Month: November 2012

Supporting Solar: The Ottawa Renewable Energy Cooperative

Green Living Ottawa

Written by Denise Deby.

Photo by Mojo Mike (Mike Baker) on Flickr Creative Commons http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixor/3605306968/

The Ottawa Renewable Energy Cooperative (OREC) offers a way to get involved in supporting solar energy—whether or not you’re able to install it where you live.

Anyone who’s a resident of Ottawa can invest with OREC to spread solar power to buildings in Ottawa. OREC is a co-op, so members jointly own renewable energy projects that OREC finances. The projects earn revenue through contracts with the Ontario Power Authority under its Feed-in-Tariff program. In its short (two-year) existence, OREC has installed solar systems in housing co-ops in the city and is negotiating some commercial and institutional contracts. If you can’t invest, you can volunteer with OREC or lease them roof or land space.

You can find out more at OREC’s website. As well, Ottawa writer Jen Lahey has a great explanation of how OREC works in her Urban Hippie column at OttawaMagazine.com.

OREC’s Annual General Meeting is on Thursday, November 22, 2012 from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Centretown United Church, 507 Bank St. (at Argyle).

World Toilet Day 2012 in Ottawa

Green Living Ottawa

Written by Denise Deby.

Today, November 19, is—ahem—World Toilet Day. A delicate subject, but an important one, since almost 40% of people around the world don’t have adequate sanitation, and water-related diseases kill thousands of people every day. That’s EVERY DAY.

The point of World Toilet Day is to shed some light on a taboo subject that needs more attention. The University of Ottawa’s Health Services team is joining in to help raise awareness by holding a “squat-off” this month, with prizes for the top squatters. They’re also inviting people to share stories on their Facebook page on the theme of “a toilet saved my life,” and to sign a global petition asking the international community to keep its promises on improving water and sanitation.

Here in Ottawa, most of us don’t have to worry about where our next flush is coming from. But we do send a lot of our precious clean water down the toilet, literally. In Canada, toilets account for 30% of household water use. Installing low flow toilets or toilet dams, repairing leaks, and checking out technologies for reusing reclaimed or “grey” water to flush toilets can help conserve water without jeopardizing our health.

It’s not just about technologies, though. It’s about being mindful of where our water comes from and where it goes, and how much we use. It’s also about calling on leaders at all levels to act, here and abroad, to ensure access to sanitation and improve how we manage the wastewater we create.

Safe, accessible sanitation for health, sustainability, equity and dignity. Sounds like something to celebrate.

Saving Energy with SwitchHop and Sustainable Living Ottawa West

Green Living Ottawa

Written by Denise Deby, who writes on local and global social, environmental and urban issues.

Photo by ArcaHeradel on Flickr used under Creative Commons license http://www.flickr.com/photos/heradel/2654773728/

If you need some incentive to cut down on your energy consumption, or want to know how well the conservation measures you’ve put in place are working, you might want to check out SwitchHop. A local company, SeeWind, created a SwitchHop as a free service where people can find out when they’re using more or less power, and how their energy use compares to last month’s or last year’s. You sign up, connect your utility account, and see your energy use in real time. If you want, you and friends can even link up to compare household energy use (your friends won’t see details of your power consumption, just totals).

Going one step further, the community organization Sustainable Living Ottawa West (SLOWest) has partnered with SwitchHop to set up a friendly competition among neighbourhoods. If you live in Westboro, Hintonburg, the Civic Hospital area or one of the other participating areas, you can join up at https://switchhop.com/competition/, and help your community compete to see which can save the most energy until February 1. According to SLOWest, it’s a way for people to support each other to make small changes that can add up over time.

If you live in another part of town, you can still compare your energy savings to others—or even start your own competition.

As we head for cooler temperatures and shorter days, it’s also a great time to check out Envirocentre’s  and Hydro Ottawa’s tips for saving on energy costs and consumption. If you want to find out how much electricity your computer, fridge and other appliances are using even when they’re turned off, you can even borrow a meter from the Ottawa Public Library using your library card.