Green Exchange

Green Exchange
Wednesday, October 22, 2008 - 4:00am to Thursday, October 23, 2008 - 4:00am

In conjunction with Waste Reduction Week, OCAD's Sustainability Task Force invites OCAD students, faculty and staff to exchange or recycle outdated electronics.

Many people have the knowledge, but do not have the means to properly recycle technology. Over the course of two days, the OCAD community can bring in outdated electronics and either leave it for another person to reuse or to have it properly recycled.

Drop off old mobile phones, computers and related items (including peripherals like keyboards, mice, cables, monitors, printers, PDAs etc.), old TVs*, VCRs or other entertainment devices, as well as old batteries and printer cartridges. What can be reused will be salvaged by those that want it, while non-salvageable will be collected by Greentec for proper dismantlement, salvage, recycling and disposal.

Please note that all personal data should be erased from devices prior to drop off.

*Older wooden-boxed televisions cannot be accepted.

Come by to pick up information on living a more sustainable lifestyle, and your chance to win green prizes or giveaways!

IT Service and Campus Life are actively seeking modest sponsorships from vendors and other partners to cover associated costs for the event.

The Green Exchange is organized by OCAD’s Sustainability Task Force, and generously supported by the Office the of President, Office of the Vice-President, Finance & Administration, OCADSU, IT Services, the Service Bureau, Campus Life & Career Services, AV & Imaging Services, Human Resources, Admissions & Recruitment, Green Palette, Xerox, Bullfrog Power, Zerofootprint, IBM, Loblaws, Mountain Equipment Co-op, Aboveground Art Supplies and Toronto Hydro.

Venue & Address: 
OCAD Main Lobby 100 McCaul St., Toronto, Ontario
Email: 
mmandoda@ocad.ca
Cost: 
Free

Estisol Workshop with Mark Bovey

Etisol
Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 1:00pm

On Tuesday, April 22, the Printmaking program at OCAD is conducting a workshop on the introduction of a new vegetable-based cleaning agent, Estisol, to replace the use of the traditional solvents currently in use. The introduction of Estisol at OCAD is a significant step in the "greening" of the Printmaking program.

Mark Bovey, Assistant Professor of Art, NSCAD University will be leading the workshop for all Printmaking Faculty and support staff. This initiative is supported in part by the office of the Vice-President Academic.

Venue & Address: 
Printmaking, Level 3, Nora E. Vaughan Wing 100 McCaul St., Toronto, Ontario
Cost: 
Free

Building Sustainability: Green Building in an Urban Setting

Monday, November 26, 2007 - 11:30pm

In collaboration with the Gardiner Museum, Architecture for Humanity Toronto is pleased to present a compelling series of lectures exploring the development of sustainable communities.
In this lecture, Dr. David Moses will discuss some of the biggest challenges
when considering sustainable alternatives to standard building practice.
Please also join us in an open-participation discussion immediately following
the lecture.
David Moses is a structural engineer specializing in timber engineering. After joining Equilibrium
Consulting Inc. in Vancouver in 1999, he recently opened an office in Toronto for the Company. His work includes innovative commercial, residential and community-based projects in Canada, the
United States and parts of Asia.
Limited seating, please arrive early.
Organized by OCAD student Heather McGraw.

Venue & Address: 
Gardiner Museum, Jamie Kennedy Attrium 111 Queen's Park, Toronto, Ontario
Cost: 
Free

Dr. Ian Clarke's Passive Urban Greenhaus is featured in the Council of Universities' Going Green Report

Going Greener event poster
Sunday, November 1, 2015 - 4:00am

Greenhaus is a research project, led by Dr. Clarke and funded by the Metcalf Foundation, that optimizes passive solar designs that trap heat for longer periods than a traditional greenhouse. This creates opportunities for winter urban agriculture in Toronto and other northern cities with no supplemental heating. In addition to the research being conducted, the passive solar-heated greenhouse prototype will be used to assist with the undergraduate curriculum and to the examine cultural and social significance of food production and food security issues. The prototype is on the roof of the Sharp Centre for Design and is being used to collect data and evaluate performance. It will be used as a basis for an open-source, low production-cost, scalable unit that could be built on existing rooftops, parking pads or alley garage spaces. 

