BikeShare petition info from TUCO

Hi, fellow Big.Ideas thinkers!

I am posting the following, which was originally left as a comment by Tuco. If you click on the title of this post, it will take you to the petition that Tuco mentions, and you can sign on line. Go for it -- and thanks, Tuco!

Just heard on the CBC this morning that BikeShare is closing due to lack of funding, but that its staff/volunteers are still convinced that bikesharing is an important idea that could work in our City...

Tuco said:

The link above is to a Canadian cycling petition - it asks the Federal Government to promote cycling as a preferred means of transportation. From the looks of your blog I thought it might strike your fancy.

AND - if you think this is at all something you'd like to help out with, I could email you the .pdf of the paper version which Olivia Chow is presenting to Parliament, get fifteen friends to sign, and then mail it back to me and it'll go to Parliament with all the others! Leave a note on my blog and I'll get back in touch with you.

http://tucorides.blogspot.com

Take care!

New Recycle Bin Awareness Poster

BIO Recycling Bin

What they see is what you get when you use a clear bag!



Bin features:

• Clear bag means safer bin for security reasons
• Sets up in seconds. No parts to assemble or lose.
• Large-Capacity, 45-gallon Bag
• Secure Lock is guaranteed to prevent bag from slipping – even when full
• Colored rims increase visibility and convenience.
• No Heavy Lifting, Bag slides through frame when it’s time to unload.
• Recycled Content!
• Steel frame and stakes = $ 45.00
• color or clear bag = $00.15 each

Around 2 bins to be located in most frequented areas of each floor at OCAD

Drink Container (for use anywhere around the school)



Bin features:

• Attractive and lightweight (weighs less than 6 lbs.)
• Made of 100% recycled plastic
• Easy and quick to assemble; easy to disassemble for storage
• Transparent green so you can see when full; helps eliminate contamination
• Capacity approximately 6 cu. ft. (44 gallons)
• Uses 36" x 56" polyethylene bags/liners
• Size: 21" diameter and 30" deep inside (not including space under the lid); 35" tall with lid on

Cost: $ 7.00 each (around 4 bins to be put in each floor at OCAD)

Contacts for purchase:

Ernie DesLaurier
Acro Foam & Plastics LTD
5705 - 99 Street
Edmonton, Alberta
T6E 3N8 CANADA
TEL: (780) 469-6865 / FAX: (780) 469-9061
email: acrovac@planet.eon.net

Plastic Bags Manufacturing and Packaging Supplies
6234 Bissell Place, Huntington Park, CA 90255.
Phone: (800)750-2247(BAGS)
(323) 585-1111
Email:sales@universalplastic.com

Recyle Poster

RECYCLE PRINT CARTRIDGES

By the end of this term, our groupmates have been interviewed with many people in the school services.

Interview with Lancelot Straun, Manger of the plant operations and security
--By Carrie (C-Carrie, S-Lancelot Straun)

C: How much waste does OCAD produce every week?
S: I can't tell you the exact amount at the moment, but we do provide the Waste Audit on the annual report. It is hard to say that, because it is varied everyday due to if there is an assignment period of the student, then there would be a lot of waste produced in the Studio or workshop, especially during the peak time of assignment and exhibitions.

C: How do you deal with the garbage?
S: We ask different kinds of companies for different sectors for the garbage. We use Turtle Island (recycling), Canadian Waste Management (Garbage), and we also employ some people to do the house keeping, such as clean up and collect the garbage bin and the recycle bin. You know that it cost money to get the garbage offside. As the students do projects with huge amount of materials which aware of products, but after they finished their assignments, there will is a lot of waste left behind. It also cost money to get them away. Especially in March and April, there would be a huge amount of scrap materials produced due to it is the end of the term, and also there is not enough space to store all the stuff, then we have to ask people to clean up all the garbage which would cost money again.

C: How much is the recycling rate?
S: I am not able to tell you that again, because I don't have any correlated materials with me right now. We do request information of the lift rate from the waste management company, and also we are planning to set up a recycling center which would be set up in 5 years hopefully. Then there would be more kinds of materials to be recycled, more space to store the garbage and waste, and also more people would be engaged to this recycle movement. By the time, we can also set up a place for recycle the print cartridges.

