Vous êtes parti pour l'été et vous avez manqué les projets de développement durable qui se sont déroulés pendant votre absence ? Ou peut-être que vous êtes nouveau sur le campus et vous cherchzs à vous familiariser avec les initiatives de développement durable. Quoi qu'il en soit, ce blogue est pour vous ! Paysages comestibles Cet été, plusieurs nouveautés ont été ajoutées à nos paysages comestibles. Grâce à une subvention obtenue par une étudiante, Victoria Rose King, nous avons planté 6 pommiers et 4 poiriers, des haskaps et des bluets. Ils sont là pour votre consommation ! Donc, si vous voyez quelque chose que vous aimeriez manger, n'hésitez pas à en cueillir quelques-uns (bien que la période de pointe soit l'été) ! Avec l'aide de nos bénévoles, nous récoltons les produits et donnons ce qui n'est pas mangé par les étudiant(e)s aux banques alimentaires locales. Ces arbres sont également bénéfiques pour l'environnement en absorbant une partie du carbone et ...

Have you been away for the summer and missed the sustainability projects that happened while you were gone? Or perhaps you're new to campus and looking for a place to start learning about sustainability initiatives. Either way, this post is for you! Edible Landscapes This summer, there are several new additions to our edible landscapes. Thanks to a grant obtained by a student volunteer, Victoria Rose King, we planted 6 apple and 4 pear trees, haskap and blueberry bushes. These are here for your consumption! So, if you see something you’d like to eat, don’t hesitate to pluck a few (though the peak time is during the summer)! With the help of our volunteers, we harvest the produce, donating what is not eaten by students to local food banks. These trees also benefit the environment by absorbing some carbon and feeding wildlife.   Pollinator Gardens We have also planted two new pollinator-friendly gardens. The first was a lost green space with mulch near Marion. The second is at Annex ...

Dans mon article précédent, j'ai expliqué ce qu'il ne fallait PAS apporter à la résidence et j'ai donné le conseil d'être aussi minimaliste que possible. Je vais maintenant vous expliquer ce à quoi vous devez penser lorsque vous envisagez d'apporter quelque chose à la résidence. Lors de l'entrée en résidence, il faut se rappeler qu'il faut, autant que possible, acheter des objets usagés. Après tout, des choses se cassent ou se perdent pendant la transition entre les résidences, peut-être même que votre colocataire partira avec vos gants de cuisine (c'est peut-être mon expérience personnelle qui parle ici). Au lieu de gaspiller votre argent en achetant un tas d'objets qui seront perdus avant que vous receviez votre diplôme, achetez des objets d'occasion pour beaucoup moins cher. Mieux encore, faites le tour de votre maison et examinez les objets qui s'y trouvent avec vos parents pour voir ce dont ils ne veulent plus ou n'ont plus besoin et...

In my previous post, I explained what NOT to bring to residence and gave the advice to be as much of a minimalist as possible. Now, I will explain what you should think of when considering what to bring to residence. Going into residence, one thing to remember is, as much as possible, to buy used items. After all, things break or get lost in the transition of moving between residences. Or maybe your roommate might even leave with your oven mitts (that might be my own personal experiences talking there). Instead of wasting your money on buying a bunch of items that will be lost by the time you graduate, buy second hand items - it's much cheaper and better for the environment! I've seen a lot of great, affordable items on Facebook Marketplace, furniture, décor, kitchenware, rugs, you name it, you can probably find it there for at least half the price of what you would pay in store. Better yet, go through your house and look through items with your family to see what they no longe...

Tu emménages dans une résidence et tu es très nerveux à force d'essayer de savoir ce qu'il faut apporter et ce qu'il ne faut pas apporter en résidence. C'est votre jour de chance, car vous allez apprendre toute l'information sur ce qu'il ne faut pas apporter au campus de la part de quelqu'un qui a vécu deux ans en résidence. Le premier conseil à garder à l'esprit lorsque vous faites vos valises est que vous devez limiter la quantité de tout ce que vous devez apporter, car vous travaillez avec un espace restreint et votre espace de stockage est limité. Voici les choses les plus importantes à ne pas apporter: 1) Trop de vêtements Je sais, c'est absurde! Mais cela ne s'applique évidemment pas à tous les vêtements, cela signifie simplement que les étudiants doivent être conscients de ce qu'ils apportent. Si vous êtes comme moi, vous finirez probablement par faire du shopping au Centre Rideau plus d'une fois et vous repartirez avec p...

So, you’re moving into residence and wondering what you should bring. Well, this is your lucky day as I, someone who has lived in residence for two years, am going to tell you what NOT to bother bringing to campus. First tip to keep in mind when packing is that you need to limit how much you should bring of everything because you are working with a small space and limited storage. Here are the most important things not to bring: Too Many Clothes I know, it seems silly! You can never have too many clothes, but it just means that students need to be conscientious of what they bring. If you’re like me, you’ll probably end up shopping at the Rideau Centre more than once and leave with more clothes than you planned, trying to make it fit in the small closet. Clothes you shouldn’t bother bringing from home are ones for special occasions like fancy dresses (how often do resident students go to fancy events?) or clothes that don’t match. These will just take space in your closet that ...

