Qu’est-ce qu’une vérification de déchets ? Bien les ami(e)s, une vérification de déchets est lorsqu’on organise la collecte de déchets et recyclage (tout identifié par type et endroit ex. recyclage de papier, comptoir de recyclage devant salle 323) d’un endroit, lors d’une période de temps et que l’on évalue ce qu’il y a à l’intérieur de chaque sac. Chaque sac est ouverts et les articles sont triés et pesés par type (papier, déchets, etc.). Avec toutes les quantités notées nous pouvons calculer le taux de contamination de chaque sac, c'est-à-dire, le pourcentage des articles qui ne devraient pas être dans ce sac (ex. des déchets dans le réceptacle pour le métal/plastique/verre). On peut par la suite étudier les résultats et trouver des tendances ; Si par exemple tout le monde jette un article recyclable en particulier c’est peut-être parce que ce n’est pas bien indiqué sur les affiches ! Récemment, nous avons compléter une vérification de déchets de l’édifice Fauteux en entier, et...

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...

Photo credit: 3s.images.com Well I've never wrote a blog before so excuse the inaccuracies of how I am suppose to come about this. I never thought I would write a blog but within minutes of arriving on the job I stumbled upon the Eco team of Ottawa U mentioning Facebook, Twitter (which I've also never done), and a plethora of other informational vectors. Maybe I should write about my agreed slavery to Jon and Brigitte, or the fact that for the passed 30 minutes I've been taking out stitches one by one of a uOttawa jacket. But all that would be unnecessary banter. Sticking to the facts, my first week has been a blast. Arriving on the scene a little later than normal because of the unforeseen sending home of the last participant, it was my job to be the replacement. Throughout the week I walked around the large campus putting signs on recycle bins, composting for the Protection building which eventually goes into this huge worm pit (actually really interesting!), and other re...

Que faisaient plus d'un milliard de personnes partout dans le monde de 20 h 30 à 21 h 30 l'année dernière le 28 mars? Ils éteignaient leurs lumières à l'appui de l'Heure pour la Terre du Fonds mondial pour la nature (FMN). En fait, plus de 10 millions de Canadiens et des milliers d'entreprises ont participé dans plus de 275 villes partout au pays dans le but de sensibiliser les gens au changement climatique. Beaucoup d'efforts conjoints seront déployés partout au pays. Par exemple, Hydro Ottawa examinera la diminution de la consommation d'électricité à Ottawa pendant cette période d'une heure. Beaucoup de points d'intérêts comme la Tour CN et la Colline du Parlement éteindront leur éclairage non essentiel. Le mot-symbole « Canada » et l'éclairage architectural des immeubles du gouvernement de l'ensemble du pays seront éteints à l'occasion de l'Heure pour la Terre. De nombreux événements ont aussi lieu à Ottawa, comme une veillée pa...

Many University of Ottawa students only make it through paper and exam season with a little help from their friend caffeine. However, at the other end of that caffeine addiction, is a coffee grower who often gets little pay for her hard work growing your coffee beans. Luckily, fair trade coffee has emerged over the years, cutting out middle men and often allowing these hardworking producers to work in better conditions and get paid prices closer to what they need to survive. While, as many international development students will tell you, fair trade is still far from the ideal and often presents a whole new set of barriers for producers, it generally ensures that a little more of your coffee dollar makes it to those who grew it. With the climate changing, the coffee equation is getting ever more complicated. Higher temperatures are affecting crops and making them flower prematurely, decreasing yield, and thus the amount of money that the producer makes. Growers are searching for creati...

Photo credit: TerraChoice website La dernière année a bourgeonné de 'publicité verte'. À l'heure actuelle, les compagnies se font la compèt' pour tenter d'être les plus 'vertes' afin d'attirer la clientèle. On se bouscule pour écrire des trucs comme 'fait de produits naturels', 'biodégradable', 'nous vous offrons un produit vert', 'nous nous soucions de l'environnement', ETC. Tous ces mots apaisants pour le consommateur peuvent être catégorisés sous une pratique que l'on appelle la 'mascarade écologique' ou le 'Greenwashing'. Terra Choice a publié son rapport intitulé ' Les six sept péchés de la mascarade écologique ' (The Six Seven Sins of Greenwashing) où vous trouverez des trucs pour ne pas vous faire avoir par les compagnies qui tentent de vendre des produits en prêchant être aussi verts que des kiwis. Vous serez surpris pour ce que vous pouvez tomber... Bonne lecture! - marie-pierre ( h...

Check out this post from an anonymous campus community forced to do a waste audit... The amount of coffee cups contaminated at Fauteux Hall, in the Faculty of Law building, is shocking and depressing. How difficult can it be to properly empty out the left-over coffee from the cups and throw them in the correct bin? It may mean nothing to you but it means the world for the person sorting out these cups. Everyone complains about the environment, but some people still don’t recycle properly on campus. Wondering what happens to your coffee cups after you are done drinking? I bet you’d say they are recycled, right?! That's true, except, many coffee cups still end up in landfills. Most coffee cups processed for recycling still have lots of coffee in them because people don’t throw out what’s left, which unfortunately contaminates the cups. The contaminated cups—where the coffee liquid has deeply penetrated the layer of the coffee cups— end up in garbage bags destined for landfills while ...

Hopefully you know where to get fair trade goods on campus. Café Alt sells fair trade coffee exclusively, Chartwells locations have at least one choice that is fair trade. T-shirts purchased through the SFUO are fair trade...Not much else is offered on campus that’s fair trade. Have you ever heard of Fair Trade Towns? It’s a campaign that essentially creates standards for a town to go entirely fair trade. There are criteria that a town must achieve, like passing a resolution at city council in support, and to using only fair trade coffee and tea at meetings and in the office. It’s then up to the businesses to offer fair trade products, and if enough do, you’re closer to becoming a fair trade town. Attract some media coverage and strike a steering committee devoted to planning for the future, and you have yourself a fair trade town. We can replicate this model on university campuses. The student union and the administration passing motions and devoting themselves to fair trade products ...

Do you see a need to eliminate the sale of bottled water on our campus? Do you still buy bottled water? Do you think it’s easy to get an entire campus to boycott bottled water? Should we stop buying it to show the university that it should not be sold on campus? I certainly boycott bottled water, and know many people who do, but that wave takes a long time to catch on. Let’s try a more proactive approach. With all of the hard work that’s gone into water fountain infrastructure and Bottled Water Free Day, and even some of the municipal water ads the city has been putting out, we are close. Spread the word, just a thought. That’s it for now. Enjoyed Bottled Water Free Day this week on Thursday, March 11. There will be tons of events including water tasting, film screenings, and important discussions. And in the evening you can join our engineers and architects for the “no idea too green” discussion on the new student centre. Check out www.bottledwaterfreeday.ca for more info -sarah jayn...