C: How many garbage bins and recycle bins in the school?
S: I am not too sure on this question. I can tell you that there were 51 recycling bins in 100, MacCaul St, but we begin to lost blue bins and the lids. At the end of the term, we just realized that there are couples of recycle bins have gone, I think there are some students use them to carry their models away, but I have no idea why the lids have gone. As the price of the bin is going up every year, and it is going to extra charge if we order the lid separately. We started to launch the new designed recycle bins, which are fixed in one place and without the lid, and then no one is going to move them away. We use function languages and posters to promote our new bins, and trying to make clients from it. We use the brown bag to collect the leaves from the park, green garbage bags to recycle the paints, e-mail print outs, and class hand outs.

C: How many empty print cartridges do we produce every week/ month?
And how do you deal with them normally?
S: Regards on this question, I am not in charge in this, but you should probably ask Mark Goffin who is the director of the printing service. Personally, I think more and more people have their own printer in their office is such a waste; they waste the energy, papers, and cartridges as well.

Proposal:
Basically we are having a proposal with an idea of recycling empty print cartridges. The goal we want to achieve is get all the people in OCAD involved into this project to help OCAD to improve its green grade.

1. Normally there are a lot of people do not know how to deal with the empty print cartridges, and they just throw them into the garbage, that would cause pollution in our environment.
2. Therefore, we are thinking to let OCAD to help people to recycle their empty print cartridges. OCAD set up some collection points on campus.
3.Students and staffs can bring their empty cartridges from home to the collection point.
4. The school can help them to recycle the cartridges accompanied with their own empty cartridges.

C: How do you think about this idea? Do you have any comments of it?
S: Yes, I think it's a good idea and also workable. It would be great if the school is able to do this. You know that there is a company you can ask about if they do help campus to recycle the empty print cartridge, or may be they will provide a bin for collecting the cartridges. As OCAD has a long term contract with them, and they are the one to help OCAD to recycle the waste. If they are going to extra for recycling the print cartridges particularly, then tell me how much they going to charge, and we will think about that we will go it or not.

Contact with this person: Roseanne Kool
Turtle Island Recycling Company
Tel: 416-406-2040 (Canada)
1800-224-5325 (International)



Printing Cartridge Recycling Report---------------Campus services interview Group: Tony. Shi

New building third floor printing shop manager: Mark
Shuai Tony .Shi

T: Hello Mark I just want to ask some questions about the printing cartridge recycling.
M: For Sure.

T: How do you commonly recycle the printing cartridge?
M: Generally speaking, I do not have any idea bout the recycling property. This is school’s responsibility. I usually put the trash and cartridge in the recycle bin and school would handle this.

T: Okay, and where is the recycle bin?
M: At the hallway, have you seen the bin before?
T: yes.

T: Did you classify the printing cartridge with paper and other properties?
M: Yes. But I just put them in the bin and that is my job. Basically, I do not have any information about the process of how the campus service solve recycling problem. I put paper in the large bin and put the cartridge in the plastic and glass recycle bin.

T: Is here any specific bin for printing cartridge recycling only?
M: Absolutely no idea. But I don't know any one.

T: But do you know where are the cartridge and paper trash go?
M: The stuff is going to mail office.
M: Mail office is care of the cartridge and paper recycling.

T: Do you pay for the printing cartridge recycling?
M: Me? Not at all. That is the mail room’s responsibility. My job is focus on the students’ printing activities and supplement.

T: Do you know any campus program about the cartridge recycling?
M: Yes. There is. But you better ask the mail office. I think there is nothing necessarily about printing cartridge recycling. Some printing company noticed that if people mail the cartridge box back to the company, they could pay for it. But mostly people they are no interesting to do this. I just put them into the bin. May be mailing office send them to some where else. Because I know the office manager did call the recycling office.

T: I have a group assignment here. We suggest putting a specific recycle bin aim at printing cartridge. As I know it can be refill. So can we suppose to design a bin and put it at the hallway?
M: Up to you. If students will put their cartridge in the bin, you can try this plan.
T: Okay, Thanks

Marlene: New building second floor Mail office manger
Shuai Tony. Shi

T: Hello. Sorry to disturb you. I just want to ask few questions about the printing cartridge recycling matter
ML: Okay.

T: .How do you handle the cartridge recycle?
ML: I call the company named Tecnolaser which is responses on OCAD printing cartridge and paper trash.

T: Do you pay for the company?
ML: Me? No. Personally, I don’t. But OCAD pay the annual fee for them. Monthly payment is more expensive.

