President Barack Obama

I hope that many of you were able to take part in witnessing a historical event of this magnitude today. Barack Obama is now the first African-American President of the United States of America ever. I'm really curious to see what his administration does for the country, and how it will affect the rest of the world. For now we can only watch and wait. Congratulations Mr. President.

Compost

Hello all,

The members at the Ecovillage have bought a compost bin but our plan to put it in the school quad has not worked. If there is somewhere in the Nipissing/Canadore campus that you can think of which we can use as a location for the compost bin then please share, it would be most appreciated. Or if someone has a close location near the school which we can put the bin, then it would also be cool.

Thanks everyone,

Osh

Engines of Change

The one widget we have so far on our blog, "Green Guide Tip of the Week" just brought something my attention a few minutes ago. I clicked on today's "tip" and came across this search engine called 'Blackle'. Below, is the brief article that was posted explaining the energy this search engine is saving. Enjoy!

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Engines of Change

Filed under: Computers, Energy efficiency

4:10 pm - November 24, 2008

Over the course of the year, energy consumption from personal computers contributes the same amount of greenhouse gas emissions as burning 32 gallons of gasoline.

You may not be able to cut back on your web browsing, but your search engine of choice can help cut back on that energy use. Powered by Google, Blackle provides the same search results as google.com but on a blacked-out background, saving over 944,500 kilowatt hours of energy since the engine's launch in 2007. If the transition from white to black is rough on the eyes, try thegreenspider.com, also powered by Google, which saves a bit less energy than Blackle but allows the user to chose from a variety of colorful alternatives to the white screen.

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And there you have it! As soon as this post is done, I'm changing my home page! I hope you do too! Here is the link again:

www.blackle.com

Movember's Over

Well, Movember was a success. The Eco Village rocked our moustaches for the duration of the month, and looked dirtier than ever. In the end, we raised approximately $250.00 to go towards prostate cancer research! The donation table raked in a ton, and we are going to definitely set it up more than once next year. It's difficult to gauge something new and how to go about it, but now we know!

On another note! We volunteered to do the Salvation Army kettle jar drive, and we were able to raise approximately $750.00 over the course of 8 hours or so! It was a huge success!

Thanks to everyone who donated to our Movember cause, and supported prostate cancer research with a dirty moustache (or "shin-stache" in regards to Colleen and Meghan)!

EcoVillage Updates

NEWS
(Sick times!)

So the EcoVillage project has officially been underway for nearly 3 months now, and we have just received our first set of numbers concerning our progress thus far. Our residence don, Sam, dropped by last night with the figures comparing us to the control house, and we are STOKED!

(Note: this is in comparison to the control house only)

We have been using:

• 45% Less Water
• 48% Less Hydro
• 65% Less Gas

We are thrilled with these first set of numbers, and have already made more alterations to the house to try and lower these numbers further.

Alterations-to-date:

• All energy-efficient bulbs (and removal of unnecessary ones)
• The programmable thermostat has been set, and our house generally maintains a temperature of 18 degrees Celsius
• 1.1 Litres of water have been displaced in both toilets to lower water consumption on flushes (not to mention the "if it's mellow let it yellow" policy)
• A low-flow showerhead has been installed. Along with this, we try to keep each shower down to 5 minutes, as well as shut the water off while soaping up
• A low-flow kitchen faucet has also been installed, along with a low-flow aerator in the most-used washroom in the house
• In addition to the water faucet alterations, we have had maintenance turn down our hot water heater; when we moved in, it was unnecessarily scorching hot, and it was fixed almost immediately

We will continue to try and make our house more efficient, and see what the next set of numbers tells us! Thanks to everyone for the support.

MOvember Donation Table!!

This is a notice to let everyone know that we, the EcoVillage will have a desk set up THIS Friday, MOvember 28, 2008 from 8:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the main hallway, in front of the information desk on campus! Come rock your moustaches, and bring your donations to support this cause!!

For those who are not "in-the-know", MOvember is the month in which all us burly men (or not so burly) grow out our moustaches to support prostate cancer research. Prostate cancer effects 1 in 7 men in Canada.