To strengthen ODESI’s capacity to report to the OCAD U community on human rights concerns and complaints and to ensure high standards in the collection and retention of confidential human rights data, ODESI worked with IT Services and York University’s IT Services to fully customize the newly procured OCAD U Human Rights Case Management System. The goal is for ODESI to begin using the new data management system in November 2015.

On August 13, 2015, a Sustainability Working Group attended by 23 members of our community met to develop the Sustainability Committee mandate, to plan for a Fall 2015 Sustainability Forum and to generate a number of new campus initiatives, to be prioritized by the Committee.

grOCAD grows green to support sustainability

Photo of multiple plants

A group of art and design activists, the cleverly named grOCAD includes OCAD University students, faculty and administrators. The student union-funded group hosts workshops and lectures to promote and support community building around issues of urban sustainability. Member Tom Doughty, a fourth-year Industrial Design student, says, “We’re a community of people who take grassroots action to make OCAD U more sustainable. We work with what’s around us to make things better.”

What grOCAD members work with most often are plants. “The idea is that our environment can only be improved by creating a greater interface with plant life. Plants can be food and help to purify the air, but we can also learn from plants about how to be responsible by taking care of them and, through that, how to take care of each other as well,” says Doughty.

Since 2012, grOCAD members have organized various workshops on hanging gardens, aquaponics and window farms. Their inaugural workshop was part of OCAD U’s first urban ecologists conference and they have also participated in shows at Onsite gallery. Many of their endeavours address the question: How can we work with nature in increasingly dense urban environments?

“One of grOCAD’s cool initiatives is the Learning Zone Sustainability Program,” says Doughty. “It’s a materials trading post where students can donate and pick up new or used art supplies.” He acknowledges the “incredible support” of Marta Chudolinska, OCAD U’s Learning Zone librarian.

Upcoming projects for grOCAD include another hanging garden workshop with students in the new Life Studies minor. Some of these gardens have been used to make natural dyes. Students grow and then dry the plants, boil them down and make their own dyes, without additives. Textile arts students are particularly interested in this technique in order to reduce the carbon footprint of their work.

All workshops are open to the public. For more information, check out their Facebook page, tumblr site or visit the Learning Centre in person. Doughty says grOCAD is always looking for enthusiastic people who are passionate about urban sustainability.

OCAD U Recycles

OCAD U Recycles Event Oct 22-23 Butterfield Park
Wednesday, October 22, 2014 - 2:00pm to 7:30pm

Part of the Waste Reduction Week of Canada, the Office of Diversity, Equity and Sustainability Initiatives (ODESI), with Indigenous Visual Culture Program, the Library’s Learning Zone and Facilities Planning Management, presents OCAD U Recycles. This two-day event is an opportunity for our community to continue to not only responsibly recycle, upcycle / repurpose unwanted art and design materials and electronics* but examines how we consume and can reuse these items. This year it will also include an opportunity to pick up previously owned OCAD U furniture !!!

Here is a list of some of the things that you can bring in:
Computers*
Hard drives*
Cell phones*
Printer Cartridges
Household Batteries (AA, AAA, etc…)
Paint Brushes
Magazines
Fabrics

*Please erase all data from electronics before dropping off these items. We cannot accept kitchen electronics or electronics that came in contact with water or incased in wood, see complete list of Acceptable List of items.

The items that work, can be reused by students, faculty or staff; the items that do not work, will be recycled responsibly by professionals, GreenTec, Think Recycle, RPR Environmental and Green For Life.

