So last night I went to go see Forks Over Knives with a friend. The movie examines the claim that “most, if not all, of the degenerative diseases that afflict us can be controlled, or even reversed, by rejecting our present menu of animal-based and processed foods.” It is fairly provocative as a film and I would actually say that the movie is not pro vegan, pro animal rights, or even pro environment; these elements are only lightly touched upon. Most of the focus is on the health side of switching to a non animal product diet. One of the reasons why this movie was made was to raise the discourse around the issues of cardiac disease and obesity. And even though I would give this movie multiple thumbs up, I can’t help[ but wonder how realistic the premise is. Not the part about meat being unhealthy for you, but the idea that people’s habits could actually change. For instance, would it be possible to get half of the University of Ottawa campus to reduce their meat consumption by one ha...

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo Sorry I didn’t mean to steal away the Fulcrum’s thunder and publish the word Frosh before them but… whatever. The question at hand is can we actually have a green frosh given that frosh is essentially a week to produce as much garbage as is humanly possible? Now hold up. I am not trying to be super critical or anything, I am just kind of stating the facts. Think back to your own frosh. Do you remember the frosh kit stuffed with things that you never touched again (for example, that plastic mug that was great for getting free beer at pub crawls but that eventually became so gross you never used it again - except maybe to fill it full of broken pens)? What about the swarm of sponsors that pay tonnes of money to hang around the campus during frosh week and offer you free stuff for signing up to credit cards, and magazines, and cell phones, and other things I can’t think of right now? That’s basically how it is, right? And let’s not forget the long bus ride...

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo Le projet de «gratuiterie» (dérivé du français canadien) est né dans la tête de Julie Villecourt, étudiante en psychologie, partie à Ottawa l'an dernier : «En quittant le Canada, je me suis rendue compte que plein d'affaires ne rentraient pas dans ma valise, explique-t-elle. Or, l'université d'Ottawa avait mis en place ce dispositif permettant de récupérer les objets d'étudiants qui partent pour les donner gratuitement à ceux qui arrivent.» De retour à Grenoble, Julie décide donc, avec d'autres bénévoles de l'association InteGre, de lancer une «gratuiterie» sur le campus. Depuis le 16 mai, des collectes sont ainsi organisées plusieurs fois par semaine dans des résidences universitaires. «On prend tous les objets, tant qu'ils ne sont pas trop encombrants : four micro-ondes, produits d'entretien, vaisselle, lampes, balais, miroirs, vêtements…» De nouvelles permanences auront lieu en septembre pour redistribuer ces affaire...

Photo credit: uOttawa gazette So you say that you can’t hand your assignment in on-line because your prof won’t let you. Unfortunately that statement is bull$@!t and I think I have some proof to back this statement up. Have you seen the uOttawa lately? In a recent issue there was a nice little article about some Geography and Environmental Studies profs that decided to go paperless with their assignments. To make sure that their TAs (teacher’s assistants) were properly equipped for the task, the professors purchased some ipads and voila… a paperless semester was born. ( Article ) And of course there were the infamous Experiential Learning Sustainability surveys. I blogged about this earlier this year ( Love and Surveys ) but the results are slowly trickling in and it turns out that 45% of professors do allow students to submit their work electronically. Sure this is a little less than half but I bet it is way more than you expected. Another interesting tidbit came out of these surveys...

Photo credit: Brigitte Morin Si vous jetez un coup d’œil au graphique ci-dessus, vous verrez que la collecte de recyclage dans les résidences sur notre campus a augmenté exponentiellement – entre l’année dernière et cette année, le recyclage a presque doublé! C’est superbe! C’est toujours motivant d’obtenir des résultats positifs après une année où nous avons travaillé tellement fort. J’aimerais remercier tous(tes) les éco-ambassadeur(e)s dans les résidences de uOttawa qui ont fait en sorte que nous avons atteint un taux de recyclage bien au-dessus de mes attentes pour cette année. J’aimerais aussi remercier deux étudiants (P.O. et F.) qui ont travaillé très fort sur un immense projet pour commencer un programme de compost en résidences. En quelques mois, nous avons composté environ 3 tonnes métriques de matière organique au lieu qu’elle se fasse envoyé au site d’enfouissement. Pour l’année prochaine, je cible les déchets en résidence; qui équivaut environ 37% de la masse totale de ...

Every once and I while I think that it is a good thing to stop and take a look back at all the things that have been accomplished since you first got started. Last night I was doing just that whn I decided to take a stroll down memory lane and see who were the contributors to our little sustainability team here at the University. Anyways, there have been a lot of people over the years and I thought it would be nice to pay homage to them. So I put up this little picture on our Facebook TEAM page to thank all those poor souls that had to suffer me over the years, as well as those who still work at the office now. Hope you are all doing well wherever you are. Check out the Facebook page here -jON http://thesustainabilitree.blogspot.com

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo But what is a revolution? The most spoken of campaign on the University of Ottawa campus is the Drop Fees campaign. More than a thousand students turn up on the Morisset terrace to show their displeasure with high tuition fees. I applaud you all for standing up for what you believe in. Then again, when studying the 2008 uOttawa sustainable transportation modal share study, the revolution isn’t as obvious. Out of 36 244 students, 48% use public transit (yay U-Pass!) and 20% of students walk, which is more than the 16% of people who drive alone. But what happened to sharing, people? Carpooling is down to 5%. And what about buns of steel? Cycling is about the same as carpooling in the numbers. I admit that biking in snow sucks, but fall and spring biking is great! The more research I do, the more I realise I am not alone complaining about the lack of bike lanes, common courtesy from angry drivers and secure bike installations. But that’s what BikeDan is here...

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...