T: I have a connection. This is a printing company. They have a service about the printing cards purchase. If you purchase the printing cards from them who will freely recycle the campus printing cartridge and paper. Will you do that?
ML: You know what? I do not pay for this, so it doesn’t matter for me. And I think campus service build trust and credits with the original recycle company. The campus pays yearly, so the company increases the discount year by year. I do not think OCAD is really interesting in your plan. At less, I don’t.

T: Okay. But where does the company mail the cartridge?
ML: Globalization. Yes. The company mail to United States, Europe or somewhere else.

T: Okay. I designed a recycle bin for printing cartridge. I want assist the campus aim at cartridge recycling. The design functional as a bin embrace students’ individual printing cartridge and school’s cartridge. So can I put the bin at printing shop of this office?
ML: Yes. Normally, Students handle the cartridge recycling problem by themselves. We don’t have a program or service just for printing cartridge recycle. The plan is good.
T: Okay and thanks for your help.

BIKESHARE!

For this one big idea project I have thought about how I can create a petition for students to sign to press OCAD to purchase more bike racks for the students who bike. Unfortunately when I got down to thinking about it, I thought that it was not an idea that would push OCAD to buy more. I had contacted Peter Lashko who had clearly stated that there were other issues at OCAD that needed to be address first. Purchasing bike rack did not sound like a top priority.

Peter Lashko’s e-mail responds to me.

Hi Jia-Yi

The architects will tell us where and how many racks will fit onto the
property.

AS for the idea, bike racks, recycling centres, all sorts of items are
repeatedly asked for each year under Furniture & Equipment requests. We
receive possibly one million plus dollars worth of requests and while it
varies from year to year, we only fund about a quarter of it.

Each year different priorities are addressed and taken care of.


I thought that pressing the administration to purchase more bike racks was a idea that can truly benefit students and accommodate more space to encourage others to bike. It was an wonderful idea and I still think that it’s a great idea, just that I don’t think that the petition would be so effective. My new idea came when I was walking to school the day after it snow, a few weeks ago. I was amaze by the number of students who was still biking to school even thought it began snowing. That is when I saw a bike with the sign “BikeShare Program.” The sign was yellow and black and I become curious about it. I decided to investigate and it turned out to be a bike share program in Toronto. BikeShare is a bike lending program launched in 2001 by the Community Bicycle Network, a registered non-profit organization. There are 15 hubs downtown where memebers can take out a bike.






I think that the program is suited for OCAD students because there are hubs all over downtown. The price is very fair considering the price of public transportation.
• $30 student/low income
• $50 regular fee
• $75 supporter (name a BikeShare bike)
If you cannot afford $30, a minimum of 4 hours of volunteer service for any community agency or group will be accepted.

For more information visit

http://communitybicyclenetwork.org/?q=bikeshare

This is a great program setup and I think OCAD student union should be involved. This is an excellent program and there are very few OCAD students who know about this program. I hope that by posting on our BIO blog, fellow OCAD students will take advantage of the BikeShare program.

These are photographs that i took a day after it began snowing. This is evidence of the importance of bike racks to the life of OCAD students.






Some more reasons as to why we should be cycling



Cycling is a better alternative to using our vehicle that produces pollution in our air

Cycling is a excellent form of excerise in our busy fast pace world

Cycling encourages other Toronto residences to bike, thus creating a greener city.

Self-Assessment of our Big Idea

Our team came together from three other teams: Chad Cutler, Do-Hyung Kim, and Mary McIntyre were considering ideas about building form, materials and orientation; Paul Wilcken was looking at transportation issues around the College; Rachel Lee was investigating ways to ‘green’ the College interior.

As a larger team, we continued to explore these ideas but added a communications component intended to raise the profile of the Big Idea on campus, and to bring it to the attention of College administrators.

Paul developed a wordmark for the class’s ideas: BIO (Big Ideas @ OCAD). He made the wordmark available to everyone in the class, so that all of our print and other materials could be branded and identified as a production of our class.

At the same time, our team developed a communications plan for our four particular ideas. This plan incorporated:

Poster/Postcard – A College-wide postcard campaign to draw attention to our Big Idea, and direct students and staff to the Green OCAD blog. The posters, with a pocket for BIO postcards, were posted on bulletin boards throughout the school.

big.ideas@OCAD Blog – A blog where students, staff, and anyone who receives one of our postcards can go to find out about our Big Idea, read our posts and make comments. The blog and comments were printed out and presented to Peter Caldwell, Vice-President, Administration, as a kind of petition showing student support for our Big Idea.