If you don’t have something to drop off or pick up, we encourage OCAD U students, faculty and staff to come to Butterfield Park and find out about other OCAD U sustainability initiatives and resources related to waste disposal and reduction practices.

Venue & Address: 
Butterfield Park
Website: 
http://www.facebook.com/events/724407317648707/ www.wrwcanada.com
Email: 
mmandoda@ocadu.ca Minesh Mandoda Coordinator, Sustainability Initiatives Office of Diversity, Equity and Sustainability Initiatives
Cost: 
Free

Green Exchange

Event Poster
Monday, March 10, 2014 - 1:00pm to 8:00pm

This event is part of a month-long series of sustainability events at OCAD University called sMarch

Hosted by OCADU's ongoing sustainability initiatives, the Indigenous Visual Culture Program, the First Generation Program and the OCADU Library's Learning Zone.

Green Exchange is your opportunity to exchange or recycle your outdated technology! Students, faculty, and staff can bring in their outdated electronics and either leave it for another person to reuse or to have it properly recycled. What can be reused will be salvaged by those that want it, while non-salvageable will be collected by GreenTec, Think Recycle and RPR Environmental for proper dismantlement, recycling and disposal.

Electronics that are accepted:
Digital cameras, mobile phones, computers, laptops and related items (including peripherals such as keyboards, mice, cables, monitors, printers, PDAs etc.), old TVs, VCRs or other audio-visual devices, as well as old batteries and printer cartridges.

Some Important Things to consider:
• Please note that all personal data should be erased from devices prior to drop off.
*We cannot accept any electronic items that come in contact with water or food (such as humidifiers, coffee makers or microwaves) or encased in wood, such as speakers and older television sets.

Material Trading Post
Students, Faculty and Staff are welcome to bring their unused or unwanted art supplies and/or collect "new" supplies to experiment with new approaches in their creative endeavours.

This event is part of sMarch, a month long series of sustainability events at OCAD University.

Venue & Address: 
Main Lobby 100 McCaul St. Toronto, Ontario
Website: 
http://www.facebook.com/events/599815046760533
Cost: 
Free

Goethe-Institut Toronto and OCADU present the Ecology.Design.Synergy speaker series

Friday, September 24, 2010 - 4:00am

Series to open with Friedrich von Borries in conversation with Philip Beesley

(Toronto — September 24, 2010) The Goethe-Institut Toronto, in cooperation the Faculty of Design at OCAD University (OCADU) and the MaRS Centre, present a speaker series as part of Ecology.Design.Synergy: Green Architecture & New Ideas from Germany & Canada. The series will launch with Provocative Visioning: The Artist/Designer as Eco-Provocateur, bringing together the remarkable creative explorations of Berlin-based Friedrich von Borries and Canadian Philip Beesley, with presentation of their work and ensuing conversation, at OCADU on Thursday, October 7, 6 p.m.

Curated by OCADU Faculty of Design Acting Dean Doreen Balabanoff in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut, this series will explore a range of architectural and design practices that are transforming our understanding of ‘sustainability’ within the built environment. This evening showcases two outstanding Venice Biennale (Architecture) participants: von Borries curated the German presentation in 2008, and Beesley's project, Hylozoic Ground, is Canada's representative at the Biennale this year.

About the Speakers:
Friedrich von Borries
runs Projektbüro Friedrich von Borries in Berlin, a company developing urban development concepts, architectural installations and exhibitions. In 2003, with fellow architect Matthias Böttger, he set up ‘raumtaktik’ (‘spatial tactics’) a collaboration investigating space and spatial intervention. Interested in the means of production of space, and the cultural, economic and political parameters that determine the shape of architecture and urban development, they produced a series of exhibitions, installations and publications which challenge conventional thinking. Globalisation, migration, economic transformation, commercialisation, the event character of space, the activation of urban space — these are the underlying conditions explored in their dynamic and provocative team work. In 2008, von Borries was named Germany’s curator and commissioner for the Venice Architecture Biennale. Currently, von Borries is Professor of Design Theory at University of Fine Arts of Hamburg.

