As the Ottawa's chilly winter continues, does the heating bill burn an increasing hole in your family's wallet? You're not alone: the planet is also suffering from energy loss as Canadians try to shield their home from the elements. In fact, the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions comes from heating and cooling your homes, offices and other buildings. Fortunately, you can take actions in your own homes to cut energy cost, save money, and reduce emissions with the help of the following initiatives from the Green Ontario Fund.
Today was the big day - the City of Ottawa's final 2018 budget was presented to council. It's the last one before the election next fall, and a lot was riding on it. We were watching closely for commitments on climate change, sustainable transportation, and protection of the trees, water and greenspace that make up our urban fabric.
Right at the start, the Mayor surprised us all with the announcement of an additional $10 million found by the City Treasurer. We hoped this meant the City could deliver on key environmental commitments in a meaningful way. More specifically, after months of wrangling and debate, we hoped the City would finally breathe some life into its underfunded clean energy strategy.
2017 is drawing to a close, which means it's time to look back on the year that was and reflect on what's next for the Ottawa environmental file. This update is part of our year-end fundraising drive. Our work is supported through the generous contributions of donors from across our city. Please consider making a monthly or one-time gift today.
What follows is the first of three updates covering each of our core campaign areas - Active City, Living City and Renewable City (you find a one-page overview of the three areas here). Today, we are focusing on Active City, our campaign to advocate for the sustainable transportation choices that make our city greener, healthier and smarter. Here are some observations from the past year of working on this file.
What is a Repair Café?
Join us at the Ottawa Tool Library's Repair Café, an environmentally friendly event where community members get together to fix household items! These events help to make tremendous progress toward reducing landfill waste, helping citizens from all over become aware of the impact of consumption, build community, teach skills, and much more. Originally started in Amsterdam, the Repair Café concept was born out of the desire to make objects live longer. Why throw it out and buy a new one when it’s one simple fix away? With the right training, knowledge, and tools, people can be empowered to work with their hands and become more independent.
Giving Tuesday is a day dedicated to giving back. With the spirit of the holidays drawing near, hear the stories of four Ecology Ottawa supporters and make a generous gift to support our work!
It has been a busy 2017 at Ecology Ottawa. With the support of thousands of volunteers and hundreds of donors, we ushered in a strong Urban Forest Management Plan, gave away over 11,000 trees to homeowners across Ottawa and helped stop the Energy East pipeline. We demanded that Ottawa City Hall puts their money where their mouth is on climate change action, and we’ve been ramping up a campaign to better integrate green infrastructure into street design.
Gillian grew up in the heart of Ottawa – right in the Glebe – and after spending a few years in British Columbia, she found herself back in her hometown, knocking on doors in her own neighbourhood to stop a proposed pipeline.
“I believe that climate change is going to impact us all more and more, but it’s such a huge global issue that most people don’t know how to help or where to start. I help offset that overarching fear by volunteering my time with a group that has oversight and guidance from some full time employees, and has a great reputation in the city.”
Laurine was the fifth student in an exchange program between Ecology Ottawa and Sciences Po, a prestigious French university. The language challenge, the new city, the overwhelming workload and the looming winter did not stop Laurine from making the most of her internship.
“Before I applied, I hardly knew what type of work Ecology Ottawa does. I was expecting an organization working around environmental issues, but I learned very quickly that Ecology Ottawa is more than just an average environmental organization.”
You’ve probably heard of the term “sustainable development”, but did you know it was an Ottawa environmentalist that coined the term? James (Jim) McNeill was a pioneer environmentalist who coined the term in the Brundtland Commission’s report “Our Common Future.” Upon his passing, his daughter, Cathy Hodgins, made a generous donation to Ecology Ottawa to honour his legacy.