Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo Want to try a social experiment that will only take a moment but that could have a major impact on how you experience the campus? Cool, okay.... here we go. Close your eyes and try to walk around the campus. It is not as easy as you might think. You will likely fumble around a little bit. You will likely take very cautious steps. And you might even freak out a little when you get to an actual intersection with cars that could hit you. Of course this is an experiment to make you realize how difficult it is for someone with visual impairments to navigate the campus. But if you really want to make it fair, you should go to a part of the City you have never been to and try out this little experiment. Because, actually, you already know the campus and have constructed a visual map in your mind of where everything is... By the way, don't actually try this experiment unless you are with someone. I don't want anyone to get hurt. No le...

Photo credit: art.com So it seems that with the passing of generations we have lost something special... the ability to sew. The reason why I am bring thins up right now is two fold. First, my grandmother just handed down to me her mother's sewing machine. I am really excited about this because it means that I now have something in my possession that has been in my family for 4 generations. The machine is a turn of the century Singer and is peddle powered (enviro swoon). My biggest regret is that I don't actually have a picture of it to put into this post, but I will get one. The second reason for this topic is the recent addition of EcoEquitable to the Free Store line-up. This past week the ladies of EcoEquitable were working furiously to alter clothing at the Free Store. I was really happy to see this for a couple of reasons. Of course it makes sense to repair and alter clothing. Back in the day, even before my time, clothing was super expensive. The thought of re...

Photo credit: I don't know... probably LOL cats... cause the only thing the world really needs are more cats on the internet It could just be me but there is something about September that just completely drains my energy; blame it on school starting up again or the lack of routine that comes from not working full-time but I just want to sleep and sleep and Zzzz. Maybe it is that I am not eating as much vegetables and fruits because my garden is coming to a close which makes me horrified at what may happen to my energy levels as winter comes. SOLUTION! Fear not fellow students, I have discovered (okay, rediscovered) a magical method for getting our summer fruits and veggies in the cold winter months. Even better, these fruits and veggies could be local! I sense your doubt through the computer screen but bear with me. Pretend it is winter, you go to the grocery store and pay ridiculous amounts for fresh produce and cringe as it rings through the cash and squirm silently as...

Photo credit: www.gorbould.com “So, do you compost?” I asked as I was visiting my future apartment building in Gatineau. “LOL. Can you imagine how much trouble that would give me? And the complaints about the smell? No. We don’t compost here.” Said the facility’s manager minutes before I signed a one-year lease with him. Great. Now I’m going to have to either carry my compost all the way back to campus for a 45 minute walk every morning OR walk the streets at night in my shady neighborhood looking for a compost bin to take my kitchen leftovers. Did you know that 80% of your waste is either recyclable or compostable? My family of 4 sends 1 single half-filled garbage bag to the curb every week along with 2 bins of recyclables and a big green bin of compost. It bothers me tremendously that cities have yet to figure out a way to normalize and facilitate composting practices in multi-level buildings. Let’s face it. Building owners might never make the effort until given a...

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo Another semester means another edition of Muggy Mondays. For those of you not in the know, Muggy Mondays is a waste reduction initiative targeted at behavioural modification with respects to habitual use of reusable containers by applying a reward mechanism. Simply said, on Mondays we give away free coffee if you have a reusable mug. And not just coffee, hot chocolate and tea too. Muggy Mondays is originally a program that was introduced at uOttawa by Green Campus. Technically we ... borrowed the idea from the University of Guelph (shout out to my green peeps at the UofG sustainability office). It has been running on campus now for 6 years if I recall correctly. The concept of free coffee isn't anything new. Many groups use free coffee as a means to pull people in. The trick with Muggy Mondays is that there are no strings attached (with the exception of having your own mug). The condition component of this program is simple.... good things happen whe...

Photo cresdit: Jonathan Rausseo I am going to fold big concepts together here so please bare with me. Concept #1 - Living Laboratory I've talked about this before but a little refresher is in order. The Living Laboratory is a concept that places the University campus at the center of unique learning experiences. These learning experiences typically happen outside of the classroom and can be structured or unstructured. Concept#2 - Biodiversity zone A Biodiversity zone is at it's heart an area with a higher variation the the number of organisms. Simply put, more living things in a given space. So if I take these two concepts and bring them together then what we get is the Biodiversity Garden for the University of Ottawa. The concept of this project would be to create a small garden on campus with a disproportionately high amount of biodiversity. This would create a space that would not only increase the number of species on campus, it would also create a space where students in t...

Photo credit: EcoEquitable Le Bureau du développement durable est fier d’annoncer son partenariat avec Éco Équitable Lors de votre prochaine visite à la Gratuiterie, vous remarquerez qu’il y a un groupe de femmes qui offre des retouches et réparations de vêtements tels qu’un rebord et une réparation de sac ou fermeture-éclair. Ces femmes travaillent pour l’organisation Éco Équitable, et elles seront sur place lors de chaque Gratuiterie organisée par le bureau cette année. Établie en 2002, EcoÉquitable Inc . est une compagnie caritative enregistrée qui offre un emploi temporaire et un entraînement de développement des compétences à travers une petite échelle de recyclage des tissus. Leur mission est de permettre aux travailleurs immigrants et aux femmes sous-employées de devenir financièrement indépendant tout en réduisant la quantité de déchets dangereux dans notre société Les nouveau canadiens, surtout les femmes immigrantes, font face à plusieurs obstacles dans leur recherche d’emplo...

photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo Car Free Day is just around the corner and once again the argument has made its way to my doorstep... "Can we really ban all the cars on campus? Won't people freak out?" Yes, people will freak out and maybe that is the point. But in a world where I have to be realistic... no, we cannot ban all cars on campus. Here are a couple of pretty important reasons why. Some people have legitimate mobility issues and we have a pretty big campus. Sometimes a CAR is the only real solution Deliveries need to happen... enough said Sometimes big things need to be moved around and that takes a vehicle. BUT, I secretly do believe that we can have a car free campus and here are some solutions to the problems listed above. There are legitimate mobility issues and on many other campuses there are building linkages and a designated transit system to assist movement around the campus. So by building linkages I am talking about hallways that connect buildings toget...