Toronto architect Philip Beesley of Beesley Architects, Prix de Rome winner, teaches at the University of Waterloo where he also co-directs the Integrated Centre for Visualization, Design and Manufacturing (ICVDM). The research conducted by Beesley at the ICVDM concerns textile lattices in architecture and focuses particularly on interlinked mesh structures, lightweight materials, and offset and assembly systems. His works are inspired by the organic world and traditional weaving techniques. They are, however, created using sophisticated visualization tools, digital technologies for graphic design, and devices allowing rapid prototyping. Beesley’s project “Hylozoic Ground” is currently on site in Venice as Canada’s entry at the 12th International Architecture Biennale.

Additional Ecology.Design.Synergy speaker events will include:

2) Strategic Construction: The Architect as Agent for Change

Manfred Bausem and Martin Liefhebber
November 26, 6 p.m.
OCAD University, Auditorium, 100 McCaul Street, Toronto

3) Visionary Regeneration: The Historic Fabric Refashioned
Speakers & Date TBA

4) Fine Tuning: The Building as Ecosystem
Speakers & Date TBA

About the Goethe-Institut Toronto
The Goethe-Institut Toronto (www.goethe.de/toronto) presents important positions, contemporary ideas and arts practices from Germany and Europe to Canadians. Our current focus themes are Culture & Economy, City & Climate, and German film & media art. We organise residencies together with our Canadian partners, offer international liaison work and consulting as well as promote European cultural understanding, e.g. through our cooperation with other European cultural institutes across Canada.

About OCAD University (OCADU)
OCAD University (www.ocad.ca) is Canada’s “University of the Imagination.” The University, founded in 1876, is dedicated to art and design education, practice and research and to knowledge and invention across a wide range of disciplines. OCAD University is building on its traditional, studio-based strengths, adding new approaches to learning that champion cross-disciplinary practice, collaboration and the integration of emerging technologies. In the Age of Imagination, OCAD University community members will be uniquely qualified to act as catalysts for the next advances in culture, technology and quality of life for all Canadians.

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For more information, contact:

Jutta Brendemühl, Program Coordinator, Goethe-Institut Toronto
416.593.5257 Ext. 205

Sarah Mulholland, Media & Communications Officer
416.977.6000 Ext. 327 (mobile Ext. 1327)

Ecology.Design.Synergy speaker series continues with Manfred Brausem and Martin Liefhebber

Thursday, November 18, 2010 - 5:00am

Green Architecture & New Ideas from Germany & Canada presented by Goethe-Institut Toronto and OCADU

(Toronto — November 18, 2010) The Faculty of Design at OCAD University (OCADU) in partnership with Goethe-Institut Toronto presents the second talk in a speaker series as part of Ecology.Design.Synergy: Green Architecture & New Ideas from Germany & Canada. Strategic Construction: The Architect as Agent for Change brings together German architect Manfred Brausem in conversation with Canadian architect Martin Liefhebber for a free event on Friday, November 26 at 6 p.m. in OCADU’s Auditorium.

The series launched in October with Provocative Visioning: The Artist/Designer as Eco-Provocateur, showcasing the remarkable creative explorations of Berlin-based Friedrich von Borries and Canadian Philip Beesley.

Curated by OCADU Faculty of Design Acting Dean Doreen Balabanoff in collaboration with Goethe-Institut Toronto, this series explores a range of architectural and design practices that are transforming our understanding of ‘sustainability’ within the built environment. This evening showcases two pioneers in passive solar design: Manfred Brausem is embraced as a ‘guiding spirit’ by innovative architectural firms in the US; Martin Liefhebber’s vision extends beyond creating healthy homes to building healthy communities.

