I am an active cyclist. I love to ride my bike and I get really excited in the Spring when the weather warms up... because that means that I'll be back on my bike again soon. I am not a cycling expert, I don't bike in the winter anymore, and I don't go on 50km rides just for the fun of it; most of my cycling is utilitarian.  So for a person that is on their bike basically every day in the summer time, you can imagine that I worry from time to time about getting hit by a car. It has happened to me a few times in my life and so I don't blame people who don't want to ride their bikes in heavy traffic. And when I watch videos about bike infrastructure in cities, I definitely cringe when I see how unsafe it can be. (I suggest this video by Not Just Bikes if you are looking for a good watch) Now the reason I am focusing on bike safety is because I know that getting more people on bikes is better for the planet, but to get more people on bikes they have to feel safe cycli...

Réduire. Réutiliser. Recycler. Ce sont les trois «R» du recyclage. Nous les avons tous déjà entendus,  soit à l’école, dans notre communauté ou dans notre milieu de travail. Nous comprenons leur importance pour garder la planète en bonne santé. Par contre, il n’est pas toujours évident pour certains de rester cohérent avec les demandes de la planète. Les demandes de la société ont un gros impact sur nos actions, en tant que consommateurs. Malgré l’augmentation des prix depuis les 50 dernières années, nous voulons rester à jour avec les nouvelles technologies, ce qui encourage la surconsommation. Nous achetons de nouveaux produits, alors que la plupart de nos biens actuels sont en bon état et s’accumulent chez nous et dans les sites d’enfouissement. Vêtements, téléphones cellulaires, ordinateurs portables et décorations de maison sont remplacés par la nouvelle mode, un autre style ou une technologie améliorée. Sans y réfléchir trop longtemps, nous achetons un nouveau bidule électr...

S'il y a une chose que j'ai apprise en tant que coordonnatrice du recyclage à l'Université d'Ottawa, c'est qu'en matière de déchets, la courbe d'apprentissage est très très raide. Si pour moi, dont le travail implique de m’occuper des ordures quotidiennement, trier correctement mes déchets semble compliqué, qu'en est-il d'un ou une étudiante ? Alors que j’injuriais une énième poubelle mal triée, j'ai commencé à me poser des questions. Le système était-il trop compliqué ou les gens n'étaient-ils pas informés comme ils le devraient ? Est-ce qu’ils n’en avaient rien à faire ? La réponse est "ils s'en soucient", dans la mesure où le système n'implique pas de détenir trois maîtrises pour s'y conformer. Selon le dictionnaire Merriam-Webster, un système est "un ensemble de principes ou de procédures selon lesquels quelque chose est fait ; un cadre ou une méthode organisée". Le seul inconvénient de cette définition est...

If there is one thing I've learned as a recycling coordinator at uOttawa is that when it comes to waste, the learning curve is very very steep. If for me, whose work involves going through garbage daily, correctly triaging my waste seems complicated, what about a student? As I yelled a curse-word at yet another mis-triaged bin, I started to wonder. Was the system too complicated or the people not informed as they should be? Or, do they just not care? My answer is “they do” seem to care...as long as the process is not so complex as to requiring them holding three masters degrees to understand it or taking an hour of their time to sort one item. According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a system is “a set of principles or procedures according to which something is done; an organized framework or method”. The only drawback with this definition is that there is no indication to the amount of complexity people can handle. But, to no surprise, the more options you have, the more likel...

My first week living in Canada was spent sorting through trash, and I am so glad I had the chance to do it! As a new graduate student at the University of Ottawa, I made the decision to leave my job in Boston and make the move up to Ottawa during Reading Week. While looking for ways to hit the ground running, I found the Alternative Study Break program, and decided to spend my week volunteering with the Office of Campus Sustainability. We were tasked with performing a waste audit on the Friel Residence, then collecting and analyzing the data. Talking about the issues with waste, collection, and contamination was an eye-opening experience and having the opportunity to see for myself the amount of waste that is produced by one building felt like an urgent wake-up call. We found a staggering amount of waste contamination, as recycling and garbage were often placed in the incorrect streams. Surprisingly, the majority of waste was incorrectly placed, and this carries significant implication...