Student Forum Presentations – We presented our Big Ideas at the Faculty of Design Student Forum in mid-November, and at a Student Forum meeting with President Sara Diamond on 30 November.

Presentation to Administration – We presented a Proposal summarizing our Big Ideas to Peter Caldwell, and to President Sara Diamond

Our team responsibilities were as follows:

Chad: research on planted roof, Proposal presenter to Peter Caldwell
Rachel: research on interior green initiative; poster+postcard designer/producer
Do-Hyung: research on window replacement
Paul: research on encouraging use of mass transit; BIO ID Guru, co-presenter to Student Forum
Mary: Final Proposal editor/writer; Blog Mistress; co-Presenter to Student Forum, Sara Diamond

SELF-EVALUATION OF THE PROJECT - here are some of our thoughts on the Big Idea process:

Chad Cutler
Basically, I feel like we got quite a bit accomplished, even though we probably won't see the effects of it before we graduate. However, the administration is seriously starting to think about sustainability, and creating a more green place for learning.
If it's all we could do to get them to think hard about interior plants and green roofs and such, then I'd say that's a pretty big step, so we were more or less successful in this whole thing... maybe not in what we originally set out to do, but we still took THAT as far as we possibly could, and seriously made the administration think.

Rachel Lee:
From working on this project, The One Big Idea, I learned a lot. I got to know everything about the school, from the building itself to the relationships of the faculty and students. To me, OCAD was only a place for me to come and study, but One Big Idea made me change my views. Now, I see OCAD as a person who needs help. It may sound funny, but this is what I really think now.

Lots of work needs to be done, not just to improve green-ness, but to improve communication as well. If you think about it, OCAD really doesn’t have any green features, and no one knows where the funds would come from to create them. However, I really think that if faculty and students could just sit down talk about this problem, together we could find many solutions. We could solve the green problem and the communication problem at the same time.

Everywhere I walk in school now, my brain just kicks me back to BIO and other students’ idea as well, it’s just crazy! Green roof?! What the heck is a green roof?! If it wasn’t for this project, I guess I wouldn’t know what’s a green roof is, and what good it brings.

Me, I’m not a green person at all! My life is surrounded by everything that’s not green: cars, gas, plastic, packaging, printing, magazine, garbage! Working on this project, or should I say, this whole course, changed my life, my views toward green. Even my boyfriend named me, “Ms. Green", since I actually do watch what I do, what I eat, what I buy, what I consume; and now I make a lot of comments based on green ideas.

Mary McIntyre:
I came into this class with a very hazy idea of what a “Creative Think Tank” could be, and a lot of concerns about working as a group with people whose frame of reference was (I thought) very different from my own.

The various Assignments pushed me to think about the impact of my decisions – as a creative person, as a member of society at large, and as a member of the OCAD community. Researching the One Big Idea with the rest of my group took me into areas I wasn’t expecting to go: organizing group work, making presentations to the Student Forum, editing a Proposal to the Vice-President, working with fellow team members on a Powerpoint in a Tim Horton’s at 12:30 at night…

I am used to thinking of my OCAD studies as something separate from my working life – my alter ego/secret identity. However, bringing into the classroom what I have learned professionally turned out to be another unexpectedly satisfying result of the Creative Think Tank class.

I agree with Rachel – now that I have started looking at life through the prism of sustainability, I find that I am reevaluating all my decisions about consumption, and my creative practice.

Paul Wilcken:
With the start of green-focused projects, I knew it was something important to me in my life. Working with sustainable ideas opens up so many possibilities of design that I try to think and incorporate them when I can.

After grading OCAD, I really got a feel for how many great ideas there are, but how many are actually implemented; it's easier to say than do. With this in mind I aimed to make the biggest impact that I could, and that we could as a class with great ideas. This is why I put the effort in building BIO; I felt that it would truly make quite the difference. Sustainable is a great way to live and design, and I plan on carrying those ideas along with me.

But along the journey with BIO I have come to realize that with all of the people with influence, that doesn't mean it's good for the general group. Opportunistic people have great ideas, but remember they always have an agenda that comes ahead of everything else. It is why we need to build and structure more balance and more sustainable relationships to truly make things happen. If we design together, it will be accomplished; so many minds, and so many good ideas are just waiting for the push to the next step and I hope I can be a part of those ideas.

