A little while ago I was working at an information table for sustainability and so I had to gather information about the cool research we do here on campus. I asked a whole lot of uOttawa professors about their research regarding sustainable development, and I thought that the coolest out of all of them was that of Professor Robert Delatolla’s. What is so incredibly neat about Professor Delatolla’s research is that he uses miniature spaceships. Sold yet? These honeycomb pasta like plastic thingies are mini-houses for bacteria that clean waste water. MBBRs (Moving Bed Biofilm Reactors – BUT FEAR NOT: you won’t need to remember this) are little bits of plastic that are designed to allow bacteria to grow in a community called a biofilm. These biofilms, or bacterial communities, filter the sludge in water by removing ammonia and nitrates. There are a couple of reasons why I think this particular project is brilliant. We are using what bacteria use against us against them – muahah...

Bonjour, je m’appelle Frédérique, j’ai 22 ans et… je suis étudiante coop. Lorsque j’ai choisi d’ajouter l’option coop à mes études, c’était dans le but de découvrir.  Découvrir le monde du travail, découvrir mes forces, mes faiblesses et mes goûts, découvrir ce à quoi je pourrais être utile plus tard…car je dois avouer que mon avenir professionnel était (et est encore) très flou dans ma tête.  Je crois tout de même en avoir appris bien plus sur moi-même et sur le monde qui m’entoure en quelques mois de stage que je ne l’aurais fait en 4 ans de Bac. J’en suis présentement à mon deuxième stage, que j’effectue au Bureau du développement durable, après avoir passé quelques mois à la Faculté des sciences sociales.  En fait, c’est en travaillant à la FSS que j’ai découvert les initiatives du Bureau du développement durable (notamment les Matinées caféinées et la Gratuiterie).  J’ai été impressionnée et charmée par les activités et l’engagement du Bureau. Lorsque j...

Nous rencontrons une abondance de produits chimiques dans notre vie quotidienne. Certains, comme l'oxygène et l'eau, sont essentiels à la vie humaine, alors que d'autres, comme le monoxyde de carbone, sont toxiques. Mais où tracer la limite entre les produits chimiques toxiques et ceux qui sont sans danger? Qu’est qui rend une substance toxique? Simplement dit, une substance est considérée comme toxique lorsqu’elle contribue à une réaction nocive pour l’organisme. Cette conséquence nocive peut être une réaction réversible comme l’irritation cutanée ou peut être beaucoup plus sérieuse comme la mort. Une des catégories de substances les plus dangereuses pour la santé humaine est celle des dioxines. L’Organisation mondiale de la santé définit les dioxines comme étant « … un groupe de composés chimiquement apparentés qui sont des polluants organiques persistants dans l’environnement. » Les dioxines sont des sous-produits dans de nombreux processus comme l’incinération...

Every day, an untold amount of garbage makes it to the landfill in Ottawa. And every day, hundreds of people in need go without many of the very items that are filling those Ottawa landfills. Sometimes when I think about the whole thing it seems like a cruel joke, an utter disaster of resource management. But not every day is like this... This past February, the Office of Campus Sustainability teamed up the the Centre for Global and Community Engagement for an Alternative Student Break placement. Seven volunteers came into our offices and set about the task of making sure that overflowing landfills and people in need were a thing of the past. They decided to rewrite the ending of what happens to clothes, household goods, and electronics here in the City of Ottawa. Essentially, the volunteer group spent the week learning about sustainability issues, especially things related to waste management. Then the volunteers started creating inventories and calling up every local charity...

Well kids, we have finally done it. We are officially a Fair Trade Campus ! Some of you may be thinking that we already were a fair trade campus, you noticed the signs that appeared early this school year in the SFUO businesses and Chartwell food outlets, your coffee had a lingering aftertaste of something that could only be described as “dark roasted, earthy tones of justice for farmers”, or maybe you have just seen a girl wandering around taking photos of fair trade signage and awkwardly explaining to the café employees that she was given permission to photograph them (if you ever want to cause a ruckus, show up at a food outlet with a camera and a clipboard) but one way or another- we are now recognized as a fair trade campus by FairTrade Canada . This involved a lot of work over the past few years and I would like to give a well-deserved shout out to the Engineers Without Borders who have supported the movement the entire time, to Chartwells for being absolutely accommodatin...

