Photo Credit: Damon Chen There are so many reasons to want to bike. I mean yeah there’s the environment, saving money and that bit of exercise. But seriously it’s just plain fun. You get to know your community on a whole different level, and get to pull some serious Kevin Lynchian urban jamming. Unfortunately though, cycling as a hobby isn’t always the easiest thing to break into. When I started biking about a year and a half ago, I was a disaster. I didn’t even know that cyclists were supposed to obey stop signs. I couldn’t tell the difference between a derailleur and a gear cassette, and changing an inner tube was way beyond my meagre skills. My friends called me a public hazard and I had no evidence to the contrary. Let’s be honest here, there’s a bit of a learning curve to biking, especially if you’re the first amongst your friends. There isn’t any kind of licensing to biking which is great for accessibility, but also means that there’s no one that’s really responsible for making s...

Photo credit: Danny Albert A grey parking lot sits in the middle of the campus. For one day of the year it gets to shine and yesterday (September 22nd) was that day. I don't know if you had a chance to pass by and see the Car Free Day (CFD) festivities but it was something to look at. There was a dunk tank featuring the boys and girls of the Protection Service, and two SFUO executives (Ted Horton and Tyler Steeves). There was a barbeque, information tables, bike repairs, free yoga sessions, and a farmer's market to top it all off. Unfortunately there wasn't very much traffic moving through the event, which was incidentally held in Parking lot K just beside the residences. There was one other very special thing at the CFD that I was particularly happy about. For this occasion we actually took a parcel of the parking lot and laid down some sod, effectively creating our own new green space. "Destroying a parking lot to create a green space" is what we called it. I e...

uPass! Whoo! Wait, what? Well, let me tell you. If you’re currently not aware, the uPass pilot project will be implemented on uOttawa’s lovely campus this coming September (i.e. next month). It’s an 8 month bus pass being offered at a greatly reduced price to full-time students of the University. The cost is included in your tuition, and you can pick it up starting the 23rd of August, at 9 am, in the couch lounge of UCU. Alright, now you know all the bureaucratic details; what about the practicality? The fact is, with two major bus stops on campus, it’s incredibly easy to get anywhere in the city using public transport. This is useful for running errands, accessing more of the city, and most importantly, getting to and from home. Many students have a lengthy commute to and from campus, so they have no choice but to have a bus pass to begin with; however, now it comes with their tuition! For the others that think this is a bad idea because they live near or on campus, consider this: you...

With the fall term just around the corner (I also shuddered involuntarily; it’s okay), it’s time for us students to slowly begin preparing for the intellectual onslaught of our coming courses. We have a lot to prepare, what with textbooks, notebooks, pens, pencils, binders and highlighters to buy, in addition to finalizing course selections, OSAP, and other bureaucratic nightmares. The major problem with this time of the year is that most people go out and buy a new set of EVERYTHING, despite the fact they have a majority of last year’s supplies left over. Not only is this bad for your wallet, but it greatly increases the amount of waste being spewed out into our environment. Here are some things you can do to lessen your Back-to-School environmental impact: Buy used books! Not only are you saving tons of money, but you’re also reusing books that are made from many a paper. Reuse notebooks, but if you must buy new ones, buy recycled paper notebooks. Also ask your profs if you can use l...

Êtes-vous au courant du programme intitulé écochampion? Même si ce dernier ne s’adresse pas aux étudiants, mais plutôt aux employés de l’Université, je pense qu’il en vaut certainement la peine d’en parler. Cet été j’ai travaillé au bureau du Développement Durable de l’Université d’Ottawa et j’étais surprise d’apprendre que ce programme date seulement du 22 avril 2010. Lorsque j’ai eu l’occasion d’assister à une des rencontres trimestrielle des participants, appelés les écochampions, j’ai remarqué une bonne énergie aux près des écochampions et tout le monde était très à l’aise avec le programme. En plus, l’équipe du bureau du Développement Durable, (Marc Pandi, la personne ressource), qui se charge de ce programme, interagissait clairement avec les participants comme si le programme lui-même existait depuis belle lurette. Comme vous le verrez sur leur site web (voir adresse du site ci-dessous), le concept de cette initiative est simple : créer un réseau de personnes motivées à changer...

