I have just finished the waste numbers for the month of May; which is usually a very wasteful month due to campus move outs and various spring clean-ups. It turns out that campus residences produced 37% of our total campus waste – four of the seven residences are currently empty. This is mostly due to campus move-out; which is the most wasteful event on campus – total chaos! Everyone is in a hurry; parents want to get the (cough!) off campus, people are fighting for the two elevators servicing an entire building, students haven’t finished packing until the very moment their parents arrive, staff only have a few hours to make a residence hotel-worthy, carts are missing, people are missing, people are losing patience, getting angry, yelling….HECTIC! (Scenario looks a little like this) But wait! What about my recycling bin? It hasn’t been emptied yet…and the stuff which doesn’t fit in the car? (Honk!) “Get out of the way! It’s my turn to park!” Well, I guess I will just throw it all out ...

Photo credit: " Attack of the Killer Tomatoes " “Farmers feed cities,” this blatant yellow sticker has been frequenting the bumpers of vehicles, local store windows and random telephone poles in cities across Canada. The message seemed fairly redundant because who other than farmers would be feeding cities? Maybe they should be a little more specific. “Canadian Farmers feed cities” would be better from a marketing point of view. After all, we all KNOW farmers feed us. Food does not harvest itself. I think what these ambiguous sticker makers are going for is that we should be eating locally grown food and supporting our Canadian farmers. Finally, I agree- with myself, but still. Why the hell am I buying tomatoes grown in Mexico? It is summer now, and Canada is finally warm enough to produce delicious fruit and vegetables. And yet, it is Mexican tomatoes and peppers from down south that line my local grocer’s shelves. It’s an illusion of choice, the multiple varieties of lettu...

Photo credit: www.redbubble.com Suis-je un fruit ou un légume? Qu’importe! Je suis délicieuse, juteuse et riche en antioxydants. J’aime prendre mon temps à me préparer avant de sortir de terre. Je préfère être planté à l’intérieur pour 4 à 6 semaines avant d’être transposée dehors. Parfois, quand mes fruits m’épuisent je fais la paresse et je plis. Sans bâton ou treillis sur lequel m’appuyer je prendrai des poses courbées à mesure de ma croissance. À cause de cela des jaloux disent parfois de moi que je suis difficile. Ce n’est pas tout le monde qui goûte bon dans presque toutes les recettes et ce n’est pas de ma faute si je suis géniale ;) ***** Am I a fruit or a vegetable? Nonetheless, I am delicious, juicy and antioxidant rich. I like to take my time sprouting and prefer to be started indoors 4-6 weeks before planting outside. Unless you want to buy me pre-started in which case, simply plant me somewhere that receives lots of sun and eventually I’ll be ripe for the pickings. Someti...

Photo credit: Unknown I am now on week 4 of STARS (Sustainable Traking and Ratings System). Work is going smoothly, I do some research on the Uottawa website, send a few emails, ask many questions and drink my coffee. The campus staff is starting to get to know me as the girl who asks a lot of questions. On another note, yesterday I made myself my very own detective note book. Why do I need a detective’s notebook you ask? Well, though my employee i.d. says Sustainability Coordinator, I like to call myself a Sustainability Detective. I think the definition I found on the Urban Dictionary explains it all : “A devilishly handsome individual who investigates and ruthlessly abolishes mysteries of all kinds.” - URBAN DICTIONARY But it takes more than good looks to be a good sustainability detective. I go around campus asking questions about computer purchasing policies, cooking oil policies, waste management and then jot down the precious information in my notebook in hopes of adding it to...

Photo credit: unknown Dear Coca Cola, You are such a source of childhood nostalgia for me. Every time I crack open a can of coke I think of being just a wee child, spending time with my grandma. That woman used to give us coke when we stayed home from school and explained to my frustrated mother that it helps with stomach aches. Upon researching your company, I have become disheartened. After world water day and numerous water documentaries that were playing around earth day (my dad surprisingly pulled me away from studying to watch one) I’ve been patrolling water use aggressively. Coca Cola is failing in this sense… not just like a fluke “one time I was out late partying and got a 47% on a bio quiz” but a “seemed like a good idea to play vidja games for a week straight and skip all my midterms” fail. Boasting that they use 2.43L per 1L of water, meaning 1.43L is waste water or used for manufacturing processes- not even reaching a bottle to be distributed for insane prices after being...