I am very happy to say that the University of Ottawa is again in the top tier of universities in the world when it comes to being a sustainable institution. ( UI Green Metric World University Ranking ) This goes out to the rabble-rousers that stocked the shelves of the Free Store even though it was impossible to ever keep them full for more than 5 minutes; to the caffeine junkies that gave away free coffee to the masses in order keep garbage out our the landfills; to the cyclists that couldn't say no to one more ride even if it was in the rain; to the paper pushers who still got the information out without having to knock down a tree to do it; to the residence herders who would always share green tips with their flock even if it meant being called a tree-huger; to the organics smugglers who would stuff old apple cores into their pockets because they couldn't stomach tossing good compost into a dirty garbage bin; to the white-collar hippies who believe that the ...

Tip of the hat to the uOttawa Gazette who recently published an article about some of the great services student should try out on campus . Of course one of the services featured was our very own Muggy Mondays, a volunteer initiative that serves free coffee to students who bring their own mug. Well we were so inspired by this article that we decided to pay tribute to it by listing our own 4 services students should try on campus.... sustainability style. 1. Muggy Mondays Of course this service was already covered in the Gazette article but I also wanted to mention the Fair Trade angle. Muggy Mondays strives to ensure that everything they offer that can be Fair Trade, is in fact Fair Trade. That means the coffee, the tea, the hot chocolate, and even the sugar. By the way, Muggy  Mondays prides themselves on their excellent coffee and only gets the best stuff, which is why they procure their coffee from Cafe Alt. Website 2. Free Store I mean the name basically speaks for ...

Green Weeks is wrapping up on campus and for those of you who don't know, Green Weeks is a great initiative put on by the SFUO to celebrate all things green at the University of Ottawa. Every year it is a little different but it is always a sweet mix of education, art, and turning things around for this little planet we call home. This year, the Office of Campus contributed to two events. One was the " Imagine a Sustainable Campus " speakers panel (which I blogged about last time). The other was the "Sew you think you can mend" workshop, a workshop designed to teach you the basics about mending, patching, and repairing your clothes. I really have to hand it to Francine, Alex, Frederique, and all the others that made the workshop possible. It really was an intimate and informative affair. Participants were taught the basics of sewing and how to use a sewing machine. Then they were provided with their very own sewing kits so they could try out their new fo...

Have you ever heard of a 100 visioning session? The concept is quite popular in planning circles and is very easy to do. Imagine a city, a town, or in this case a campus.... now tell me what you think you would like it to look like in 100 years from now. At first the idea seems a like strange. I don't know what anything will look like in 100 years and I am willing to bet you probably don't either. But in a beautiful way, that is the point. In 100 years anything is possible right? My personal dream is to remodel the uOttawa campus into a forest campus, kind of like what it is like when you visit a national park. Gigantic old growth trees reaching up into the sky; small nooks for students to study and for staff to have their lunch; the sound of birds songs echoing between the branches. Maybe some of the trees could be tapped for sap in the winter and we could make our own special brand of uOttawa maple syrup. Who knows, maybe we could even have study spaces in the form of...

So 2013 has come and gone, but not without some pretty cool sustainability things happening at the University of Ottawa. The year started out with some great news about uOttawa being recognized as the 14th most sustainable university in the world by the UI Green Metric World University Rankings . This was some welcome news after all the hard work that was accomplished by the staff and volunteers at the Office of Campus Sustainability . The Food Services contract was up for renewal and this year marked the first year under a new contract that required much more stringent adherence to sustainable practices. This includes more local food, more recycling, and more promotion about green products, just to name a few. This led to two interesting initiatives in 2013. The first was the push to donate more food to charities rather than throwing it out. The second was the push to become a Fair Trade campus , thereby rendering all the non franchised coffee on campus Fair Trade Certifie...

