Penny pinchers and waste reducers rejoice- the Free Store has reopened for the summer! For a month and a half, we had to shut the store’s doors so that we could put all of our effort into Dump and Run, the massive task of collecting, cleaning, and organizing all the items students left behind after move-out. The donations filled two basement storage spaces and every inch of the store- you would have to see it to believe it! But now, every Wednesday from 10am-3pm during the summer, the Free Store will be open to fulfill all your needs- from a new outfit for that music festival, to a great summer read, to some kitchen gadgets for your new apartment. Opening day was a huge success- regulars returned and new comers flipped through the racks in awe. Customers left, arms loaded with sneakers, framed art, televisions, you name it! Volunteers were flying around, constantly reloading emptying shelves with treasures. Whether you’ve loved the store since the beginning or you’ve never h...

Another year, another Dump and Run! Every year, we tell ourselves, “we can’t possibly collect more things than we did last year!” And every year, we do end up collecting more things than we did last year. Whoops, where are my manners. I didn't explain what I am talking about. The Dump and Run is an event that targets people moving out of the residences at the University of Ottawa. Our group, the Office of Campus Sustainability, organizes the collection of unwanted (but still functional) items and food to then donate them either to the Free Store (for other students to use) or to local charitable groups. By collecting stuff what I mean is recuperating things that students leave behind when they move out of our campus residences. There are good reasons why people leave stuff behind. Some people are moving in with other people who have too much stuff, some people are going home and have no space, and some people are taking an airplane our of town – do you have room for that com...

Sometimes it is all too easy to look at the deluge of environmental bad news and feel helpless in the face of the impending doom. Rising sea levels, species in decline, toxic air floating over toxic lakes. Current events fuel distopian nightmares of a future that has droughts on top of floods, ice storms on top of heat waves, and an environment turned topsy-turvy. But we have to remember that the future is not written in stone. For every environmental woe there is an environmental win. As you read these words, there are cities banning plastic bags, countries signing into law aggressive emissions standards, and globally, the rate of growth for renewable energy is outpacing fossil energy. This summer our office decided that we could do something more to improve the campus footprint and so we launched an agricultural demonstration project. This is not new idea. McGill and Ryerson are two institutions that already grow food on campus and reap the benefits. A little known fact; gro...

Community Shared Agriculture (CSA) Have you ever heard of it? The concept is simple, you give a farmer some money and they grow food on your behalf. Every week you get a box full of fruits and vegetables and the farmers get paid for their hard work. Quid pro quo. This past semester an intern student from France joined our office and worked on a project designed to increase community agriculture on campus. Coraline's idea was to get a CSA started on campus and help build a more sustainable food system. Here's the thought process; People on campus need more access to locally grown food. Partnering with a local farm that has the capacity to deliver food to uOttawa greatly increases the chances that the community will take advantage of it. Access is one of the greatest challenges people face when trying to make healthy food choices. The easier it is to get your food, the more of it you will eat. Bringing healthy foods right to the campus will make it easier for more people ...

J’ai enfin terminé ma troisième année d’étude collégiale à La Cité dans le programme de Technologie de l’environnement. Le 1er mai 2015 était le jour où j’ai commencé mon stage à l’Université d’Ottawa et c’est à ce moment où j’ai pu faire la mise en œuvre de certains apprentissages de mon parcours scolaire. Jamais je n’aurais cru qu’une institution pouvait aller aussi loin, entre autre au niveau des 3R : Réduire, Réutiliser, Recycler. La barre est haute pour les nouveaux défis de l’Université d’Ottawa, par exemple, il voudrait atteindre zéro déchets d’ici 2020!!! Et c’est possible! En ce moment ils réacheminent plus de 60 % de leurs déchets. C’est en ayant implanté des projets comme le Déposer et Dégager ainsi que la gratuiterie qu’ils sont en mesure de dévier plusieurs tonnes d’objet des sites d’enfouissement. C’est objets sont des dons des étudiants mais aussi de la communauté. J’aimerais ajouter un petit mot de remerciement aux bénévoles et les féliciter de leur travail puisq...