Look, I know composting isn’t always easy, I sympathize as I have a hard time doing it myself, but the campus is trying to make it easier on you and all of us to do our part. Having an institution like uOttawa that has initiatives and programs in place saves a lot of organic matter from going to waste. Let’s start by talking about the rules/guidelines. What uOttawa does is extremely similar to the city of Ottawa’s guidelines, so they are very strong. They are so similar because we send our compost to the same facility as them. You’re likely recycling or throwing out numerous things that can actually go to compost! Here are all the things you should put in compost: All food scraps (fruits and vegetables, snack foods, nuts and shells, eggs, breads, meat and fish – including bones, salad dressing and sauces); Coffee grounds and tea bags; Disposable paper coffee cups (NO lids); Pizza boxes and other soiled paper-based take-out containers; Paper towels and tissues; Pet and human hair. ...

“uOttawa is committed to becoming a zero-waste campus.” This is probably something you’ve heard several times during your time as a student here. What does that mean though? How are we trying to be a zero-waste campus? What are the measures and initiatives we are implementing? Many articles on this blog explain exactly this, but this one, in honour of Plastic Free July, will focus on how we are trying to limit our plastic intake.  Friendlier Friendlier is Food Services most recent initiative to reduce plastic waste, one we are excited to be supporting. It is a reusable plastic container program that was launched in June at Premiere Moisson on-campus and will in the fall, be brought to other on-campus food retailers including Go Cafés and Elements. The way it works is that when you order a meal that comes in a Friendlier container, you pay a small deposit of 50 cents, and to have that deposit returned, scan the container once finished with your food, return the container to the Frie...

Bonjour, je m'appelle Mégane, l'agente du développement durable et programme d’Objets Perdus qui travaille cet été pour le Bureau du développement durable sur le campus! Les objets perdus ne seront plus gérés par les services de protection de l'université, mais par le Bureau du développement durable du campus. Depuis que j'ai pris mes fonctions le 1er mai, nous avons déjà apporté de nombreux changements pour améliorer l'efficacité du service des objets perdus. Tous les changements à venir intégreront le développement durable, car il s'agit désormais d'une valeur fondamentale des Objets perdus.  Les Objets perdus se trouvent dans l'UCU, salle 02A (près de la boutique campus). Il est ouvert les lundis, mardis, jeudis et vendredis de 9h30 à 12h et de 12h30 à 15h pendant l'été. Au cours de ma première semaine de travail, j'ai passé beaucoup de temps à passer en revue les sacs d'objets perdus éparpillés dans la pièce, attendant d'être catalo...

Hi, I’m Mégane, the Sustainability and Lost and Found clerk working for the Office of Campus Sustainability this summer! The Lost and Found has gone from being managed by the University’s Protection Services to the Office of Campus Sustainability. Since I started on May 1st, we’ve already made a lot of changes to improve the efficiency of the Lost and Found. Any changes going forward will incorporate sustainability as this is now a core value of the Lost and Found.   The Lost and Found is located in the UCU, room 02A (near the bookstore). It is open and you can stop by on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays from 9:30 AM – 12:00 PM and 12:30 PM - 3:00 PM for the summer. During my first week of work, I spent a lot of time going through bulk bags of lost item scattered across the room, waiting to be catalogued. Slowly but surely, the room has started to feel less claustrophobic as more light could reach the den of lost treasures. I was feeling good about myself, well at lea...

Years ago, I attended the World Urban Forum (WUF) in Vancouver. WUF is a gathering of groups who are obsessed with urbanism and how, if done correctly, it could help solve many of the world's problems.  The gathering, hosted by the United Nations, really is a geekfest of policy ideas, new technologies, and networking opportunities. But the thing that really caught my eye while I was there was an installation representing an Edible Landscape.  For those who don't know, an edible landscape is basically a garden where all the plants are switched for edible varieties. By doing this, people can grow food and have a lovely garden aesthetic (existing in harmony rather than in opposition). Fast forward a bit more than a decade and edible landscapes are starting to take root at uOttawa. In 2021, the Office of Campus Sustainability started filling some planters on campus with edible plants instead of the traditional non-edible ones. An extension of the community gardens, the edible land...

Most students are unaware of the University of Ottawa’s history with making campus buildings more sustainable because it was before our time. I certainly knew only the minimum before working with the Office of Campus Sustainability.    Our first attempt at making a sustainable building was the SITE building built between 1997 and 1999. SITE won many awards prior to construction in anticipation for what was planned. Unfortunately, once the building was built, it failed to be as sustainable as promised. What made this attempt a failure is that the building utilized a lot of energy. A deep energy retrofit, also known as DER, was done between 2012 to 2014 to correct some of the problems with the building. However, the giant south-facing six story atrium (essentially a giant wall of windows) continues to cause pretty significant draws on air conditioning and heating, thus using a lot more energy than what was originally produced in the building design.   To avoid any futu...

One of the most important days for the Office of Campus Sustainability is the Dump and Run. As students move out of residence and summer arrives, many simply leave what they no longer wish to keep in their old rooms. Some leave them in the temporary donation bins left by our office, but most don’t know what happens to the items left behind. This event saves thousands of discarded items from being thrown out and instead, breathes new life into them by giving them the opportunity to be reused. The huge amount of wasted items saved is then sent to the Free Store where students and members of the community can take these second-hand items that are often still perfectly good and give them a new home. Some of the most common items found in the Dump and Run and in the Free Store can be very useful to students, especially those living in residence. These include kitchen appliances like pots, plates, utensils, and wooden spoons, home appliances (we’ve even gotten a vacuum and a great looking co...