I am very happy to say that the University of Ottawa is again in the top tier of universities in the world when it comes to being a sustainable institution. ( UI Green Metric World University Ranking ) This goes out to the rabble-rousers that stocked the shelves of the Free Store even though it was impossible to ever keep them full for more than 5 minutes; to the caffeine junkies that gave away free coffee to the masses in order keep garbage out our the landfills; to the cyclists that couldn't say no to one more ride even if it was in the rain; to the paper pushers who still got the information out without having to knock down a tree to do it; to the residence herders who would always share green tips with their flock even if it meant being called a tree-huger; to the organics smugglers who would stuff old apple cores into their pockets because they couldn't stomach tossing good compost into a dirty garbage bin; to the white-collar hippies who believe that the ...

We just finished up D-Day (a.k.a Dump Day, a.k.a Dump and Run Day) and I really wanted to get this off my chest while it is still fresh on my mind. To all our staff members and volunteers... thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Over the past two days I have personally witnessed sacrifice, dedication, and determination. As a group we have been running around collecting waste from dumpsters, collection tables, private residences, and other nooks / crannies. At times this has been a true test of one's mettle. There have been smells that could wake the Dead. There have been taunts and disapproving stares from community members. There have been cuts; there have been bruises; there have been cramps; and there have been tears. In addressing the group today I said that I was touched. The blood, tears, and sweat shed by this group have not been in vain. We will clean the items collected and we will find them new homes. We will go to shelters and we will go to clinics and we will ...

Congratulations uOttawa; we are RecycleMania Canadian champions for the fourth year in a row! We achieved a 50% waste diversion rate average, and we produced only 14.17 lbs. per person of waste during the 8 weeks of the competition. Overall, with 605 participating Canadian and American institutions we placed 27th; which is pretty amazing considering that most of the institutions that did better than us had under 10,000 students – some even under 1,000. I would like to thank all of you who helped us achieve this by learning to recycle better, bringing their reusable coffee mugs, creating less waste, building waste awareness displays on campus, and especially those of you pledged to live waste-free during RecycleMania; it has a huge impact on the people around you - one of our campus departments was inspired by your stories and decided to do it for a whole week. You are also responsible for inspiring us to create the objective of becoming a zero waste uOttawa by the year 2020; wh...