There are many perks to biking to campus. Aside from the obvious health and environmental benefits of biking, the University of Ottawa has a bunch services to help with your commute. Here are a few things every campus biker should know about:   Bike Parking   One of my favorite things about biking to campus is how affordable it is. No need to pay for a parking pass, just roll in and find a bike rack. The University is committed to improving bike amenities on campus namely by providing more racks. If you are having a hard time finding a rack, you can contact to put in a request for a new rack. Biking doesn’t have to happen only when it’s nice out since there are a number of all-season bike racks around. Not keen on leaving your bike outside to face the harsh elements? Not a problem. Protected and indoor parking is available for your wheels (most of which are free but require a deposit). Bike Repair Stations Flat tires happen, we’ve all been there and they are a pa...

Ils y a plusieurs avantages lorsque vous choisissez de prendre votre vélo pour vous déplacer sur le campus. En plus des avantages pour votre santé et l’environnement, l’Université d’Ottawa a plusieurs programmes en place pour faciliter vos déplacements. Voici quelques trucs que tous les cyclistes devraient garder en tête : Stationnement Ce que j’aime bien c’est que prendre mon vélo ne me coûte pas cher. Pas besoin de payer une passe de stationnement, j’ai juste besoin de pédaler et trouver un porte-vélo. L’Université cherche toujours à améliorer l’accessibilité pour les cyclistes. Ceci est fait en partie en augmentant le nombre de porte-vélo sur le campus. Si vous avez de la difficulté à vous trouver une place, vous pouvez faire une demande pour en faire installer un. De plus, certains des porte-vélos sont tous-saisons. Ceci veut dire que vos déplacements en vélo n’ont pas besoin d’être limité à l’été. Vous ne voulez pas laisser que votre vélo ait à faire face au climat Canadie...

So I know a guy, well actually he is a friend. And if you need the sweet stuff, he's got you covered. Last year Vince decided to start an apiary. He did some online research, spoke to a couple of people, and decided to order up some equipment and get going. Fast forward to last week and there I am paying a visit to Vince's bees. I learned a couple of really interesting things about bees including one important thing that I didn't know: bees don't usually sting you unless you are directly in their flight path. (Also, they will attack you if you threaten them, try to kill them, or try to steal their honey, etc.) This was a profound moment for me because I have always wanted to have an apiary on campus. But of course whenever someone brings up the idea of an apiary in a dense urban space, the first thing that comes to mind is the dreaded bee sting. I watched Vince as he inspected the hive and added a bit of smoke to scare away some bees so he could open up the box...

You could almost feel the tension blanket the entire office. For the past couple of days Brigitte, our waste diversion coordinator, would snap into her chair, quickly head over to the RecycleMania website, and then let out a little huff. The computer would diligently inform her that the results of the 2015 competition were still be tabulated. Great, another couple of hours before she could check again. It's kind of strange to think that we were a little nervous to get the results for RecycleMania this year. This certainly wasn't our first rodeo, uOttawa has been the Canadian champion for the past six years running. But this year, well this year we were hoping to set a personal best, We really wanted to set a new high point for ourselves. So ignore the title of this post for a moment and put yourself in our shoes. What could we do to engage the community? Well we ran a couple of fun events that I think were worth mentioning. Ugly Sweater Day Yes I know this isn't...

The results are in for the 2014 uOttawa Sustainable Literacy Survey and the results are... well I don't know. They aren't good but they definitely aren't bad either. Last year, students from a first year Environmental Studies program participated in the distribution of a sustainable literacy test on campus. Students approached campus community members, including professors, students, and external community members, and asked them to fill in a simple 11 question test. The questions were multiple choice and all the tests were conducted in person. The results.... on average a score of 54% was achieved. So just in case you don't know, a sustainability literacy test is essentially a tool that helps measure understanding of sustainability concepts. The hope is that with a tool like this you can help increase knowledge about sustainability, and by extension promote more sustainable practices. Furthermore, organizations can use this tool to measure the impacts of messag...

