Though I tried to get my family to quit bottled water cold turkey, it didn’t exactly go over as well I had hoped. However, it wasn’t entirely in vain; we did reduce our household’s consumption substantially. I feel that this is going to be an ongoing battle, but one that I’m willing to fight. With that said, I figured it’d be an appropriate time to distract them from being unimpressed by their lack of “convenient” water by sneaking our compost bucket into the kitchen casually. While my mom and I were making dinner a few nights ago, I made a point of tossing all of the peels, egg shells and other compost created into the little bucket, hoping she’d get the idea. Alas, the European parent is a stubborn one. I talked to her about it afterward and we came to the conclusion that composting is only going to be happening if I’m doing it. Okay, I can deal with this. What this entails is literally flitting around my family during mealtimes and making sure everything compostable is heading into ...

Thanks to everyone that made environment week possible this year. A shout out to Brigitte, Danny, Marc, Vedrana, Amina, Matt, and Leah. We had a bunch of great activities this year but I did want to take a moment to especially mention the bike repair kiosk that Matt was running during this year's BBQ. Like every year, there are dozens of individuals that come by looking for some help getting their bikes back into working order. Well, worry no more friends, the Bike Coop will soon be finished. You can check some earlier posts about the Coop and all the cool services we hope to have but the essential is that campus community members will now have a space to fix up their bikes with the guidance of a technician. And the timing couldn't be better. At this year's bike repair kiosk there were many bikes that came our way that were just on the border of not being road worthy. In the picture below you can see a brake line that was maybe a couple of minutes away from complete failure...

Photo Credit: Pierre St-Jacques Comme une résidente depuis ma jeunesse de la région de la Capitale Nationale, il m’est difficile d’accepter les commentaires clichés sur Ottawa. J’en ai entendu de toutes les sortes. Il semble que toute personne à son mot à dire lorsqu’il s’agit de parler d’Ottawa-Gatineau. Je pense qu’il ne faut pas comparer Ottawa à de très grandes villes pour deux raisons. Premièrement, Ottawa n’est pas aussi une grande métropole, donc c’est une erreur de la comparer avec Montréal et Toronto. Deuxièment il serait anormalement stupide pour une ville de juste 90 mille habitants d’avoir autant d’activités que les grandes villes, car non seulement ca sera une perte d’argent, mais aussi par ce que le nombre des participants sera toujours minime. En fait, est-ce possible que les gens arrêtent de comparer et juste apprécier la ville telle qu’elle est? C’est ce qu’a fait Ève Dumas, chroniqueuse du journal La Presse, section voyage. L’article est bien présenté car il est divis...

Environment week is just around the corner, and last-minute preparations are underway in the Sustainable camp. Next week is looking to be a very exciting and enlightening experience for both staff and students! In a perfect world, every single week of the year would be Environment Week; unfortunately, this is not the case. What we are trying to do by planning out various activities over the week is raising awareness, one small step at a time. If you’re interested in getting involved in the festivities of next week, RSVP to our Facebook event ( http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=110972942281484 ), and show up to whatever suits your fancy. If you simply don’t have the time to participate, celebrate Environment Week your own way by biking or walking to work, starting to compost, reducing energy usage, etc. It doesn’t have to be an official week for us to pay attention to, and respect, our environment. Enjoy the glorious weather, and hope to see you out in a few days! - vedrana

Photo Credit: David Kawai, The Ottawa Citizen It's back!!! The GREAT GLEBE GARAGE SALE!!!! Okay I will be the first to admit that the items are overpriced; and the merchandise is sometimes questionable; and the road is long (with many a winding road); but come on, it's the GREAT GLEBE GARAGE SALE people! And although it is no Free Store, it has its redeeming qualities. For those of you that are not in the know this is the premiere garage sale of the City of Ottawa. Not because it is the best, or because it has the best stuff, but because it is simply the largest. Yes you heard it right, this is the largest garage sale in Ottawa and therefore I contend that it is one of the green events that puts Ottawa on the map. And yes this is a contentious issue so allow me to defend my position. 1) The Sale is a massive event that basically covers all of the Glebe. This is great except that it limits people who would like to be involved in the selling but don't live in the Glebe. You c...

This is the experience of myself, at a place I never thought I would work (or more like being volun-told). This is also my first real blog that I have done, so go easy on the criticism eh? I came late in the Katimavik Program and therefore did not get to experience life before the famous Dump-N-Run program that has brilliantly put in place by Jon and Brigitte; however I found the concept thoroughly intriguing. Getting people to donate (for them more like throw away) any old, used, or just unwanted things (whether it be clothes, books, bedding, bathroom accessories, dishes, electronic equipment, etc) instead of throwing it in the trash. So Eco friendly!! There has been MANY an hour sorting through clothes, washing and folding sheets and towels, doing dishes (ugh those nasty dishes!!) nonetheless I have quite enjoyed myself! (I know, odd eh? The act of enjoying this slavery has even mystified myself) I’ve met numerous wonderful people that I do wish to keep in contact with, and see again...

Photo credit: czechmatediary.com The weeks are flying by here, and somehow, the gigantic Dump&Run mountain of clothing, food, dishes and other miscellaneous items has nearly entirely been reduced to easy-to-donate boxes. There’s still some work to do yet, but we’re now heading out of the woods rather than trying to figure out how to dislodge ourselves from the brambles. This past week, I had the opportunity to mention where I work to a lot of people I know, and ended up fielding a lot of questions concerning the bottled water ban. For the most part, the response was incredibly positive; however, regardless of their responses, I found that very few of the individuals in question were adequately informed of the logic behind the ban, and the extent (in all fairness, we are still working on the latter). The students have to be informed, or, as is the custom in large groups of poorly-informed people, speculations and rumours will come to be accepted as the norm, leading to a whole host...

