A couple of days ago I left an interesting picture up on my Facebook page. You can check out the picture for yourself but it made me and countless others giggle hysterically. Of course that was minutes before I took a leisurely walk through the campus to go get something to eat... Yeah, so what I found was this party poster blasted all over the campus. And to my utter dismay, someone had taken the time to douchingly tape these posters to the trees on campus. Yes, tape.... super thick packing tape. They went around the tree three times. So this makes me think back to a conversation I had with our campus groundskeeper a couple of years ago. Benoit and I had a nice talk about how many trees die on campus because of the negligence of the people around us. Every year there are people that break branches off of trees to pretend that they are wands; or strip the leaves from the trees to keep as souvenirs; or even damage the bark of the trees to hang posters and banners. ...

This post should have been put up last week but I guess I got lazy. So as the story goes, last week I ran into an old friend of mine who posed the simple question, "Should we have an occupy uOttawa protest on campus?" This got me thinking... There are a lot of people much smarter than me out there right now to define what the OCCUPY movement is all about. Well this is my take. In 2008, president Obama took office and there was so much optimism for this that he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize just based on HOPE. But as the years roll by many people have noticed that not much has changed and it doesn't seem likely that much will change in the near future. As each election passes, the candidates are somehow less and less appealing. In fact, Ontario's recent election drew was a record low turn out. Unlike most people, I don't blame anyone for the low turn out. Some people will make the very real statement that, "there are people dying in other countri...

photo credit: electrictreehouse.com In the same idea as Extreme Couponing, an American reality show where people go completely insane, digging out coupon pamphlets out of recycling bins, collecting them in binders and then hitting the local grocery store for a 4 hour shopping adventure. They bring their children and spouse and come out of there with 6 shopping carts of random stuff (hand sanitizer, shampoo, tissue, canned goods, gatorade) and only pay about 40$. Yay for accessibility! But wait, there are still starving people out there. Oh…right! Hand sanitizer isn’t edible. Now Verizon is offering phones for a penny IF you sign up for a two-year contract. Sorry folks, this offer only works in the United States. Again, yay for accessibility! But also nay for encouraging over-consumerism.  It’s nice to have the latest technology, check emails faster than the speed of light and to telepathically communicate with your gadgets. I may not be a technology crazed person, which...

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo While preparing dinner this Sunday October the 16 th , take a minute to think about where that food came from. Were any of your ingredients local? Fair-trade? Did it come from your freezer, ready to be nuked in the microwave? This Sunday is World Food Day, a day to recognize the intricacies of our global food production system and more importantly- your place within it. It seems odd to contemplate where every last ingredient in your meal came from, how it was produced, who grew it, how long it was transported for, and what it cost you, but you should try it. Hell, try for even for half your meal’s worth of ingredients and you would be surprised. Thinking back to the last meal I prepared, vegetarian chilli, it seems impossible to recall off the top of my head where the ingredients were produced. I know that the tomatoes were from Canada, as were the beans…but where on earth was my fake beef, the spices, etc. made? The intentions of World Foo...

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo Les sacs réutilisables se voient de plus en plus utilisés dans les supermarchés et dans les magasins de tout genre. Le problème des sacs de plastiques n’est pas totalement réglée mais, la population le comprend et commence à prendre les mesures en conséquence. La prochaine étape ne serait-elle pas les tasses jetables vendues un peu partout. On peut déjà voir la tendance commencer à tourner en faveur des tasses réutilisables comme par exemple, certains kiosques réduisent le prix du café si l’on apporte sa propre tasse. Ou encore, à chaque lundi sur le campus, on offre du café équitable, chocolat chaud, et thé à quiconque apportant une tasse réutilisable. Ce programme existe depuis quelques années et incite les gens à apporter leur propre tasse et à acheter des produits équitables. Cela me semble simple et intéressant mais, on peut voir tout le monde acheter un café Tim Horton ou whatever dans une tasse jetable quand le kiosque a café gratuit se tr...

Photo credit:  http://www.newspapergrl.com Someday I will be reclined in a psychologist’s lounge chair rhyming off coordinates and datums because I will have finally gone crazy from all the mapping projects I get myself into. Sigh, until then I have found myself a new task for maps on campus. Foursquare: a tool that allows users to explore their surroundings and discover new places. If you use Facebook , you may have noticed that you have a few friends that are constantly “checking-in” to random spots including restaurants, clubs, school buildings, etc. Personally, my phone is not legit enough to handle such applications but I can appreciate the GPS technology used by the program and apparently still get assigned the task of taking advantage of the sustainable capabilities of the service. You may recall me ranting this summer about mapping sustainable transportation on campus and my upcoming accessibility mapping projects- this is a continuation of green mapping and invo...

 Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo Want to try a social experiment that will only take a moment but that could have a major impact on how you experience the campus? Cool, okay.... here we go. Close your eyes and try to walk around the campus. It is not as easy as you might think. You will likely fumble around a little bit. You will likely take very cautious steps. And you might even freak out a little when you get to an actual intersection with cars that could hit you. Of course this is an experiment to make you realize how difficult it is for someone with visual impairments to navigate the campus. But if you really want to make it fair, you should go to a part of the City you have never been to and try out this little experiment. Because, actually, you already know the campus and have constructed a visual map in your mind of where everything is... By the way, don't actually try this experiment unless you are with someone. I don't want anyone to get hurt. No le...