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo I joined Katimavik because I was sick: Sick of being a hypocrite. Sick of being an indirect activist. Sick of being unable to measure any sort of change. I felt like I was pointlessly trying to 'raise awareness' and motivate OTHER, uncaring people to become environmentalists so THEY could change civilizations' selfish and uncaring system while I myself did absolutely nothing. I wanted to stop wasting time and start doing something concrete with MY environmentalism. Well I guess substantial hands-on volunteer work that had me directly preventing countless waste and destruction and helping countless needy people in the same fell swoop was the cure. In 6 months, I've become an organic, localvoric, occasionally-freegan vegan and gone from the Canadian average 4.5-earth demands to less that 1. I've learned to live almost entirely off of recycled and second hand products and gone from spending $200-$400 a month to spending $20-40. I’ve cut m...

Photo credit: AASHE I am now seeing stars wherever I go. And I don’t mean the massive, luminous balls of plasma held together by gravity that we gaze at romantically. I’m talking about the Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System (STARS). It’s a transparent, self-reporting framework for colleges and universities to gauge relative progress toward sustainability. This assessment framework provides universities the opportunity to benchmark their progress with respects to sustainability related issues. The framework scores institutions on 300 possible points and requires that the President of the University sign-off on the report to ensure that all the information has been reported faithfully. Basically, it’s one humongous form with more questions about our university than a detective with too much caffeine in his bloodstream. I have been working on it for 3 weeks now and have just begun to get to the good stuff, which means the real research. I have been organising myself and ...

Photo credit: unknown Si tu ne cherches pas à t’impliquer dans une relation à long terme avec tes légumes, je suis fait pour toi. J’ai un cycle de croissance de courte durée (3-4 semaines) et un besoin de lumière modéré. Les radis atteignent leur maximum de confort à 6 pouces sous terre et ont besoin d’être tailler fréquemment pour assurer l’atteinte d’une taille maximale. Laisse-toi charmer par le Raphanus Sativus : un légume plein de vitamine C, d’acide folique et de potassium qui ajoute une saveur épicée et une texture croustillante à toutes salades ou sautés. Pour profiter de moi toute l’été, plante-moi tout de suite et jusqu’en septembre à toutes les 3 semaines. If you are not looking for a long term commitment, I’m the vegetable for you. With a short growing season of three to four weeks and requiring moderate sunlight, radishes are perfect to quench your vegetable desires. We enjoy depths of 6 inches and to be thinned out during our growing season to ensure maximum growth. Radi...

Photo Credit: Rosa Kouri When I saw this story, I had to share it! Help Gavin Smith bike across the continent for Ecojustice! After finishing his law degree at the University of Ottawa, Gavin is biking across Ontario and eight American states to his grandmother’s home on the Pacific coast in Oceanside, Oregon. There he will meet his family and catch a ride back to Vancouver, where he begins his articling position with Ecojustice founding lawyer Gregory McDade. Wondering how a trip through both Canada and the United States relates to Ecojustice? It does in many ways. One is that Ecojustice feels we need to support the generosity and dedication of supporters like Gavin. Beyond this, Ecojustice is increasingly involved in cross border issues. From our international success standing up for the Flathead Valley, to our efforts to stem global warming by reducing black carbon, we recognize that global environmental problems need globally minded people - and solutions. Gavin has committed years...

Photo credit: Cafepress.ca Étant un pilier de base pour toute vie épanouie, je suis l’élément clé de toutes vos salades et sandwichs. J’ai plusieurs personnalités : romaine, frisée, boston, iceberg. À toi de les découvrir et d’adapter ton jardinage à mes humeurs. Je pousse en moins de deux semaines et c’est possible de me planter en continuité toute l’été à intervalles de 3 semaines. Bien que je sois friand de soleil, ne me laisse pas poireauter au chaud et récolte-moi une fois que j’atteins mon optimum de saveur si tu ne veux pas que je te fasse la moue. A basic food staple, I provide the main component of your salads and sandwiches. I come in many different varieties and thrive in sunlight, sprouting within 1-2 weeks. Continue seeding every 3 weeks for continuous yield throughout the summer. Being so diverse, check the packaging to see our spatial requirements. Remember to harvest us quickly because we don’t like waiting around under the hot sun after reaching our height of tastiness...