Photo Credit: octranspo1.com Je reviens d’un voyage de 10 jours en Guadeloupe et je vous garantie que j’en reviens différente pas à cause de ses magnifiques paysages, ni de ses plus belles plages, mais plutôt à cause du système de transport. Là ou on est resté (Basse-Terre) c’est le coté montagneux de l’île. Comme toute colonie européenne qui se respecte, les routes sont étroites et il n’y a que des ronds-points; ce qui est pour nous quelque chose d’inhabituellement terrifiants pour la simple raison qu’il est difficile d’avoir le tour pour passer. En plus, Damme Nature a aussi ajouté son grain de sel; Basse-Terre est le coté de l’île le plus montagneux. Et croyez-moi, les pentes sont longues et apiques sur le bord de la plage. Durant ce voyage, mon emprunte écologique était grande. Je devais uniquement me déplacé en voiture faute de la quasi absence du système de transport sur ce coté de l’île. En fait, jamais j’aurai cru qu’en cette colonie française, la voiture est très présente da...

Photo credit: lunapad.com Last week, as I was visiting the Lunapads website , I came across an incredible project. For those of you who are not familiar with Lunapads or the DivaCup, let me enlighten you! Lunapads are washable cloth menstrual products, and the DivaCup is a reusable silicone menstrual cup that is environmentally responsible, and latex, plastic and BPA-free. These products are wonderful environmentally-friendly versions of the tampons and pads you would find at your local drugstore. Here are a few environment (and health) facts for you before we begin: Approximately 20 billion pads, tampons and applicators are sent to North American landfills annually. On an individual level, each of the approximately 73 million menstruating women in North America will throw away 125 to 150kg, or approximately 16,800 disposable pads or tampons, in her lifetime. Disposable pads and tampons are made primarily of bleached kraft pulp or viscose rayon, the origin of which is wood cellulose fr...

Photo credit: lunapad.com La semaine dernière, j’ai découvert un merveilleux projet lorsque je fréquentais le site web de Lunapads . Pour ceux et celles qui ne sont pas encore familiers avec le DivaCup ou le Lunapad, laissez-moi vous éclairer! Les deux sont des produits de menstruation écologiques ; les Lunapads sont en tissus lavables et le DivaCup est une petite tasse en silicone qui ne contient aucun latex, plastique, ni même de BPA. Au fin de compte, ces produits sont de formidables alternatives écologiques aux tampons et serviettes sanitaires que tu peux trouver dans la pharmacie du coin. Voici quelques faits écologiques (et médicaux) sur les produits menstruels communs: Chaque année, il y a environ 20 milliard tampons, applicateurs et serviettes sanitaires qui sont envoyés aux dépotoirs en Amérique du Nord. Au cours de sa vie, chacune des 73 millions de femmes menstrués en Amérique du Nord va envoyer 125 à 150kg ou environ 16,800 serviettes sanitaires ou tampons jetables au ...

Photo credit: Jon Rausseo When furniture reaches its expiry date, or simply doesn’t fit a space anymore, what do you do? Throwing it out is a waste of perfectly good furniture, but who has the time to dismantle countless pieces and recycle them, especially if the units can be reused? That is where we come in. Our furniture recycling program takes undesired furniture from all over campus and tries to find a new home for it! In the interim, the furniture gets stored at 200 Lees, where I lurk with a clipboard and pen, desperately trying to create a wonderful inventory system for it. Currently, the system follows the come-by-and-see method, usually followed by okay-let’s-find-a-matching-chair-and/or-table. What I am aiming to do is create a method to our madness, and make this furniture recycling program into something more. We want the rooms that the items are stored in to eventually look like showroom floors: well-organized, well-labelled and tidy. That end product is still floating on t...

Photo Credit: Jonathan Rausseo À tous les amateurs de café : votre amour pour le café n’est certes pas une excuse pour boire du café quotidiennement dans une tasse en papier ou styromousse. Pourquoi? Considérez ceci : 6500 tasses de café sont vendues chaque jour au campus, durant l’année scolaire. C’est assez de tasse pour aller d’Ottawa à Toronto! À mon avis c’est presque une honte sur notre Université qui se proclame une des universités les plus écologiques. Si la décision finale me revenait, il y a long temps que j’aurai éliminé les tasses de café jetables pour les remplacé par des tasse réutilisables que l’on rapportera au café plus tard ou que l’on peut poser à divers endroit au campus. Je sais que cela peu choquer beaucoup d’entre vous car on se dit, oui mais qu’arrivera-t-il si un jour j’oublie ma tasse et je ne veux pas utiliser les tasse que l’on fournit. Je vous répondrais que ca sera tempi pour vous car on essaie constamment d’accommoder les gens sans que ces derniers fasse ...