Photo credit: art.com So it seems that with the passing of generations we have lost something special... the ability to sew. The reason why I am bring thins up right now is two fold. First, my grandmother just handed down to me her mother's sewing machine. I am really excited about this because it means that I now have something in my possession that has been in my family for 4 generations. The machine is a turn of the century Singer and is peddle powered (enviro swoon). My biggest regret is that I don't actually have a picture of it to put into this post, but I will get one. The second reason for this topic is the recent addition of EcoEquitable to the Free Store line-up. This past week the ladies of EcoEquitable were working furiously to alter clothing at the Free Store. I was really happy to see this for a couple of reasons. Of course it makes sense to repair and alter clothing. Back in the day, even before my time, clothing was super expensive. The thought of re...

Photo credit: I don't know... probably LOL cats... cause the only thing the world really needs are more cats on the internet It could just be me but there is something about September that just completely drains my energy; blame it on school starting up again or the lack of routine that comes from not working full-time but I just want to sleep and sleep and Zzzz. Maybe it is that I am not eating as much vegetables and fruits because my garden is coming to a close which makes me horrified at what may happen to my energy levels as winter comes. SOLUTION! Fear not fellow students, I have discovered (okay, rediscovered) a magical method for getting our summer fruits and veggies in the cold winter months. Even better, these fruits and veggies could be local! I sense your doubt through the computer screen but bear with me. Pretend it is winter, you go to the grocery store and pay ridiculous amounts for fresh produce and cringe as it rings through the cash and squirm silently as...

Photo credit: www.gorbould.com “So, do you compost?” I asked as I was visiting my future apartment building in Gatineau. “LOL. Can you imagine how much trouble that would give me? And the complaints about the smell? No. We don’t compost here.” Said the facility’s manager minutes before I signed a one-year lease with him. Great. Now I’m going to have to either carry my compost all the way back to campus for a 45 minute walk every morning OR walk the streets at night in my shady neighborhood looking for a compost bin to take my kitchen leftovers. Did you know that 80% of your waste is either recyclable or compostable? My family of 4 sends 1 single half-filled garbage bag to the curb every week along with 2 bins of recyclables and a big green bin of compost. It bothers me tremendously that cities have yet to figure out a way to normalize and facilitate composting practices in multi-level buildings. Let’s face it. Building owners might never make the effort until given a...

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo Another semester means another edition of Muggy Mondays. For those of you not in the know, Muggy Mondays is a waste reduction initiative targeted at behavioural modification with respects to habitual use of reusable containers by applying a reward mechanism. Simply said, on Mondays we give away free coffee if you have a reusable mug. And not just coffee, hot chocolate and tea too. Muggy Mondays is originally a program that was introduced at uOttawa by Green Campus. Technically we ... borrowed the idea from the University of Guelph (shout out to my green peeps at the UofG sustainability office). It has been running on campus now for 6 years if I recall correctly. The concept of free coffee isn't anything new. Many groups use free coffee as a means to pull people in. The trick with Muggy Mondays is that there are no strings attached (with the exception of having your own mug). The condition component of this program is simple.... good things happen whe...

Photo cresdit: Jonathan Rausseo I am going to fold big concepts together here so please bare with me. Concept #1 - Living Laboratory I've talked about this before but a little refresher is in order. The Living Laboratory is a concept that places the University campus at the center of unique learning experiences. These learning experiences typically happen outside of the classroom and can be structured or unstructured. Concept#2 - Biodiversity zone A Biodiversity zone is at it's heart an area with a higher variation the the number of organisms. Simply put, more living things in a given space. So if I take these two concepts and bring them together then what we get is the Biodiversity Garden for the University of Ottawa. The concept of this project would be to create a small garden on campus with a disproportionately high amount of biodiversity. This would create a space that would not only increase the number of species on campus, it would also create a space where students in t...

Photo credit: EcoEquitable Le Bureau du développement durable est fier d’annoncer son partenariat avec Éco Équitable Lors de votre prochaine visite à la Gratuiterie, vous remarquerez qu’il y a un groupe de femmes qui offre des retouches et réparations de vêtements tels qu’un rebord et une réparation de sac ou fermeture-éclair. Ces femmes travaillent pour l’organisation Éco Équitable, et elles seront sur place lors de chaque Gratuiterie organisée par le bureau cette année. Établie en 2002, EcoÉquitable Inc . est une compagnie caritative enregistrée qui offre un emploi temporaire et un entraînement de développement des compétences à travers une petite échelle de recyclage des tissus. Leur mission est de permettre aux travailleurs immigrants et aux femmes sous-employées de devenir financièrement indépendant tout en réduisant la quantité de déchets dangereux dans notre société Les nouveau canadiens, surtout les femmes immigrantes, font face à plusieurs obstacles dans leur recherche d’emplo...

photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo Car Free Day is just around the corner and once again the argument has made its way to my doorstep... "Can we really ban all the cars on campus? Won't people freak out?" Yes, people will freak out and maybe that is the point. But in a world where I have to be realistic... no, we cannot ban all cars on campus. Here are a couple of pretty important reasons why. Some people have legitimate mobility issues and we have a pretty big campus. Sometimes a CAR is the only real solution Deliveries need to happen... enough said Sometimes big things need to be moved around and that takes a vehicle. BUT, I secretly do believe that we can have a car free campus and here are some solutions to the problems listed above. There are legitimate mobility issues and on many other campuses there are building linkages and a designated transit system to assist movement around the campus. So by building linkages I am talking about hallways that connect buildings toget...