Promoting sustainability during the Christmas holidays is probably one of the most grim things I have to do each year. Don't get me wrong, I think that there are a tonne of really important things that should be done during the holidays; it's just that often doing the right thing for the environment seems like a real drag on the spirit of the season. Well, I don't think that you have to be a killjoy while doing things for the holidays. I think that there can be a balance between easy, fun, and right for the planet. Here is a list of the things that you can do on campus and at home to make it a green Christmas (other than by global warming of course). Before you leave the campus: 1. SHUT IT ALL DOWN I know this must seem like the most obvious thing, but it is really important. And if you want to have the biggest impact possible, just unplug everything from the wall. This guarantees no power loss to phantom loads. Some items are much worse in terms of being energy v...

It was another great year at the uOttawa community garden , and for all intents and purposes, I think that it was actually one of the greatest years we've had to date. From my personal recollection, there were a couple of great things worth mentioning. First, the garden was given a much deserved face lift. A bunch of beautiful unfinished cedar planks were used to delineate the plot spaces, making them not only more visually appealing, but also more functional (setting clear limits for where to plant and where people can walk). There were also a few more work-bee parties, an opportunity for the community garden members to get together and help clean up the space as a group. And a few more garden meetings, a chance for members to discuss common issues about the garden space. And there were even a couple of social outings, you know... to grab a drink and talk shop. We got to do some experimenting this year, including experimenting with a hay bail garden plot! We also got a...

Marie-Pier, from the Office of Campus Sustainability, holds up a donation for the soup kitchen. At one point or another, you've probably asked the question, "What do they do with all the unsold food on campus?" Maybe you were in a bakery, at the grocery store, or in a restaurant — the point is that you probably noticed a lot of food going to waste. If you’d asked me a year ago, the answer would be simple and sad: the landfill. That said, I’m happy to report that we've changed that for the better. It turns out that there’s this thing called the Good Faith Food Act (Food Donation Act in Ontario), which protects you from liability if you donate food to a charity in "good faith" — meaning that, if you take proper precautions to make sure the food is still good to eat, you won’t get sued in the event something happens or someone gets sick. This way, more food can be donated while still ensuring some kind of quality control. Our campus food provide...

Vous vous demandez tous surement ce que nous faisons comme travail pour le développement durable en tant qu’étudiant. C’est un travail qui comprend plusieurs dimensions et plusieurs projets. Réseaux sociaux- grâce aux réseaux sociaux nous avons fait la promotion de la Gratuiterie , un magasin où l’on trouve de tout et croyez-le ou non, TOUT est gratuit! Tu entres, tu choisis et tu sors! C’est une manière de réduire le montant de déchets qui s’en vont dans les dépotoirs. Sauver de l’énergie- nous sommes quatre étudiantes, toutes dans différentes années à l’Université d’Ottawa (soit de la 1ere à la 3e année). Nous passons à travers les bâtiments sur le campus de l’Université afin de faire un compte de tout ce qui est branché aux murs, soit les ordinateurs, écrans, ordinateur portable, haut-parleurs, lampe, micro-ondes, entre autres. Nous faisons tout ça dans le but de recueillir des données qui vont permettre aux ingénieurs du développement durable de trouver des solutions pour un...

It can be all too easy to get stuck in a rut. The school term is well under way, and I know between work and school there is little room for deviation in my established routine. But that’s the thing about routines - they are comfortable and they function sufficiently, so we rarely break from them until they are antiquated. However, more so than our day-to-day practices, habits of thought die hard. It is too easy to get stuck in the same line of thought, to approach everything from the same lens, and moreover to stop asking the important questions. I’m writing this because I have been catching myself and others fall into this fallacy of circular logic. It’s important to remember there is an infinite amount of means to the same end, and just because something has always been done a certain way doesn't mean it has to be done that way, should be done that way, or that is the best way to it. I find this to be a particularly common method of thinking when I talk to people about t...