Quelle est la différence entre un bon recycleur et un mauvais recycleur? Un bon recycleur divise ces matériaux recyclables; les cannes, le papier, les bouteilles de vitre, avant de remplir les bacs de recyclage. Un mauvais recycleur rempli son bac de recyclage avec de la glace et l'utilise comme frigo. L'année dernière, je vous ai donné quelques raisons pour lesquelles vous devriez devenir un Éco-ambassadeur en résidence à l'Université d'Ottawa. Plusieurs de ces raisons comprenaient l'apprentissage  au sujet des questions environnementales et comment être un citoyen qui est conscient de son environnement. Ces raisons sont encore très valables…mais maintenant nous en avons encore plus! Cette année, nous lançons une nouvelle initiative pour les Éco-ambassadeurs : un programme de leadership. L'idée derrière ce programme est de renforcer le rôle de nos Éco-Ambassadeurs en leurs offrant un système de mentorat, une formation concernant la gestion et encore plu...

Last night, as I do every year, I gave a presentation to the University of Ottawa's student ambassadors team . If you aren't in the know, the ambassadors team is, and I quote, "an essential tool for the University of Ottawa. It represents an invaluable resource for prospective students and their parents, providing everything from tours, tele-counseling and special recruitment events." So every year I give a presentation to the ambassadors about the neatest green things on campus so that they in turn will tell prospective students about them. I love presenting to the ambassadors. Not only do they dress nicely, but they also ask really great questions, which makes sense since they have to explain everything to our visitors. But last night the questions were better than my answers, so I thought I might take this post to clarify some of the great questions I got. 1. Is the University going to create a park in the middle of parking lot X? Yes, the plan is to one da...

What is the differences between a good recycler and a bad recycler? A good recycler carefully separates their recyclables, cans, paper, and glass, before filling the recycle bins. A bad recycler fills the recycle bin with ice to use it as a mini cooler. Last year I wrote a nice little post about why you should become a Green Rep here at the uOttawa residences. There were a lot of things about how you could learn about environmental issues and how to be a better ecological citizen. And all that still applies.... but there is more now. This year we are launching a new component to the Green Reps programs, a leadership program. The idea behind this program is to empower some of the Green Reps by offering them mentoring, management training, and augmented responsibilities. Don't worry though, we will still have our classic Green Rep team members who will help out with the general Green Rep activities and meetings. And this year we are putting a hard focus on recycling. Follow...

It's the end of the summer and you know what that means? MOVING TIME!!!!!! Yes, the moment has come for that time-honoured tradition whereby thousands of students flock to the University of Ottawa and hunker down for 8 months of intense working, studying, and partying. And for about 3,000 students who will be living in residences, this will be their first trip to Ottawa. Now being the helpful people we are here at the Office of Campus Sustainability, we thought that we would share our top 5 tips for ensuring a green move-in here on campus. In fact, even if it isn't your first year, this list could really help you out. Don't bring your entire closet with you! I know it is tempting to make sure that you have hundreds of clothing / accessory options available to you when you arrive on campus, but take it from us, traveling light is the way to go. There are tonnes of free shirts available at virtually every major festival on campus and let's face it, after your f...

Last week, I was grabbing beers with an old friend and her friend that was passing through Ottawa. Matthew explained to us that he was on his way to university in a less than conventional way. He is undertaking his journey to Halifax by bike—a method which obviously interested me due to its sustainable nature. I have never been on any sort of lengthy bike ride and I asked if he would write to me about his experiences. The following describes part one of his travels. About a week ago, I left on my bike from my parents' farm in Northumberland County, Ontario, with one goal in mind: get to Halifax, Nova Scotia in 23 days. That number includes off-days in Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City. So far, after 700 km of biking, I have made it to Montreal. Although that seems like a large distance, it is barely more than a 1/4 of my journey east. I guess a logical question would be "why did I decide to do this?"  The short answer is that last fall I traveled to Europe and in...

I know that there is a lot of controversy these days about bike lanes, especially of the segregated variety. Ottawans have been fiercely debating the infamous "Laurier segregated bike lanes", specifically as to whether the lanes should stay in place or be removed. But regardless of which side of the fence you fall on, bike lanes make cyclists safer. And not only that, bike lanes also make everyone safer. So it is with great pleasure that we would like to announce that the Parking and Sustainable Transportation Office at the University of Ottawa is creating a new counter-flow bike lane that will span a majority of the campus. Although the completion date has not yet been determined, the plans have been approved and early construction has already begun. What this means is good times for everyone on campus; cyclists, pedestrians, and even individuals in cars. Allow me to explain. But first, one small step backwards to explain what is a bike lane. Well d'uh, of course ...

It seems that every second or third article that comes my way on Facebook or Reddit is somehow related to the death of a bunch of bees, the lack of Monarch butterflies, and the implications of fewer pollinators in the environment. As a science student who took several ecology courses, I am very aware of the implications of having fewer pollinators. I mean if I could boil it down into a concise series of events it would go something like this.... Bees and wild pollinators start dying for some reason No more pollinators means no more pollination Fewer plants get pollinated and so less fruit is produced With less food comes sky-rocketing food prices Sometime shortly there after Armageddon ensues There are a lot of theories that have been going around about why there are so many bees and butterflies dying. I recall not even a year or two ago we though the answer might be cell towers or fungus. Today the prevailing wisdom says it is overuse of pesticides. In any event, it sucks ...