City and Inaccurate Information

After we found out that the city had provided us with inaccurate information I e-mailed Janice Wood, who had provided me with the information. Below is the letter I sent her and her reponse.

This message is for Janice Wood,
I am not sure if you remember but I wrote you an e-mail not too long ago regarding the AGO and a piece of land they are using as a parking lot. You responsed to my questions and told me that the City sold the AGO a portion of land on July 21, 2005. We used this information in our blog and used it for a petition we were creating. It seems that you have provided us with inaccurate information. We were contacted by AGO administration saying that this was completely false and infact The AGO did not purchase this land from the City in 2005. The AGO has owned this land since 1911; it was bequeathed to the Gallery by Harriette Boulton. I am not sure why this inaccuracy happened maybe it was a misunderstanding in the questions I provided you with but it has caused us problems in our research and for our project, as the AGO were not pleased with this inaccuracy. Thank You again.
-Dominique Patafio

Hello Dominique,

I have contacted Facilities & Real Estate and asked them to verify the information. I will get back to you shortly.

Janice Wood
Information Liaison Officer
Access Toronto / Public Information
City of Toronto

I still have not recieved her follow up response but when I do I will post it.

laptop program

Our suggested conclusions after reviewing the surveys for the laptop program are:

*First, give students the freedom in the choice of brands if the laptop quality meets school’s requirement. To add on, for those who are able to purchase a laptop, it would be more efficient to their learning with the college; however, for those who are not able to, it would be more stressful on the amount of student loan they will be owing after graduating. 

*Second, for students who are in the art program that wants to take on the design course, the suggestion that was being made is that to have a “time-share” laptop program that can lease or rent out laptops.

*Third, concerning the computer lab in the sixth floor, more classes in the lab would encourage the students to recognize and start to identify with the lab as part of their learning area.

This part of my project is based on the information that I gained through my research. According to this research in a typical office building in Eastern Canada, 30, to 40% of energy is consumed by lighting. Commercial and institutional buildings are similar. My following research at school proved this fact as well. From my personal observations I was able to see how much energy we consume by need; also I got a chance to witness how much energy we waste because of negligence.
Before coming up with a solution, as my first step I tried to find out what kind of responsibilities OCAD is taken or planning to take in the future to prevent this waste of energy from lighting. I contacted with plant services and found out what is being done or will be done to save energy from lighting. According to the information I was given;
Lighting at OCAD is retro fitting and OCAD uses energy efficient light bulbs when there is a need for a lighting replacement. These lower wattage light bulbs can save energy up to 15%.
Halogen bulbs, which are energy efficient, are also being used at OCAD. Halogen bulbs use an average of 40% less electricity, and they last two to four times longer then the regular light bulbs.
Fluorescent tubes are commonly used at OCAD. They use 60 to 80 % less energy than incandescent and last 10 to 20 times longer.
It’s very easy to take advantage of daylight to save energy at OCAD since all OCAD buildings has big, wide windows.
Motion sensor lighting system is one of the best way to save energy for buildings like OCAD but unfortunately because of the tight construction budged this system is not being used at OCAD.
Plant services also gave me information about further plans to save energy which is educating users but no plans has been considered yet.
Education of user was a good starting point for me. I wanted to come up with an idea gets people’s attention and get them act immediately. I also aimed to get this part of the project done with no cost. Eventually I created this warning label that approaches the topic with a sense of humor, I believe it will be strong enough to get attention and make users consider about energy savings and act.
I will be placing the poster on the doors in classrooms and washrooms so that people see the warning label before they step out. The person who steps out last sees the this warning label and goes back to the light switch to turn the lights off since it’s not needed anymore.

Here is our poster for encourage people to rececle the print cartridegs.

We also considered that if our original proposal is not approved, which means OCAD is not interesting in any of our suggestions, and then we are going to design an poster to encourage people to recycle their print cartridges for charity. We have found some websites on the internet about recycle print cartridges for charity, which we think is also a great idea. We are not only recycle the print cartridges which would improve our environment, but also able to help the charity.

The process of recycling the print cartridges is very easy. These are two organizations of them as below:
(Information from the website: http://www.recyclingforcharities.com/.
http://www.worldlandtrust.org/supporting/cartridges.htm)

Five Good Reasons To Recycle

1. Recycling conserves our valuable natural resources.
2. Recycling saves energy.
3. Recycling saves clean air and clean water.
4. Recycling saves landfill space.
5. Recycling can save money and create jobs.