Hey again! Yet another week wraps up here in uOttawa’s Sustainable Development office, and man, has it ever been busy. This week, we were sorting and folding up a storm to try and get all of the diverted waste from the Dump and Run organized and ready to be donated. There’s still a lot to be done, but we are leaps and bounds farther down the line than we were on Monday. There are clothes that need folding, dishes that need washing and a whole bunch of miscellaneous items that need a purpose (once we figure out exactly what they are, mind you). Our hopes are that we’ll have everything done by the end of next week, at which point there will be photos and videos aplenty to share! It’s been a remarkable experience just seeing the sheer volume of items that we are diverting from landfills and knowing that deserving people will be getting some much-needed items to boot. At the same time, though, realizing that a lot of the stuff that’s being thrown out has never been used or worn is a bit d...

My name is Vedrana, and I’m one of the new students working for this wonderful office on campus. My first week has come to a close, and I figured I should just pop in to share my impressions of both working here and the University’s sustainable initiatives. I came into this position with only a basic knowledge of what was being done on campus, and was massively surprised to find out how little I knew! Over the course of five (well, six) days, I began to develop a much deeper understanding of what sustainability is and how I can play a part. Naturally, I bring this understanding and awareness back home to my family, in hopes of making my household more sustainable. My summer goal is to make a drastic change towards the better in my home; in addition to the initiatives I will be both spearheading and assisting with on campus itself. If all of us were to take the time to educate our families and introduce them to simple steps to reduce their carbon footprint, we’d all be better off. With...

Great news! The one sided paper notebook logo redesign competition has come to an end and we have found a winner! The lucky winner will get a $100 cash prize! Above is the winning logo! There is definitely some work to do, because we need to decide what name we will be going with for the program. If you have ideas, send them our way! As an update, the notebooks are going well! This is one great step in getting awesome notebooks sold on campus. Over the summer, we will be working more towards realising this project by September. Hopefully by 101 week, you will be able to get tons of cheap, environmentally friendly notebooks! - sarah jayne

PHOTO CREDIT: Dave Weatherall So many of you may have heard yesterday that we banned bottled water on campus. Well this an official shout-out to the students that made it possible (especially Jenna Dunsby, Sarah Jayne King, and Michelle Lamarche). But did you hear about the other official announcement about the EcoChampions? You didn’t??? Well allow me to explain. Yesterday the office of Campus Sustainability set in motion the EcoNetwork, a group of individuals (aka EcoChampions) that will spread the good word about sustainable development in their departments and units. For the Most part this is an employee program but we are tuning it up to get students involved too. So what’s the big idea and how does it work. Simple, every month we bring together all the EcoChampions on campus and have a discussion / workshop / brainstorm about how to make our campus greener. The EcoChampions are given tools – like composting bins, or computer programs – that allow them to make changes in their res...

Nous avons encore une fois dominée au concours de Recyclo Manie. Nous nous sommes placés en première place parmi les collèges et Universités Canadiennes pour les deux catégories; ‘minimisation de déchets’ et ‘Grand champion’. Sur le plan international, nous nous sommes placés en 16 e place dans la catégorie de ‘Grand champion’ et 13 e place dans la catégorie de ‘Minimisation de déchets’ parmi 267 collèges et universités en Amérique du Nord (y compris une université Indienne). L’année dernière, il y eu 204 collèges et universités en Amérique du Nord qui ont participés à la compétition Recyclo Manie ; cette année il y en eu 267. En total, la compétition a pu recruter 600 collèges et universités à participer (plusieurs parmi elles ont participés en tant qu’écoles en ‘essai’. C'est-à-dire que leur résultats ont été calculés, mais ils ne comptaient pas.) et ensemble, pendant les dix semaines de compétition, les participants ont recyclé et composté plus de 84 millions lb d’articles ! ht...

Avez-vous trop de choses à rapporter avec vous cet été ou vos pantalons ne vous font plus? Parfait! Emportez-nous vos vêtements, coutellerie, vaisselle, etc. usagés pour être réutilisés; à la station «Déposez et Dégagez» du 12 avril au 1er mai. Ces objets peuvent être déposés sur une table à l’entrée de votre résidence (90 U, LBC, THN, HSY), ou dans le bac devant le bureau de la FÉUO (UCU). Tous vos articles seront redistribués soit à la première Gratuiterie pour les étudiants internationaux, ou à plusieurs charités spécifiques en besoin. L’année dernière, nous avons pu protéger 1.7 tonnes métriques d’articles des sites d’enfouissement! Si vous avez des questions ou commentaires, s’il vous plaît contacter Brigitte Morin, Coordonnatrice du Recyclage et diversion de déchets : bmorin@uottawa.ca ou 613.562.5800 x 3997 ***** Do you have too much stuff to bring back with you this summer or your pants no longer fit you? Perfect! Bring us your used clothes, dishes, utensils, etc. to be re-u...

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 the 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 helped bring out...

What is a waste audit? Well my friends, a waste audit is when we organize the collection of all the waste and recycling from a given space (all the bags are labeled by room and waste type i.e. recycling mixed papers room 229), and we evaluate the contents of each bag. Each bag is opened and the items inside are separated by type (mixed papers, waste, etc.) and weighed. With the information noted during the waste audit, we can calculate the contamination rate of each bag, and of the whole building (i.e. the percentage of items which were in the wrong receptacle). We can then study trends in the data; for example, if people are often throwing a specific item in the wrong bin it is perhaps because the bin isn’t labeled properly, or the sings aren’t clear enough. Recently, we completed a waste audit of the entire Fauteux building, and here are the results: 32% of what was found in each bag was considered to be some type of contamination (which is above what is usual for campus buildings…)....