Hey! What do you do with your cardboard toilet paper roll when you are done with them? Toss them out? Recycle them? Transform them into recycled artwork? Well if you wouldn't mind, we would like you to collect them and bring then to us. This year the Office of Campus Sustainability is looking to create some new programs that we hope will get people involved in changing the story about sustainability. The pandemic has been a very strange time for everyone trying to create engaging activities on campus. Reimagining events so that people comply with COVID regulations isn't as easy as one might think. Our office has struggled to figure out how to make our events "worth" the in-person experience. But this year we are going to work harder to find activities that let people get involved in making a more sustainable campus while learning about living a more sustainable lifestyle. So we are asking people on campus to collect their cardboard toilet paper tubes and bring them to...

Osoji, qui signifie littéralement "grand nettoyage" en japonais, a traditionnellement lieu à la fin du mois de décembre. À la fin de l'année, afin de saluer et d'inviter les divinités à entrer dans la nouvelle année, les gens font un grand nettoyage en jetant tout ce qui est vieux, inutile ou cassé et qui s'est accumulé au cours de l'année écoulée. Quel est le lien exact entre le nettoyage et le développement durable ? Le nettoyage permet de faire le point sur ce que l'on possède déjà et d'apprécier chaque objet que l'on a, ce qui calme le besoin d'acheter le dernier gadget à la mode. Pensez aussi au temps et à l'espace dont vous disposez pour vous informer lorsque vous ne cherchez pas cette paire de chaussettes dépareillées. Je pense aussi sincèrement que nettoyer son espace physique aide beaucoup avec son espace mental également (croyez-en l'avis d'une personne autrefois désordonnée...). Voici quelques conseils pour faire votr...

Osoji, in Japanese literally meaning “big cleaning”, traditionally happens by the end of December. As the old year comes to an end, in order to greet and invite the deities in for the new year, people engage in a deep clean by discarding anything old, unnecessary, or broke items that may have piled up in the past year. How exactly is cleaning linked to sustainability? Cleaning helps to get clarity on what you already own and appreciate every item you have, calming the need to buy the latest trendy gadget. Also consider the time and space you get to inform yourself when you are not looking for this mismatched pair of socks. I also truly think that cleaning your physical space helps a great deal with your mental one as well (take the word from a formerly messy person…). Here are some tips to do your very own Osoji. Create a vision for what you want your year to look like For the past few years, I have been a huge fan of vision boards. Take a white sheet of paper, write your goals and...

The holidays are right around the corner! Unfortunately, it has become a highly consumerist time of the year. Before you roll your eyes and contemplate closing this blog because you don’t want me to ruin your holiday spirit, hear me out. I think there’s a solid balance to strike between fun and festive, and opting for ways to reduce the negative environmental impacts. Here are some tips that I am working to incorporate into my holiday festivities. Gift Giving Sometimes it can feel stressful to find the perfect gift for someone. For the past few years, I have had the rule that unless a person specifically requests a material item, I gift an experience. I love this approach because you can easily tailor the experience to any budgetary requirements. Also, the best part is that you get to spend quality time with your loved ones and make memories. However, if you choose to go the material gift route, DIY gifts from recycled materials is a good alternative. There are so many amazing tu...