About the Speakers:
Manfred Brausem is an accomplished Passive House architect based in Cologne. He has been a pioneer of the Passive House movement since its introduction in Germany 15 years ago. He has realized over 100 passive solar projects, and is one of the most experienced professionals worldwide in the field. The Passive House Standard is hugely successful in Europe. Manfred’s work was instrumental in popularizing it across Europe. In 2015 this energy standard, with an amazing 90 percent reduction in energy use, will become part of the building code in Germany and is being promoted by the European Union for adoption by their member states as part of their commitment to curb climate change.

Martin Liefhebber is one of Canada’s original “bioneers” — using unorthodox materials including straw bale in urban settings and used tires in “earthships” — gaining recognition in 1991 for the award-winning off-grid “Healthy Home”, commissioned by the Canadian Mortgage & Housing Association. Throughout his career, and as principle in his firm (which has grown from Liefhebber Architects to Breathe Architects), Liefhebber has demonstrated his belief that “architecture is something that actually fixes the environment.” This approach is evident in both the Clarkson house, designed for exceptional indoor air quality, and the “MC2” house designed to address affordability, ageing and ambient resource use, and absorbing and circulating sunlight, air and water in a hybrid power system. Liefhebber teaches in OCAD University’s Environmental Design program.

Additional Ecology.Design.Synergy speaker events will include:

Visionary Regeneration: The Historic Fabric Refashioned
Speakers & Date TBA

Fine Tuning: The Building as Ecosystem
Speakers & Date TBA

About the Goethe-Institut Toronto
The Goethe-Institut Toronto (www.goethe.de/toronto) presents important positions, contemporary ideas and arts practices from Germany and Europe to Canadians. Our current focus themes are Culture & Economy, City & Climate, and German film & media art. We organise residencies together with our Canadian partners, offer international liaison work and consulting as well as promote European cultural understanding, e.g. through our cooperation with other European cultural institutes across Canada.

About OCAD University (OCADU)
OCAD University (www.ocad.ca) is Canada’s “University of the Imagination.” The University, founded in 1876, is dedicated to art and design education, practice and research and to knowledge and invention across a wide range of disciplines. OCAD University is building on its traditional, studio-based strengths, adding new approaches to learning that champion cross-disciplinary practice, collaboration and the integration of emerging technologies. In the Age of Imagination, OCAD University community members will be uniquely qualified to act as catalysts for the next advances in culture, technology and quality of life for all Canadians.

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For more information contact:
 

Jutta Brendemühl, Program Coordinator, Goethe-Institut Toronto
416.593.5257 Ext. 205

Sarah Mulholland, Media & Communications Officer
416.977.6000 Ext. 327 (mobile Ext. 1327)

Ecology.Design.Synergy series continues with a talk by Barbara Hoidn and George Stockton

Thursday, February 24, 2011 - 5:00am

(Toronto — February 24, 2011) The Ecology.Design.Synergy: Green Architecture & New Ideas from Germany & Canada speaker series, launched in 2010 by the Goethe-Institut Toronto in cooperation the Faculty of Design at OCAD University (OCAD U), continues with a talk by Barbara Hoidn and George Stockton on Wednesday, March 9 at 6 p.m. Hoidn and Stockton will address the theme Reclaiming The Land: The Designer as Eco-Regenerator.

Curated by OCAD U Faculty of Design Acting Dean Doreen Balabanoff in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut, this series explores a range of architectural and design practices that are transforming our understanding of ‘sustainability’ within the built environment. Past speakers in the series have included Friedrich von Borries, Philip Beesley, Manfred Brausem and Martin Liefhebber.

