uOttawa heat map art. Monday July 22nd might have been a wholly unmarkable day for you. It was a fairly hot day in a fairly hot month, which of course has been part of a fairly hot summer. If you live in this little part of the world, you might have noticed a lack of rain and a hint of smoke in the air from the forest fires in central and western Canada. What you might not have known was that the record for the hottest recorded in human history was being set. Many news outlets reported on the record breaking temperature  but it didn't get much coverage (the world has a lot of complicated things happening right now). I think this kind of information tends to make people's eyes glaze over. "Oh yes, yet another time we broke the record for the hottest day..." It seems to happen so often that people have become numb to the news.  This is problematic because the increase in temperature has a bunch of very serious and dangerous impacts to the natural environment and to peop...

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) might be a popular concept you are hearing these days. At face value, they are a series of high-level goals that are meant to bring about a more sustainable world. This sounds pretty good but very few people have actually drilled down into what these goals mean and how they can be applied in your everyday life. Don't fret, that's exactly why the Telfer School of Management is taking the lead on hosting SDG Week from March 3rd to the 7th. Over a dozen events are planned to help you learn more about the SDGs. Test out an electric car, catch a movie, grab some free clothes, and nibble on some delicious foods! You don't have to show up for every event but there is a little something for everyone.  Here is a list of the fantastic events planned. ***** Monday ,  March 3rd       SDG Week Information Session  9am to 1pm | DMS Lobby      A ll students, faculty, and Staff are invited to participate in SDG week's first activity - ...

Green roof on the Tabaret Building Our office has been working at improving sustainability on campus since 2006 and I am happy to say that we have had a lot of success. But one of the areas that we are still hoping to improve after all these years in our green space.  What is considered by many sustainability-minded institutions to be the crown jewel of their campus (lush green spaces) is a bit of a sticking point here at uOttawa. You see, a lot of older institutions were created through land grants or large land donations. This gave institutions the ability to finance the expansion of their programs by leasing and selling land. Not unliked these institutions, the University of Ottawa was founded based on a land donation by the Besserer family. But unlike some other land grants, it was a small parcel of land which means that since then the institutions has had to slowly try to buy up surrounding land. Sometimes this works... sometimes it doesn't. After years of purchasing land and ...