Photo Credit: Jonathan Rausseo Bikes, bikes, bikes. It's all I ever hear about these days. There's the Bike Share program, the forth-coming Bike Coop, bike prevention tables and so on and so on. I just finished writing a description about Bike to Work week and taking my bike to the shop to change out the sprocket. I guess what I am trying to say is that with so much "cycling" around me it is hard to remember that not everyone does it. The number of cyclists on campus is on the rise. This year 6% of the campus reported that they use bicycles to get around. Although this number is up from previous years, the number is actually really low. In Denmark 27% of all trips are made by bicycle. In the U.S., and probably Canada, we haven't reached the double digits yet. So what to do? Well a friend just sent me this nice article from the Scientific American (thanks Nads) about how to get more people biking. The solution... women. The article argues that biking rates would go...

During the summer, the temperatures skyrocket, the buses are crowded and sticky with the sweat of many a stranger and walking seems like a death sentence. There are plenty of places that we want to be, but there is the problem of getting there without wanting to lie down and pray to whatever deity that you’ll survive sweating out your life. Well, friends, there is a solution! That solution is BIKING! I’m aware that summer is coming to an end; however, biking season isn’t quite yet. A lot of people enjoy cycling as a means of transport and/or exercise already, but you know what they say: “The more, the merrier!” The use of a bike isn’t limited to the summer, either; some die-hards bike around the city even in the depths of winter, but if you’re not in that category, it’s no big deal. The fact of the matter is that biking, in addition to providing an excellent means of transport with no detriment to the environment, is extremely good for the health! You build stamina, improve fitness, bu...

Photo credit: www.abc.net.au Vous êtes-vous déjà demandé quels sont les impacts environnementaux du monde des Internet? Ou bien vous faites partie de ceux, comme moi, qui cette question ne leur a jamais traversé l’esprit? En faisant une recherche rapide sur les INTERNET, je me suis vite rendu compte que le monde virtuel des Internet pollue énormément. Bon, au point ou on est rendu on ne pourra se passer des Internet, et il ne serait pas pertinent de l’abolir puisque presque tout fonctionne par, grâce ou avec les Internet. Par contre il y a des gestes que l’on peut faire afin de minimiser l’empreinte écologique de ce réseau virtuel sur la planète, tel que garder notre boite de courriel légère. Pour en savoir plus, lisez l’article de la gazette, intitulé Le cout environnemental caché des courriels, dans notre section de nouvelles concernant le développement durable sur le campus au lien si dessous et vous jugerez par vous-même le degrés de pollution que génère les internet. Bonne lecture...

Photo Credit: itatour.net The last leg of an epic journey took my family and me through Italy – Milano, to be specific, and then over a crazy alpine pass to Zurich, Switzerland. The small alpine towns we passed through seemed to function similarly to the sustainable glory that was St. Anton in Austria, though to a slightly lesser degree. Milano didn’t really give off the impression of being environmentally concerned; I didn’t see any recycling bins anywhere in the downtown core and surrounding streets, but to be fair, I didn’t cover much ground in my wanderings due to time restrictions. Given the sheer amount of tourist traffic, the quantity of waste that would be produced in that city would be gigantic; for the Earth’s sake, I just hope that they had some hidden recycling programs in place (however that would work). As far as Switzerland is concerned, I saw quite a few recycling stations in Zurich that broke down recyclables very specifically – namely, there were separate bins for br...

Voila déjà un mois que je travaille sur le contenu du site web des futurs Éco-ambassadeurs de l’Université d’Ottawa. Pour ceux qui se demande qu’est ce qu’un Éco-ambassadeur, c’est un étudiant ou une étudiante qui représente les initiatives écologiques dans sa résidence. Cette opportunité donne aux étudiants la chance de s’engager et protéger l’environnement. Afin de créer le contenue du site, j’ai dû faire de la recherche afin de m’informer et de m’inspirer de projets similaires existant dans d’autres universités. J’ai aussi eu le plaisir d’assister à plusieurs réunions avec les responsables de la vie communautaire, entre autres Terry Kruyk, les coordinatrices du développement durable de la FEUO, Chaya Porter et Khadijah Kanji, ainsi que les spécialistes du réacheminement des déchets et du développement durable du bureau au campus, et oui vous les avez devinés Brigitte Morin et Jonathan Rausseo. J’ai eu beaucoup de liberté à concevoir le contenu car je commençais le projet dès le déb...