event we came up with lots of great ideas of how to make our new Student Center great for both students and the ecology that we are a part of. Ideas ranged from urban aquaculture, to a living wall , to micro wind turbines. Someone even came up with an idea to create a dance floor that will harness the energy of students’ crazy dance moves . Some of the ideas were focused on improving sustainability while enhancing already existent student groups, such as creating a permanent service space for the People’s Republic of Delicious and a kitchen that would be open for anyone to use. Indoor green space could double up as a way to regulate temperatur...

Wow, things are starting to get really busy... I might even venture to say ridiculously busy. Nope, maybe we are quite there yet, but we are close. My boss predicted that 2010 would be the year of sustainability and that we would become so busy we wouldn't have time to think as we got closer and closer to the tipping point. That being said, I suppose it didn't come as a surprise when I was asked to sit in on a planning meeting for the new Student Center. For those of you not in the know, the University of Ottawa and th Student Federation have been trying to negotiate a new University Center for years. The original Jock Turcot building was designed for a campus of about 15,000 to 17,000 students and I think that we are a little beyond that right now. So recently Physical Resources Services (PRS) and the SFUO have gotten together to finally design a new center. Just as an aside I wanted to mention the whole University Center vs. Student Center thing. The new center that is planne...