There was once a time when university campuses where funded almost exclusively by land endowments.Some noble person would bequeath a plot of land to a university in the hopes of providing a place for education to flourish. These parcels of land were typically enormous, and small sections of the land could be sold or leased for a profit. In this manner, the institution would be able to pay for the cost of operating their institution. Need to hire more profs, sale a patch of land over in the East corner. Need to build a new library, log some of the forest and make a profit from the timber. And thus an institution could thrive perpetually on the land endowed to them. But, the world changes and gone are the days of land endowments functioning as the sole money generator for universities. Today, most endowments are financial in nature and are vulnerable to the whims of the market and political popularity. If the market slumps, universities have less operating funds. If the government t...

There are two realities for students that call the University of Ottawa there campus. On one side there are tens of thousands of students that scurry in and out of the classrooms, lounges, sports facilities, etc. And on the other side there are thousands of students that call the university more than just there campus... it is there home. Here at the UofO there are 2885 residence beds spread out over seven residence buildings on campus. In addition, there are some residence houses in the Sandy Hill community and a few students that stay over at the St. Paul residence. So in the end, we are talking about 10% of the community that lives on campus. So imagine our reaction here at the Office of Campus Sustainability when the idea of a model room in residences started floating around.With such a huge number of the campus community living in residences, it would be a gigantic win for us if we could get students to practice sustainable living habits. So here is what we are proposin...

Eight months ago the Office of Campus Sustainability and the SFUO Bike Coop were approached by a student named Isabel. She had seen these cool things on the internet called Fixtations . I have to admit they are pretty nifty little inventions. Essentially a Fixtation is an outdoor bike stand with tools attached. The first thing that popped into my mind was AWESOME! Do you know exactly how many times I have had a little problem with my bike and all I needed was a place to look it over, maybe adjust a spoke, or even inflate a tire? Well me neither but I can tell you it is lots. It took all of about 2 minutes to convince Seamus and I that these Fixtations should be on the campus. We struck a deal, if the Bike Coop purchased the Fixations, the University would install them and put signs on them. I kind of get the impression that Isabel was a little taken aback by how quickly we agreed to the whole project. She asked if we needed some kind of report or justification. Seamus and I ...

For a couple of years now I have been trying to get the community behind the idea of creating an environmental charter of rights for the University of Ottawa community. And sure, what could be more boring then a legal framework premised completely on soft laws? But I urge you to take a moment to think about what this kind of thing could mean for a campus... and maybe even a city. So what is an environmental charter of rights? I am glad you asked. A charter is basically a testament to the rights that are granted to a group of individuals. It sometimes outlines rules and regulations that are meant to be followed and respected. When we talk about an environmental charter of rights we are basically talking about the rights individuals have to environmental services. Think clean air and drinking water. A few years ago I approached an environmental law course with the task of creating an environmental charter for the uOttawa campus. The result was two amazing reports that approached ...

You may have been busted a couple weeks ago in the “Bike Safety Blitz” conducted by the Ottawa Police in attempt to “to bring awareness to cycling safety and to ensure that all cyclists follow to the rules of the roads set out in both the Ontario Highway Traffic Act and Municipal Bylaws”. If you were one of the 385 persons that were charged over the three day span, then you know that this translates to “the Ottawa Police pulled over a bunch of cyclists in order to dish out tickets for anything from not having a bell and proper lights at night to not fully stopping at stop signs”. I understand the need to enforce good biking behaviours in order to prevent sidewalk cyclers and nighttime collisions but the issue should be a two-way street (if only all one-way streets had counter-flow bike lanes like the ones in front of Marie-Curie at uOttawa, then you wouldn't have been pulled over for cycling the wrong way up a one-way street). Every day cyclists in Ottawa  face-off against ...

This year marks the 4th year of being a bottled water free campus for the University of Ottawa . I can't say that there was a lot of opposition to the idea but now that a few years have passed, it seems like the campus has embraced being bottled water free. I won't make it seem like there is unanimous adoption. Every once and a while I will walk by an event that is handing out a bottle or two and think to myself that I should send a letter or something. But, in my mind, the biggest win from the bottled water free campaign is the improvement of the water fountains on campus. As a condition to becoming bottled water free, Physical Resources Service has invested $75,000 every year into improving the fountains on campus and adding new fountains. Don't take my word for it, every year our office produces a report to monitor the state of the water fountains on campus. The fountains are checked for 7 dimensions of quality; taste, temperature, water pressure, accessibili...

Do you hear that future inhabitants of Thompson Residence? It is a call to arms, a call to mobilize your waste and make a better world one recyclable at a time. Sorry for the touch of over-dramaticism but this is something that has bugged me since I arrived at the University of Ottawa... the lack of recycling in residences. The recycling system in the uOttawa residences is not the same as the rest of the campus. There are a couple of reasons why this is the case (different cleaning contracts, less infrastructure, etc) but the primary reason is the nature of the waste that exists in residences. Think about, the people in residences live there so they generate a whole bunch of waste that you just don't when you are on campus for only a couple of hours a day. When is the last time you had to throw out a razor or dental floss or an old t-shirt on campus? Probably never if you didn't live in one of the University's residences. So you can easily see the challenges of recy...

Book worms at the University of Ottawa rejoice! You will be happy to know that you can continue to study at the library and be perfectly at ease with the fact that the library is using less energy. Admittedly energy consumption and libraries don't typically go hand in hand but they should. Did you know that library are energy pigs. Think about it, lots of people that need fresh air circulated around and books that can't get too dry or too wet or they risk being damaged. Finding that balance takes a whole bunch of energy. So today I thought I would share with you some good news from our EcoProsperity program. Now for those of you who don't know, the uOttawa EcoProsperity program is just a fancy name we have given to our energy savings program. Essentially we are going around to every building on campus and trying to make it more efficient. This past year the engineers and operations people at Physical Resources Service have been working to see what they could do t...