Photo credit: treehugger.com Last week I tweeted about the Sleep Box , which is, as the name says it, a big box you can rent and sleep/read/relax in for a few hours when waiting for your flight in an airport. If you’d like to try one out, feel free to fly out to Moscow to camp out in a giant wooden box. Now imagine having one of these babies on campus. Wouldn’t that be the best thing ever? Personally, I live in Hull and bike 30-45 minutes to get to class every day, and then bus for about an hour in the winter (when there is no traffic). So I get here early and stay until the sun goes down. There’s no quick trip home for me! I go to class, practise 5 hours and work. Technically, I don’t really have a lunch hour or a comfy place to crash nearby, which can make napping a little be awkward, especially with the cold weather – I used to doze near the canal during the summer. I have considered stuffing a hammock into my bike bag and hanging up in random places…as in my practise cubicle in the...

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo I feel fall in the air and can hear the tell-tale sounds of crunching leaves underfoot on my way to class which reminds me that a great initiative on campus is coming to a close as the Community Garden wraps up another successful year. Although faced with a strange cucumber beetle, tomato blight and scorching heat this summer, the garden has managed to bring joy to its participants who used it as a means of relaxing and producing their own organic and local produce. The Ontario Public Interest Research Group ( OPIRG ) driven project took place on King Edward Avenue across from Brooks Residence and included over twenty five participants that had access to free plots and necessary tools. It was great to escape from work on occasion to help water some of the plots- most notably when a water fight ensued with Marie-Pier during the 40+ degree weather. I hope to be involved next year and make some improvements to make the garden even more enjoyable for members...

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo This year is shaping up to be another incredible year for the Free Store. This initiative, originally started by the student members of Green Campus, has grown into a campus phenomenon. The premise of the program is simple; donations are collected and offered freely to the campus community. In 2006, the Free Store was just a small event where students would bring items they wanted to swap with one another. The whole thing was basically done on two tables and lasted like 2 hours. People liked the event but not too many people participated. The following year the Free Store got a boost from the Dump & Run . Items collected from the residences after students moved out were added to the tables of the Free Store. The event also started to give away more items than just clothing; morphing the format into a full day event. Three years ago, the International Office partnered with the Office of Campus Sustainability to create a special Free Store event exclu...

I got a phone call from housing services yesterday at lunch; they had a HUGE clean-up to do, and there were going to be things which we could give at the first Free Store. When I got there, it was like a second Dump and Run: a classroom was filled with all sorts of stuff left behind by students living in the Brooks apartment residences; jackets, pots and pans (you know some 50$ pans, and some 100$ sweaters…), electronics, books, jeans, canned food, etc. (STUDENTS: WHAT ARE YOU DOING THROWING ALL THIS STUFF OUT?! STOP BUYING!) To put you into perspective, during move-in/move-out weekends, residences cleaning staff are not given permission to sort recyclables and reusable items, and we are usually stuck trying to drag all these items out of the huge 20-yard waste bins outside residences (and they are usually covered in beer, and other things I would rather not know!). But this week end, while cleaning out the residences, Housing Services staff collected all the items left behind which we...

Photo credit: 4.bp.blogspot.com Avec le tout premier matin frais de l’été, arrive ma saison préférée de l’année… Le temps des pommes! (Bien sûr suit l’automne, la plus majestueuse et confortable de toutes les saisons) Voici 5 délicieuses recettes de pommes telles que suggérées par Terre Nouricière Ontario . Voyez quels aliments sont en saison à l’année longue. With the first crisp morning comes my very favorite time of the year… Apple season! (followed by fall, the most beautiful and comfortable time of the year. Yay.) Here are the 5 most delicious recipes containing apples found on Foodland Ontario. See their site for what is in season all year round. 5 S oupe au cheddar et aux pommes Nippy Apple Cheddar Soup 4 Pommes au Brandy en pâte Brandied Apples in Pastry 3 Roulé de poitrine de dindon farcie aux pommes Rolled Apple-Stuffed Turkey Breasts 2 Poulet à la marocaine avec pommes Moroccan Chicken with Apples 1 Tarte aux pommes traditionnelle de l’Ontario Traditional Ontario...

Photo credit: Jonathan Rausseo It is official and the results favour the idea that we could one day have a completely waste free campus. A couple of months back I blogged about the fact that we were building a new Sports Field and that a component of that sports field was going to be composed of recycled shoes. Well the rest of the project has now come to an end and the results for the total diversion of waste are now available. First, there is the total waste diversion from the old field. Since the field is composed of artificial turf, we had to find a way to recycle it. There were 2 components - the turf itself, and the infill (the little rubber pellets that are used to give the field a bouncy feel (and absorb the shock of impact). The old turf was turned into PVC pellets so it can be used to make more PVC products. The infill was collected and is being used to reinforce berms in high traffic areas. Total diversion for the old field is over 90%. Second, the waste for the re...