Recycling Facts

Each ton of recycled paper can save 17 trees, 380 gallons of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space, 4,000 kilowatts of energy and 7,000 gallons of water!

Americans use more than 67 million tons of paper per year, or about 580 pounds per person.

Paper products make up the largest part (approximately 40 percent) of our trash.

Making recycled paper instead of new paper uses 64 percent less energy and uses 58 percent less water.

Every day American businesses generate enough paper to circle the earth 20 times !

Every day Americans recover more than 2 million pounds of paper! That's about 40 percent of the paper we use.

Paper products use up at least 35 percent of the world's annual commercial wood harvest.

The highest point in Ohio is said to be "Mount Rumpke," which is a "mountain" made up of trash -- at a sanitary landfill! Rumpke is one of the nation's largest waste and recycling companies.

One tree can filter up to 60 pounds of pollutants from the air each year.

Each year, Americans throw away 25 trillion Styrofoam cups.

In Britain, over 9 million "nappies" or disposable diapers, are used every day.

More than 1/3 of all fiber used to make paper comes from recycled paper.

Every Sunday, Americans waste 90 percent of recyclable newspapers. This wastes 500,000 trees!

A new landfill generally costs more than an old one that has filled up. This is because it typically costs more to comply with new environmental regulations, to buy the land, to construct the landfill and to transport waste because new landfills generally are farther away than older ones.

Every year more than 900 million trees are cut down to provide raw materials for American paper and pulp mills.

Only 1 percent of the world's water supply is usable; 97 percent is in the ocean and 2 percent is frozen.

Make Art!!!

THIS POST PUBLISHED ON BEHALF OF CREATIVE THINK-TANK MEMBER OSCAR PATZEN

Vandalism.

It’s occurring more and more in less-trafficked areas of the building. We are putting forward an intiative that will try to slow down acts of vandalism, and put more and more artwork around the school.

Create something we will be willing to pause and appreciate. We are asking artists to come forward and propose artwork you have been holding back simply because the space was not available. Any medium, shape or form -- take advantage! The process is listed below and as stated, no offensive artwork will be reviewed or tolerated.

Students must submit proposals for installations to the Campus Services & Security and Facilities Planning & Management department. Forms are available in Campus Services & Security and Facilities Planning & Management department at 11 McCaul Street, Level One, or can be downloaded from this site.

OCAD is fairly compliant to installation. However, not all areas of the university are available for installation. It all depends on the work in mind. All submission are reviewed by both Directors, Campus Services & Security and Facilities Planning & Management department.

- All submission are judged by a case-by-case submission
- Work should be judged by Faculty staff
(not Campus Services, Security, or Facilities Planning & Management)
- Content should not offend any group or race
- Installation should confirm with the provisions
of the Building Code and Fire Code

Art Installation application forms

Click 'n' drag -- Get your paint on!!

Apology regarding the AGO parking lot initiative

Hello Everyone,

On behalf of myself and my fellow group members, I would like to
apologize to everyone at AGO and OCAD community. It was not in our intention to post misleading information on the blog. We had simply used what we obtained from various sources, including Janice Wood, Information Liaison Officer at City of Toronto (copied below), to execute, what we thought is a potentially successful class project. We have since realized that we could have been more probing in our talks with AGO, in order to fully exhaust the "deep well" of information, which was there from the beginning, but only became fully apparent after the situation unravelled. However, we would also like
to mention that sometimes students aren't voluntarily provided with all the details and, while operating under strict deadlines, have to work with what they've got, make assumptions to construct their own models and to move their work forward in a timely fashion. Perhaps it is the lack of experience which sometimes hinders students from
considering all possible sides of the problem and prevents them asking all the questions which they can possibly ask. And we assure you that throughout this project we have definately learned the worth of careful analysis, research, synthesis and expression.

Thank you sincerely,

Victoria Kouvchinova


(Here is the e-mail responce we got from City of Toronto)

Hi Dominique,

Thanks for your patience while I researched your inquiry. I contacted staff
in Facilities and Real Estate and was told the City sold the AGO a portion of
land on July 21, 2005. The AGO owns the land and therefore can do as they wish
with it. You will have to contact the AGO which is part of the provincial
government for your research. http://www.ago.net/navigation/flash/frameset.cfm

Best of luck with your research,

Sincerely,

Janice Wood
Information Liaison Officer
Access Toronto / Public Information
City of Toronto

Meeting with Peter Caldwell

Alright, I met with Peter Caldwell for about 20, 25 minutes this afternoon, and it was a pretty solid and informative meeting. I gave him a copy of our group's proposal-thing that Mary made, which involves our actual proposal and final report stuff, as well as all the postings in the blog (except, obviously, for this one and any after it), and he seemed pretty impressed by it, so that's a plus.

