Imagine my surprise a couple of years ago when I strolled into the office and found out that our office does regular monitoring of the CO2 levels in classrooms. I wasn't surprised that we did it, I mean this only makes sense right? People exhale CO2 with every breath and if not monitored it can really accumulate. No I was surprised that we won an award for doing it. It turns out that not very many, if any, other institutions do this. I was flabbergasted to say the least. CO2 is natural occurring gas that has of course recently found notoriety because of Climate Change. Of course too much CO2 can have dramatic impacts on the Earth's capacity to retain heat, but it can also kill you if the concentrations are too high. I am being a tad melodramatic here; the concentrations needed to actually kill a human are ridiculously high. But that doesn't mean that the concentrations that are present in your typical indoor environment can't cause major discomfort. At 1% CO2 in the env...

*This post is from a guest contributor. Jonathan Holmes is a core member of Green Campus and an all around passionate student activist for the environment. Dear Friends, I like to think of myself as a reasonable person. I usually don’t take strong stances on political issues. I understand that no political question is cut and dry, and I attempt to learn about all of the points of view on different issues. And yet you might have recently seen me in facebook pictures and videos wearing a dress, dancing to a fiddle, or even dropping my pants. You might think I’ve gone crazy, and am throwing away my good reputation and public respectability. You’d probably be right. But believe me – I am only doing this because I am convinced that climate change is such an incredibly serious and immediate problem that we need action NOW. To quote the most recent research, “global emissions must PEAK THEN DECLINE RAPIDLY WITHIN THE NEXT FIVE TO TEN YEARS for the world to have a reasonable chance of avoiding...

Students at the University of Ottawa may have noticed four teenagers scurrying around their campus lately, hauling bags full of sawdust or balancing cans of compost, keeping tabs on the environmentally friendly recycling bins or replacing old recycling signs with updated ones. Who are these mysterious people and why are they darting every which way around the campus? Katimavik has brought together eleven youth from across Canada to live and work in the city of Ottawa. It is a six to nine month youth volunteer program that lets youth from across the country experience diverse work placements and cultural differences, as well as being able to dapple in their program of choice, ranging from eco-citizenship to improving their second language to civic engagement. Working for the uOttawa’s Sustainability Department, four Katimavik participants are helping to implement environmental plans and spread the word that the entire uOttawa campus needs to make a difference to, well, save the world. W...

A couple of months ago I blogged about something called Open Green Maps, or if I didn’t I meant to. I am not sure if you are familiar with the Open Map concept but it is really quite simple. Take your standard map of anything and Open Maps allows you to personalize the content on the map. So you can add a picture or a description of a location to a map. Now enter the Open ‘Green’ Map. The first time I ever heard about a Green Map was at a sustainable campuses conference in Vancouver. It turns out that some geography students of Royal Roads College had collected a bunch of coordinates for some of the green characteristics of their campus and then laid those coordinates over top of a campus map. And voila; instant Green Map. But things have gotten a lot easier since those days of collecting individual GPS points and feeding them into a GIS program. We can all thank Google Maps for that. Although Google didn’t invent the concept of an Open Green Map, they certainly have ...

This isn't really anything new but it is certainly exciting. The Office of Campus Sustainability participates every year in the Experiential Learning program. In the past we have worked with Eric Crighton' s first year environmental issues class. Each year these students help conduct recycling surveys on campus that ultimately end up being used to improve the campus recycling system. This year we have been working with Renate Sander-Regier, the prof for the third year natural resource management class. The concept is simple - the students of the course have to assess the natural resources of the campus and make recommendations about how to use them all sustainably. Please allow this brief interjection. I like the ELS program because it does 3 things. First, students get to do some real work and learn some practical skills, not that theoretical stuff that sometimes leaves you feeling empty sometimes. Two, a community group gets the benefit of some much needed work / info / hel...

As you may have seen from the picture above, I am trying something new this year, winter cycling. Now I am not a rampant winter cyclist; in point of fact I have never done it before. And there is a good chance that I won’t even make it a quarter of the way through this winter. But I want to try. I am not actually going to talk about winter cycling actually, i just thought it would be nice to share this picture. All day i was actually thinking about what i would call this picture. If I had to title the above picture I would call it “Nice try winter” or “Bikers 1, Winter 0”. But I digress, this post is about making easier to do something more environmentally friendly. I don’t think that you need much more of an example beyond the above picture. I am trying out winter cycling and what i need is clean roads and accessible bike racks. Otherwise, I won’t be able to keep this up much longer. In the of Sustainability world we talk about barriers. When we want people to change ...

Picture courteousy of www.bouge.c a Two years ago the University faced a stark reality... the students didn't think that the campus was sustainable. Actually, if you want to really get down to the nitty gritty, the students perceived that the Univerrsity had a low level of commitment to the environment. Every year the Globe and Mail releases a survey about universities in Canada. The survey is a perceptions based exercise which asks students to rate their campuses. Hundreds to thousands of students respond to these surveys and the G&M is able to regroup the info to grade various institutions. (Check out the special report on the environment section here ) So two years ago the University of Ottawa received a "D". Not so great. I mean it could be worse... not much worse... but it could have been. This was a wonderful opportunity actually. When universities get a bad rating, then things start to happen. The UofO responded with a massive push on recycling. My boss often t...

L’un des messages clés du discours de David Suzuki est que tout le monde a besoin de "consommer moins". Mais comment pouvons-nous faire cela avec les fêtes qui approchent rapidement? C’est aussi simple que donner un cadeau qui est facile sur l'environnement ! Voici quelques options : Cadeaux qui soutiennent des projets trouvant des solutions environnementales. Jetez un coup d’œil au catalogue 2009-2010 de David Suzuki pour envoyer une carte électronique, acheter des marchandises ou devenir un donateur mensuel ; Achetez localement et durablement ; Donnez un certificat-cadeau pour des cours de danse de couple ou traitez un(e) ami (e) à une journée de ski – un cadeau n'a pas vraiment besoin d'être un bien ou quelque chose de matériel ; Ou tout simplement fabriquez un cadeau ! Nous avons fait des cartes pour les conférenciers du colloque sur le développement durable en affaires à partir de vieux dossiers et des boîtes en carton. Des cartes pour les fêtes peuvent se ...

With the ever necessary push for alternative transportation, universities need to step up in support. This can be enforced by universal bus passes and campaigns to encourage walking and cycling. Cycling is cheaper than other modes of transportation and faster than walking. It’s a great way to enjoy the outdoors or just to get from place to place! So, how about a bike co-op? In 2008, a couple of students working in Sustainable Development and Sustainable Transportation prepared a proposal for a bike cooperative on campus. They researched other campus bike coops, where we could put one, how it could be run, and how much it would cost. With a positive reception from administration and support of the SFUO, two new students have updated and prepared a new proposal outlining the ideal way a bike coop at uOttawa would function, with intentions of seeing it open in March 2010. That’s right – the University of Ottawa and the SFUO will open a bike cooperative in 2010. Okay, so...

Green Weeks, as you must know by now, was a great collection of events taking place between November 2nd and November 13th this year. There were tons of amazing events showcasing what ’s green on this campus, what students and the community are working on, and ways in which we can make changes in policy and our own lives to improve our environmen t. Hopefully you made it out to an event or two and enjoyed it! If you have any comments on Green Weeks 2009, please send them to me! sking@ uottawa.ca The final event is on November 23rd this year; David Suzuki is coming to the Bronson Centre. Tickets are available at the SFUO office in the university centre. $15 for students and alumni, $25 for community members. Get them fast! - sarah jayne