You can smell it in the air. The snow is melting, birds are signing, and before you know it, the very first buds will burst forth from the trees! SPRING IS HERE! Okay, maybe we aren't quite there yet but it certainly is time to start thinking about your garden. Devoted fans of our office already know that we offer community garden plots through a partnership with the SFUO and OPIRG. The plots are first come, first serve and I would be remiss if I didn't tell you to book a space right now if you want one. But this isn't a post about our community gardens, well not exactly. This summer, the Office of Campus Sustainability, will be conducting an agricultural demonstration project. We are hoping to prove that we can grow food on campus that could be sold on campus. At the same time we are also hoping to create a new green space. But rather than telling you what we are trying to do, how about I just show you what we have in mind. Now, there is no way that we are...

There aren't very many times in anyone's academic life that they will have the opportunity to make sweeping changes to the make-up of their campus. How often have you had the opportunity to say where there should be more gardens, if a street should be lined with trees or not, or even where cars should and shouldn't be allowed to go? On March 10 and 11th, the campus community at the University of Ottawa will have that chance! Facilities Service at the University is on the verge of completing the latest iteration of the campus master plan. For those of you that aren't familiar with what that means, a master plan is a planning document that indicates what development the University would like to undertake in the near future. Urban Strategies Inc , a design firm operating in Toronto, has helped create a new development strategy for uOttawa. This plan was created in consultation with many groups and individuals from around the campus community. They are currently in ...

A bunch of friends have shared the K-Cup horror movie with me recently. I getting the feeling that K-Cups are making people feel a little helpless. I mean great coffee that's prepared perfectly every time.... vs huge waste generation that is, in its own little way, killing the planet. I recently embarked on the Waste Bucket Challenge . I was challenged by our 2014 Free Store coordinators and I have been trying to reduce my waste consumption for the past couple of weeks. I think that one of the only things keeping me going is the fact that I recycle my K-Cups. That's right, they can actually be recycled. I think that the first thing you need to know is that my office is equipped with a Keurig coffee maker. When the machine appeared in our space three years ago, I wasn't crazy about the amount of waste it produced; nevertheless, the machine grew in popularity in my office until eventually everyone was getting their coffee from the machine (sadly, even me). At f...

photo credit: http://www.temporausch.com/01/ Over the Christmas holidays, I spent a little over two weeks in England with my Grannie, the first time I had been without my family. This time around, I found myself experiencing a lot of her to day to day life and I was very impressed (and a little shocked) with all the things she did to cut down on waste. We often think of our grandparents generation as sustainability illiterate. Car-loving, climate skeptics who don’t know what recycling is, right?  I am pleased and a little alarmed to report that, rather, we should be taking our environmental tips from Grandma and Grandpa. One of my fondest memories of my Grandad is, on Christmas Day, waiting in anticipation, with a gift of mine at the ready, as Grandad painstakingly removed every piece of tape on his gift and carefully removed the paper, ready to use next Christmas. At the time, it was a strange and uncalled for delay to our Christmas proceedings, but now I can see what ...

It’s happened… I have fallen down the waste reduction rabbit hole. I am not necessarily proud of this but digging through my household trash has become a nightly routine, a mission to properly sort any and all misplaced recycling and compost! I’ve seen and smelled it all, yet I continue to do it because, in my heart of hearts I know that although I am just one person, my waste has a large environmental impact. The average Canadian produces 2.7 kg of waste every day! To me, that represents a whole lot of stuff that doesn’t necessarily have to end up in a landfill. This year, as part of Recylemania, a group of brave crusaders will set out on a clandestine operation to properly sort waste on campus! A year ago, had you told me that burrowing through bags of trash would be an eye opening experience; I would not have believed you. Having performed waste audits I can tell you that digging through garbage is FASCINATING! Not only have I learned how to properly dispose of my items (an...