He made note of some pretty good points, some of which I think we actually had to hear from someone in the administration to really think about them. First of all, I brought up what Mary suggested about how setting 250 computers into sleep mode and shutting them off when they're not in use could save them enough money to put up a 400 square foot green roof. First of all, and here's something that might be of interest to Ehryn and Andra, he said that Allastair MacLeod sent his report out to a LOT of people in the administration/staff... so that means we or someone like us are making an impact, I'd say. He also said that, because of that, he's started putting his computer in sleep mode (and when I met with him, it was, in fact, in sleep mode... or maybe off, I didn't parade around his office investigating, as I'm sure you can all well imagine). Unfortunately, though, the idea of redirecting that money isn't really something that would happen... the school pays at least hundreds of thousands of dollars in electricity annually, so they're not going to have a party over saving $12 000... any savings would go to the already shot heating, air conditioning and ventilation systems, most likely. He made note of the fact that he has to keep his windows open year-round or it becomes a sauna in his office when the heating kicks on, while Sara Diamond, whose office is separated from his by like... three feet of wall is freezing.

Another unfortunate thing about money is that the only budget the school gets from the government is a maintenance budget. Now, I can't recall the exact numbers he gave me, but basically it came out to less than a dollar per square foot of campus... which means the school depends more or less completely on fundraising. This is why, now that the "Ideas Need Space" project is done, they're hiring three companies to help come up with their next strategic plan (something that the things brought up at the student forums impacts). He said that he'd be pushing toward the creation of an "Environmental Fund", which would basically be a fundraising campaign type thing for greening up OCAD. This was reassuring... mostly because that was a big part of our original idea, anyway.

Along with the strategic plan discussion, I tossed a couple ideas at him, which he shot down with logic (curse you, logic!). The first was the "Adopt a Square Foot" idea, which was basically anybody that contributed $30 would get their name attached to a square foot of green roof. The problem is that to get any sort of physical name-thing attached to something aside from a dinky little sign that blows away as soon as the wind thinks about picking up costs a LOT more than $30. The second idea was an "Adopt a Plant" sort of thing. Since the school doesn't have the money to afford staff to water plants, a class would adopt one, or bring one in or whatever, and then take care of it themselves. He said, though, that that was sort of like adopting a puppy or a little baby chicken... it's cute and you have fun with it, but fourteen weeks later it's an animal and nobody wants to take care of it anymore. This is true, especially around exam time.

I think that was more or less all we talked about. So, basically, all we can really do now is hope we made an impact, and then see if anything happens out of it.

Responses regarding the AGO parking lot initiative

I have posted these email responses to your blog posting and petition, on behalf of Bev Carret, Manager of Government and Community relations at the AGO, our VP Administration Peter Caldwell, and our President, Sara Diamond:
Please Note: The Parking Lot petition has been removed from the blog, following correspondance with the AGO, and at the request of the OCAD President, Sara Diamond. I have also had correspondence from Beverley Carrett at the AGO, and Peter Caldwell, our VP of Administration. Because the issue has been resolved, I have agreed to take down the link to the petition. Please read on... our correspondence is as follows;
----------------------------

The AGO has definitely committed to convert the current parking lot at 4 Grange Rd into parkland. While it's unfortunate for all concerned that it's taken so long for this to happen (except, of course, for the AGO staff who get to keep using the parking lot in the interim), it has definitely been plodding along at its own pace.

The delays have not been the fault of AGO at all, but have been due to a long and involved community consultation process, organized by the City of Toronto. Bev and I have both been members of the working group which was formed by the City, and have attended at least 15 public meetings, presentations and long working sessions about this (some held at OCAD) over the past 2 years - all of which Bev and I attended on our own time, since they've been held in the evenings to accommodate local residents.

The issue was not just 4 Grange Rd, but a re-vamping of the entire Grange Park. Different factions among local resident groups (of which there are quite a few!) wanted different things (ranging from arts and heritage preservation to recreation, children's play areas, community gardens, dedicated Tai Chi areas, leashless dog run areas, removal of the public washrooms, enlargement of the public washrooms, etc, etc). The City staff and their project consultants found it very difficult to be open and consultative, not to mention trying to find common ground among some very disparate views. And it was all exacerbated by the fact that a few local residents were very confrontational (e.g. verbally abusing and shouting down the City staff and consultants at public meetings, sending derogatory, flaming emails cc'd to hundreds of people and local median etc).