Les vacances arrivent! Malheureusement, c'est devenu une période de l'année hautement consumériste. Avant de lever les yeux au ciel et de fermer ce blog parce que vous ne voulez pas que je gâche votre esprit des fêtes, écoutez-moi bien. Je pense qu'il y a un bon équilibre à trouver entre le plaisir et la fête et les moyens de réduire les impacts négatifs sur l'environnement. Voici quelques conseils que je m'efforce d'intégrer à mes festivités de fin d'année.   Les cadeaux Il peut parfois être stressant de trouver le cadeau idéal pour quelqu'un. Depuis quelques années, j'ai une règle d'offrir une expérience à moins que la personne ne demande expressément un article matériel. J'aime cette approche, car vous pouvez facilement adapter l'expérience à tous les budgets. De plus, le plus intéressant est que vous pouvez passer du temps de qualité avec vos proches et créer des souvenirs. Toutefois, si vous optez pour un cadeau matériel, d...

Yesterday was World Fisheries Day! In that spirit, Celeste Digiovanni, a PhD student in Environmental Geography studying marine governance in Canada wrote a post inspired from the point of view of an iconic species, the sockeye. My eyes opened. There were thousands of others like me. I saw some emerging from their little jelly-like sacks amongst the gravel. I felt the cold, tasteless water on my scales for the first time. I gasped for my first breath and found it- was I alive? We started flapping our bits around and found rhythm, some of us more coordinated than others. I started to navigate this new underwater world beyond the sack that once confined me; slowly leaving, back to the gravel. New life. We swam around the river as light turned into dark. We fed on the zooplankton that we could find. We outgrew our river, and as those before us, ventured into a much saltier and colder world. We encountered others that resembled us throughout our journey. Some were trapped in nets, but a ...

As a millennial, I have a guilty passion for Instagram. So, when I started my waste reduction journey, it quickly became one of my main sources of information. To me, waste reduction belonged to the broader minimalist movement. Getting rid of unused stuff, stopping buying things you will not use and reuse what you had seemed tinted with good old common sense. You know, the one our grandparents had?  Even though the aesthetics of owning less seemed appealing to me, I soon fell into a pit of despair as I scrolled though kitchens with matching glass containers neatly stacked in a pristine white background. Every room in the house seemed to follow the same pattern: everything matching in a neat neutral background.  Thinking of taking my reusable water bottle is a real achievement, so attaining the zero-waste home was like walking on the moon. As I kept researching, the very idea of buying containers seemed to defeat the purpose of zero waste in the first place. Why would I buy stu...

Étant une milléniale, j'ai une passion coupable pour Instagram. Alors, lorsque j'ai commencé mon parcours de réduction des déchets, c’est rapidement devenu l'une de mes principales sources d'information. Pour moi, la réduction des déchets appartenait au mouvement plus large du minimaliste. Se débarrasser des choses inutilisées, arrêter d'acheter des choses qu’on n'utilisera pas et réutiliser ce que nous avons déjà me semblait teinté de gros bon sens. Vous savez, celui qu'avaient nos grands-parents ?   Même si l'esthétique de posséder moins me semblait séduisante, je suis vite tombée dans un gouffre de désespoir en faisant défiler les cuisines où les récipients en verre assortis se trouvaient soigneusement disposés sur un fond blanc immaculé. Toutes les pièces de la maison semblaient suivre le même schéma : tout était assorti sur un fond neutre et net. Penser à prendre ma bouteille d'eau réutilisable relève de l’exploit, alors atteindre une maison zér...

When news finally settled and it was determined that uOttawa, along with every other institution in Canada, was going to close its doors for an entire academic season, there were a lot of projects that were still ongoing. Fast forward to almost two years later and people are starting to come back to the campus, and those projects were completed. So let's take a quick tour of some of the sustainability things that happened on campus while you were gone! UCU Park Just behind the UCU (near the Pivik entrance) the land has been completely landscaped and a new park was created. The small park is a 4-season park with seating, a stone dust path, and a bunch of Indigenous, native, and edible plants. If you are in the garden at just the right time of the year, you can see the wild raspberries! Other improvements include a safer declined path to the building and an expanded terrace near the entrance doors (the former smokers pit) with a new seating area. Morisset Window Mural Safe Wings wor...