About the Speakers:
Barbara Hoidn studied architecture and city planning at the University of Karlsruhe in Germany. She worked as a project architect for the Public Building Administration in Frankfurt/Main and for several years as a project partner with the office of José Paulo dos Santos, Oporto, Portugal. In 1994 she joined the strategy department of the Senate Building Director of Berlin as Head of the Architecture Workshop. In this position she was responsible for the development of public urban design guidelines and the consultation of private projects in central Berlin, the concept and organization of symposia, conferences and exhibitions on urban development in Berlin. From 2000 to 2001 she was head of a team in the housing department of the Senate Department for Urban Development in Berlin, responsible for the handling of several national and European urban renewal programs in Berlin. In 2001, with Wilfried Wang, she founded the office Hoidn Wang Partner in Berlin.

George Stockton is a landscape architect and planner who has been working with Moriyama & Teshima Planners Limited since 1969. Now President of the firm, he has been Project Director of several long-term environmentally sensitive visionary plans which have won major international awards from the Waterfront Center in Washington. In recent years, Stockton has built up a significant body of work in the Middle East, where he headed a team of landscape architects and engineers to undertake the Wadi Hanifah Comprehensive Development Plan to rehabilitate an ancient drainage system in central Saudi Arabia. Over a ten-year period, using ground-breaking processes of bio-remediation, a near-extinct ecosystem and important natural heritage site has been restored and enhanced as an environmental, recreational and tourism resource. The project won the 2010 Aga Khan Award for Architecture.

Ecology.Design.Synergy:
Green Architecture & New Ideas from Germany & Canada

March 9, 6 p.m.
Reclaiming The Land: The Designer as Eco-Regenerator
Barbara Hoidn & George Stockton

OCAD University
Central Hall (Room 230), 100 McCaul Street, Toronto
416-977-6000 | www.ocad.ca

All are welcome; admission is free. Limited seating available; guests are advised to arrive early.

Next in the Ecology.Design.Synergy Speaker Series:

April 7, 6 p.m.
Reclaiming the City: The Architect/Planner as Eco-Urbanist
Stephan Lanz & Graeme Stewart

Stephan Lanz has been working in urban development and lectures at the Faculty of Social and Cultural Studies at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt/Oder. As a founding member of metroZones - Center for Urban Affairs, he is active in various urban and cultural networks in Berlin and is the editor of the book series "metroZones".

Graeme Stewart is an associate with E.R.A. Architects (Toronto), a noted Canadian architectural firm specializing in professional heritage consultation and adaptive reuse of existing buildings, exemplifying the philosophy that the greenest building is the reused building. Renowned projects include the Stone Distillery at the Distillery Historic District (2007), and the Artscape Wychwood Barns (2009) in Toronto. Stewart’s focus has been with more recently built landmarks, including the 1,000 modern apartment buildings from the 1960s and 1970s, known to be among the most energy inefficient of the Toronto’s building stock. Stewart oversees the ‘Tower Renewal Project’, implementing green technologies, re-skinning, clean energy and urban agriculture.

About the Goethe-Institut Toronto
The Goethe-Institut Toronto (www.goethe.de/toronto) presents important positions, contemporary ideas and arts practices from Germany and Europe to Canadians. Our current focus themes are Culture & Economy, City & Climate, and German film & media art. We organise residencies together with our Canadian partners, offer international liaison work and consulting as well as promote European cultural understanding, e.g. through our cooperation with other European cultural institutes across Canada.

About OCAD University (OCAD U)
OCAD University (www.ocad.ca) is Canada’s “University of the Imagination.” The University, founded in 1876, is dedicated to art and design education, practice and research and to knowledge and invention across a wide range of disciplines. OCAD University is building on its traditional, studio-based strengths, adding new approaches to learning that champion cross-disciplinary practice, collaboration and the integration of emerging technologies. In the Age of Imagination, OCAD University community members will be uniquely qualified to act as catalysts for the next advances in culture, technology and quality of life for all Canadians.

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Download this release as a PDF file.

For more information contact:

Jutta Brendemühl, Program Coordinator, Goethe-Institut Toronto
416.593.5257 Ext. 205

Sarah Mulholland, Media & Communications Officer
416-977-6000 Ext. 327 (mobile Ext. 1327)

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