I’ll bet that you have heard something about the anti-bottled water campaign haven’t you? Is bottled water good? There are some redeeming qualities. It can be easily transported to areas that don’t have public utilities (like regions in sub-Saharan Africa or even New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina), it is a safe source of water when water bourn viruses are a problem (like in Walkerton), and it is healthy (you know zero calories and all that). And there is the bad. Coca-Cola has been accused of polluting water basins, Suez has been accused of instigating civil unrest in South America when they privatize public systems, and everybody is being accused of making a mounting of money from a commodity that many people debate is a human right. And there is also the matter that it is only being tested every once and a while (voluntarily I might add), that the plastic bottles they come in leach chemicals into the water, and that buying bottled water undermines confidence in public utilities. H...

“Twenty-five years ago they spoke out and they broke out Of recession and oppression and together they toked And they folked out with guitars around a bonfire Just singin' and clappin' man what the hell happened.” - Walking on the Sun (Smash Mouth) - I recently heard an interview about what could be the most exciting thing to happen in a generation. It turns out that after years of toiling, scratching together small fortunes, and finding ever new ways of increasing creature comforts, the boomers are back. So let me get you caught up real quick. The boomers were one of the most amazing generations in western history. They single-handedly proved that the power of the people has the ability to set political agendas. They ended Vietnam, they brought about awareness of sexual orientation, and they helped solidify the gender equality movement. And then, as Smash Mouth so eloquently put it, BAM – what the hell happened? They became the generation that displayed the most veracious con...

Okay, so maybe this picture isn’t exactly of the campus, or somewhere in Ottawa, or even on this continent; but it might as well be. For any of you have had a chance to notice there are 2 daily traffic jams on campus. The first one usually happens around noon during the lunch time rush. The second happens at about 5:30 pm just as the majority of the employees are calling it a day and the afternoon classes are ending. I suppose this shouldn’t come as a surprise. There aren’t too many options right now. With no busses there is way more car use, not just because of carpools but also because of people getting picked up by a friend or loved one. And of course the University of Ottawa campus is smack in the middle of the City. Normally this would be super helpful, but during a transit strike so much traffic around the campus actually hampers traffic flow on campus. Now I do want to take a minute to say why I think that this issue is an important one. First there is the obvious problem of idl...

OMG, is he really talking about recycling? Didn’t we deal with all that in the 90’s? Yes I am actually talking about recycling and yes it is something that we probably should have dealt with long ago. Here is a little known fact to anyone outside of the recycling biz. In 1992 the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) for Ontario basically mandated a 60% diversion for all academic institutions. Well it wasn’t exactly a mandate but it was strongly suggested that all institutions in Ontario must perform waste audits and must create action plans to divert waste. So what happened? Why aren’t we living in a wasteless utopia? Well you see after the MOE created the waste diversion regulation they kind of went to sleep. Yep, in fact it took 15 years before they even showed up to do their first inspection at the University of Ottawa. In between that time 2 things happened; first people stopped caring, and second, people thought the problem was taken care of. Let’s start with the latter. The governm...

CSAF - Green Space and Recreational Space I promised I would talk about CSAF more, or if I didn't... well I am now. Let's start with an anecdote, yeah that always draws people in. Today I met up with two old friends, both alumnus from the University. We talked a bit about how things are going but eventually it all came back to how things have changed on campus. Kneil and Chris have been away for about 3 years in British Columbia, so they have basically had no contact with Ottawa, let alone the campus. Anyways, this is besides the point. I gave them a tour of the campus and they remarked at some of the changes that have happened over the years. Okay so this the part where I break from the story and tie the two points together with a revealing and shocking hook. It turns out that Kneil is one of the first hard core members of Green Campus. He was the guy that got the community garden started here on campus back in 2003. Yeah that guy! It is unfortunate that the garden wasn’t avai...