The official website of MOvember can be accessed here: http://ca.movember.com/

Let's kick cancer in the balls THIS Friday!

Movember

Movember - Changing the face of men's health.
This coming month is an exciting one; not just in our scholarly studies are we actively striving for the best but through our abilities to join together for the support and awareness of Movember. We will be in the month of Movember, known as moustache November to draw awareness, as well as fund for the purpose of supporting Prostate Cancer Reasearch. This is a charitable month long event where we are sporting, of course, moustaches for the purpose of awareness in order to raise money for such an important men's health illness.

Every year around 24,700 Canadian men are diagnosed with prostate cancer and about 4,300 die of the disease, making it the number one cancer threat to Canadian men.

We encourage you to visit the Movember website at: http://ca.movember.com/ - where you can find us, your fellow students and eco-village society at team: Team Team. We are collecting donations online that will go directly through Movember to the Prostate Cancer Research Foundaation of Canada. Spread the news amongst your family and friends! Also we will be hoping to acquire a table to set up in the NUSU hallway toward the end of the month, where you can look for your moustached companions to be collecting donations in public and handing out moustaches to all of those that can't necessarily grow one. Further dates to follow, as well as a Movember Gala event at the Eco-village towards the end of the month. Stay posted for more!

Help us to change the face of Men's Health worldwide.

Peace.

FLIP-A-CUP launch on TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2008!!!

Hey everybody, just to let you all know! One of our good friends, Mel Lacey, and a few others are launching the "Flip-a-Cup" project here at Nipissing U! The general idea here is that rather than drinking your Tim Horton's coffee out of those awful paper cups, you will have the option to BORROW a plastic travel mug! They're bright lime-green, and...

ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS DUMP IT IN A FLIP-A-CUP BIN WHEN YOU'RE DONE!!

NO WASTE (Close to 20,000 paper cups PER WEEK)! AND NO DISHES FOR YOU TO DO!

There will be NO extra cost whatsoever to borrow these cups, all that is asked is that you put them in a Flip-a-Cup receptacle after you've finished. This has potential to be a very successful project!

The project is officially launching NEXT Tuesday, September 23, 2008 @ 11:00 a.m.

Do your part to help save the earth!

Eco Tent Protest

So, starting at 10 a.m. Monday morning, I'm going to be living out of a tent on campus for 7 days and nights as a sort of kick-off for the Eco Village project. The premise behind this, is that I am basically boycotting as much conventional technology as is humanly possible to promote a more environmentally-friendly way of life.

LE Guidlines!

-I'm allowed inside to go to class/use the library facilities, and grab my books as needed from my place of residence. Rain or hurricane though, I sleep outside no matter what.
-I will be cooking all of my meals on an open fire and eat as much as I can for free off the land.
-If I'm going to get around, I must walk or bike. No automotive vehicles of any kind.
-I'm allowed to party inside on Monday night for our roommate Osh's 22nd birthday. Birthday's are important, especially Australian ones.
-Yes...I will be bathing...in Duchesney Falls.
-Oh! As for that Tuesday stir fry I promised everyone, I'll do it. But it could get interesting.
-I am trusting my roommates to wake me up every morning so I can go to class, because my cell phone will be nowhere around to use as an alarm clock.
-The world is my toilet.

That's pretty much the general idea.

TO ANYONE ELSE WHO IS INTERESTED!!! PITCH A TENT WITH ME!!! It could be for one night, or every night. Just pop a squat next to that orange vagrant tent outside of House #3 in the grey townhouse residence complex, and we'll hate technology together!

I'm going to go enjoy one last sleep in my bed now. See you around campus!

-Kyle

A Brief Introduction

The Eco Village is a first-time initiative aimed at reducing the environmental impact of campus living at Nipissing University. Supported by the university, we as a team are developing ways to reduce water and energy usage, and waste production. We are the first and only residents of the Eco Village so far, located at House #3 in the Grey Townhouse Complex in Upper Residence. The purpose of this blog is to share, generate, and learn new ideas with the greater Nipissing community, so come check us out, drop us a line, stop by the house and help save the earth, MoFo!

Welcome

Welcome dudes