This year, the bottled-water free campaign will continue. In this two-part blog entry we’ll discuss the issues of bottled water in general and on campus, and then go into the water fountain assessment later. To quote Jon in an earlier blog post regarding bottled water: “In one hundred years from now is it possible that historians will look back and think that we were crazy to try to commodity water and sell it at thousands of times the price of what it costs to get from your tap? Is it possible that we are draining precious aquifers for limited profit at the expense of future generations? And is it possible that in the future, wars may be fought over water instead of oil?” Water is a huge issue. Some people don’t have enough water, some people don’t have clean water, some people have to travel many kilometers to find water, some people pay too much for water, and some people abuse water. I’m not about to try to solve in one fell swoop all of these problems. But there are defini...

Il est vrai que l’université d’Ottawa est à l’avance en ce qui concerne l’adoption d’un programme de compost mécanique, par contre, c’est quand même un soulagement que la Ville d’Ottawa ait décidé de diminuer leurs déchets! Comme la plupart d’entre vous le savent déjà, grâce à l’impressionnante campagne de marketing, le programme des Bacs verts d’Ottawa est arrivé! La Ville collectera les matières organiques toutes les deux semaines pendant l’hiver. Elles seront ensuite ramassées une fois par semaine au printemps, à l’été et à l’automne. Veuillez consulter votre Calendrier de la collecte 2009-2011 pour plus de détails. Comme moi, vous pourriez ne pas avoir reçu votre bac. C’est peut être parce que la première étape du programme visait seulement les résidences individuelles, les petits immeubles de six logements ou moins et les résidences en zone rurale où la Ville effectue une collecte en bordure de rue. Voici les prochaines étapes de distribution : Étape 1b : Les résidents des au...

So uOttawa might have won the race against the City of Ottawa in getting a mechanical composter, but it’s quite a relief that the City is diverting waste. As most of you are aware, thanks to an impressive marketing campaign, the Ottawa Green Bin program is here! It will be collecting organic waste once every two weeks during the winter Throughout spring, summer and fall, it will be collected weekly. To know when you should put your green bin to the curb, view the collection calendar to keep track of pick up dates. Like me, you might not have received your bin. This might be because the first phase of the program only delivered to single residential properties, low-rise multi-unit residential properties with six units or less and rural village residents with curbside pick up. Here are the following distribution dates: Phase 1b : The remaining multi-unit housing with curbside collection will receive their green bins and begin participating in the program before September of 2010. Phas...

Last year the stage was set for a U-pass in Ottawa. The orchestra was primed to play a wonderful sonata: the SFUO and the University of Ottawa were ready to put forward the money and administration to get things rolling. The actors had rehearsed their lines: City council and OC Transpo had a plan laid out before them. And at the pivotal moment as the show was about to start, the audience collectively held their breath. But the curtains never opened, the spotlights never lit up, and everyone was just told to go home... no show tonight ladies and gentlemen. Well one year later and everyone is back for another show. Once again there is an opportunity to provide students at the University of Ottawa with a fare-reduced bus pass. But there are a couple of differences in this year’s campaign that are worth mentioning, and are turning heads over at City Hall. The first major change is the cost. The Student Federation is pushing for a new $145 price tag for the pass. The kicker is that the ...

100 Mile Bread made by uOttawa student Sarah Campbell Food that is now seen as “specialty” and that one has to go out of her way to find, such as local, organic fare produced by small scale farmers, was once the only food available. It’s true that in those days people had to put more effort into food preparation and had to think a bit harder about how to keep meals interesting with ingredients limited to what was grown in the region, however, even in situations of energy scarcity, trade conflicts, or war we were guaranteed a food supply. Now the average item in the supermarket comes from over 1500 kilometres away and needs large water, energy, pesticide, and fertilizer inputs to support the large-scale, industrial, commodity crop farms it comes from. In fact, most the diversity we find in the supermarket is simply a manipulation of commodity corn and soy in the form of many different cereals, sauces, crackers, and candies. Our industrialized and commoditized food system has led...

Imagine my surprise a couple of years ago when I strolled into the office and found out that our office does regular monitoring of the CO2 levels in classrooms. I wasn't surprised that we did it, I mean this only makes sense right? People exhale CO2 with every breath and if not monitored it can really accumulate. No I was surprised that we won an award for doing it. It turns out that not very many, if any, other institutions do this. I was flabbergasted to say the least. CO2 is natural occurring gas that has of course recently found notoriety because of Climate Change. Of course too much CO2 can have dramatic impacts on the Earth's capacity to retain heat, but it can also kill you if the concentrations are too high. I am being a tad melodramatic here; the concentrations needed to actually kill a human are ridiculously high. But that doesn't mean that the concentrations that are present in your typical indoor environment can't cause major discomfort. At 1% CO2 in the env...