Now before you get the impression that this is just me pandering to the masses you should know one thing… you are probably right. Nevertheless, I am pandering for a worthwhile cause. Now some months ago CBC’s The Hour announced that they were going to be launching a program called One Million Acts of Green. If you haven’t heard of this yet than I am lead to believe one of two things. First, you live under a rock and have to attachment at all to the Zeitgeist. Second, you stay away from all forms of electronic communications, in which case good on you for not using any energy. The One Million Acts of Green project is a challenge from George to the rest of the country to try to accomplish 1 Million acts of green over the next year. As campy as that may sound I think that they really tapped into something. Let me tell you why. Sure going on a website to proclaim that you did one good thing for the environment is not that groundbreaking. In fact, it’s not even that impressive. Facebook has...

How do you measure sustainability? I mean it is a pretty abstract concept. Sustainable development is about creating a world where resource limitations are respected and the relationships between people are appreciated. So there we have it, take all that and wrap it up into a nice set of measurable indicators. Yep… super easy. Also, did I mention that it would be super great if this magic assessment tool was accessible to students. So what if I told you that there is a Campus Sustainability Assessment Framework just floating around out there? I guess you could call it the Bible of campus sustainability. A total of 171 indicators broken down into two broad categories (ecosystems and society) with10 subgroups that cover every aspects of campus sustainability. Well you would call me crazy wouldn’t you? But in all seriousness this assessment tool does exist and it is being used by institutions all around the country. The Campus Sustainability Assessment Framework or CSAF (pronounced c-saf...

This summer has seen an unprecedented amount of Green at the movie theaters. No really! I am not joking. Now I am sure that you have heard enough about the environment and how we all need to do our part. Even I am getting a little annoyed (a little but not a lot). But this summer I saw something that I was a little encouraged by --- wait for it --- integrated product placement. Or at least the next incarnation, integrated social marketing placement. First there are a couple of concepts that we need to review. You see there is this thing called social marketing, basically taking all the evils of marketing and putting it towards good. Remember when you were a kid and you saw all those “this is your brain on drugs” commercials? Or all those “don’t drink and drive” commercials? That’s it! That’s using marketing for the purposes of advancing a positive social change. Now, there is this thing called product placement. It happens when you are watching a television show or a movie and BAM the ...

Back in October the Student Federation hosted Green Weeks. Basically this was the longest continuous green event that I have ever participated in. Actually, and don’t quote me on this, I think it was the longest green event in Canada… maybe even the US too. Four weeks of daily events. Now I am sorry if it sounds like I am complaining, because I am not. The whole thing was great and secretly… i can’t wait to do it again. But I am not here to talk about Green Weeks, I am here to talk about Imagine uOttawa. It was one of the events that made up the beautiful green mosaic of that month. First, let’s get this out of the way; it has been months since this event happened. So why am i talking about this now? Well i finally have enough time to work on it and I was going over the minutes of the event and I fell in love with the idea again. Okay… enough suspense! Imagine was a community design charrette to determine what the campus should look like in 100 years. Yes, that’s right, 100 years! Why...

So there are like 100 different definitions for sustainable development. My little chunk of the pie is on the campus side of things. You see if there is going to be a big change in the way that we do things it is going to be here at academic institutions. Universities are centers of learning and excellence; they are the centers for innovation and analysis; they are the places where people become ideas and those ideas become change. So if we can all agree that universities have a big role to play in pushing the sustainability agenda, then I suppose the next thing to do is define what sustainable development actually is. Like I said, over 100 definitions to work with and although some of them are kind of the same... many of them really aren't. And of course the only one that I really care about, I mean right now that is, is the one that deals with universities. When we break all the definitions down, there are 2 principles that emerge. The first is inter-generational equity and th...

So I am going to get started with a little... nothingness. This blog is just a couple of thoughts about the environment according to the people I know. I'll probably be pretty neglectful but every once and a while I will post something I think is important. I won't do this alone, certainly no. I am going to delegate posts to other people. This might include a little begging, certainly a little knee-time. But I will try to be honest. I won't limit this to University life but I might change my mind. And I will likely refer quite often to those who are better than I. Cheers