Photo credit: unknown As planting season gets closer and closer we decided that we would have a series of blog posts dedicated to gardening. But since this can sometimes be a dry subject, we decided to spice things with out sexy vegetables series. La carotte Je vaux la peine. Je raffole du soleil, je suis riche en Vitamine A et ta mère t’a toujours dit que j’étais bonne pour les yeux ;) Plante mes graines en rangée, à un quart de pouce de la surface et dans un sol fin car les sols ardus briment ma peau douce. Après ce premier contact, tu ne me verras pas ne serais-ce que sortir de terre avant 3 semaines mais quand finalement j’apparaîtrai tu pourras me déguster dans toutes sortes de plats. Pèle-moi pour des collations rapides à tout moment de la journée, coupe-moi en rondelles dans des salades, bouille-moi pour des potages, mélangeons-nous à des patates pilées, Laisse-moi baigner dans un rôti ou un crockpot… Les possibilités abondent avec moi : la carotte! The carrot I’m worth the wait...

Photo source: edressme.com Suite à ma chasse aux souliers écolos la semaine dernière, j’ai décidé de pousser ma quête plus loin afin de pouvoir m’habiller de la tête aux pieds de façon complètement écologique. C’est ainsi que j’ai fait le tri de boutiques locales (Ottawa, Gatineau, Montréal et Toronto) offrant des produits locaux, recyclés ou à base de matériaux renouvelables (bambou) en résumant le tout à mon top 4. Tout d’abord, EcocentrikAppare l () offre des vêtements écolos et équitables pour homme, femme et enfant à des prix tout à fait abordables faits à partir de tissus biologiques ou réutilisés. La majorité de leurs produits colorés et d’un confort absolu sont également créés au Canada. Par la suite, on retrouve un style beaucoup plus détendu chez Susanharrisdesign , une boutique à Toronto. Cette créatrice réinvente de toute pièce des chandails chauds, des jupes, foulards et même de petites culottes à partir de motifs de vêtements ayant trépassé. Comme quoi les déchets des un...

Photo credit: Brigitte Morin Okay, I recognize that this pushes me dangerously close to the dreaded “dirty hippy” line but I can’t seem to help myself. Okay… here it goes…. I collect every scrap of plastic that comes my way. Now before you judge, you should hear why I am doing this. First of all, garbage sucks. Over the past couple of years I have been slowly phasing out as much waste as possible from my life. Thankfully recycling and composting programs are in place for Ottawa and Gatineau. This is sweet because it means that I am down to 1 half size garbage bag per month. So why would I stop there. Old clothes and household items I donate away to the Free Store or give to friends. I have been shifting from purchasing physical gifts to giving experiential gifts (theater tickets, day at the spa, etc…). And I am getting better at asking to not have any disposable straws at restaurants. But of course there is the ever elusive plastic wrapper. Somehow it has always been able to penetrate...

Photo credit: treehugger.com En ce printemps pluvieux, suite à une session universitaire bien mouvementée, je commence enfin à reprendre vie. Soudainement, sans l’angoisse des études, je décompresse et prends gout aux choses un peu frivoles. Mais comment se laisser aller, en tant que jeune femme, aux modes vestimentaires sans renier mes convictions écologiques? La mode n’est-elle pas justement éphémère (loin de durable)? Comment être écolo, tout en étant à propos? Eh bien, grâce à mon ami internet, j’ai pu me trouver quelques alternatives tout de même de bon gout! Tout d’abord, la compagnie Mohop offre de superbes sandales à semelle de bois que l’on attache avec une gamme de rubans pouvant être organisés au gout du jour. Le seul inconvénient est le prix un peu élevé, disons environ 150$ par paire. Par la suite, Mooshoes crée des souliers végétaliens, faits des manière a éviter toute cruauté animalière . Ce sont des souliers qui ressemblent à ce que l’on retrouve chez ALDO (tout comm...

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo As much as I love spring, spring cleaning is an environmentalists worst nightmare. Workers moving out to break the boring chain of stability, Mothers clearing out in search of something they haven’t had since they got married to thier slob of a husband, and University students running out of money to afford living away from home. Suddenly things like mr. couch, mr. toaster and mr. not-in-fashion winter coat are useless. Well, as we all know, useless things go in the garba- WAIT! Do those things look like completely unusable, filthy, destroyed messes? No. Donate them! Okay, but you're already pressed for time, that's what you were throwing stuff out for in the first place! And if your leftovers happen to be food, a hoodie, some books, and an old toaster. How the hell do you donate that? Go to the food bank, then the salvation army, then a second hand library, then a...toaster depot? Wow, time vampire. The solution is obvious: if you’re provided wit...