For a while there, 4 Grange Rd looked to be in danger, because some residents were adamant that it should be turned into a basketball court for local teens (others were equally adamant that this would lead to late night noise, drug dealing, and an generally unsafe environment). We were adamant that the spirit of what had already been agreed to by AGO and the City was that it should be parkland.

In the end, the City staff and consultants came up with a plan that respected OCAD's original goal to provide a direct connection, via Butterfield Park and 4 Grange Rd, between Grange Park and McCaul St. Back at the office, I have a pdf of the final plan which was recently sent to me, and which I could pass on if people are interested. I could also pass along the name of the City officials who have been slogging away at this for so long if you like.

Now that it's been finally resolved, I don't know what the latest info is re timing, but I believe the work is to start in the spring.

Peter Caldwell
VP Administration
----------------

Hi, Martha - Thank you for posting a correction on your blogsite. I have
no issue with your students raising community awareness about the length
of time it is taking to actually convert the parking strip into
greenspace. I agree - it's good journalism and good community activism.
But the facts have to be accurate.

I would be happy to sit down with any of your students to review the
history of 4 Grange Road (the AGO's parking strip). Just to clarify -
the issue has been resolved, in the fact that the City is indeed moving
forward to rezone the land as greenspace. The challenge now is to keep
the work moving forward. As I mentioned, there are a series of
environmental tests the City needs to undertake, and this takes time.

Since the conversion of 4 Grange Road into greenspace is part of the
City's planned revitalization of Grange Park, this may be something more
meaty for your students to sink their teeth into re community
improvement. I can also provide some information to your students about
this, and give them the names of the City staff who are leading this
process.

Your students can contact me anytime. This time, I would ask for a
sit-down, face to face meeting. The last time, I was hurriedly asked
some questions over a cell phone.

Also, if your students have the name of the City staff member who
provided erroneous information about the ownership of 4 Grange Road, I
would like to get the name, so I can contact that person and set him/her
straight.

Many thanks - looking forward to hearing from your students.
Beverley Carret
AGO
----------

I am disappointed that misleading and false information has been posted on the OCAD blogsite about the AGO’s parking strip, particularly after I provided you with the correct information in our telephone interview. As I explained to you in our telephone conversation, below are the facts:

The AGO did not purchase this land from the City in 2005. The AGO has owned this land since 1911; it was bequeathed to the Gallery by Harriette Boulton.

As part of the Gallery’s “Transformation AGO” expansion project, the AGO offered to have its parking lot converted to greenspace. This offer was made by the AGO to the local community at the second AGO Working Group meeting on May 10, 2004, and it was formalized as part of Toronto City Council’s approval of the AGO’s expansion project on October 27, 2004.

Since this time, the City has been working through the procedures of rezoning this land to parkland. Some of this work requires the City to undertake a series of environmental tests, which takes some time. The City is also in the process of developing a revitalization strategy for Grange Park, and I believe they’re trying to time the conversion of the AGO’s parking lot into parkland with this, in order to achieve a coordinated and comprehensive design for the entire area.

These are very positive things that are happening to help the greening of our local community. We commend OCAD for taking the first step with Butterfield Park, and we are pleased to also be playing a part. It’s unfortunate that you chose not to celebrate these positive steps, but that is your choice. I would ask, though, that you remove the false and misleading information about the AGO from your blogsite, and replace it with the correct information.

Bev Carret
Manager of Government and Community Relations
Art Gallery of Ontario
Tel: 416-979-6660 ext. 477

Robbing Peter to pay Paul, aka CONNECT THE DOTS

... if you read this blog, you'll see:

- Ehryn's and Andra's post about saving energy/money by turning off computer lab monitors when they're not in use.

- our Prof's post quoting Alastair McLeod, OCAD IT God, who says OCAD could save $12,000 a year if 250 OCAD computers were programmed to sleep when not active, and were turned OFF during non-work hours

- Chad's post quoting OCAD Special Projects guy Rob Pyke, who says a green roof on OCAD would cost about $30 a square foot.

THAT MEANS...

$12,000 divided by $30 = 400 square feet

If OCAD computers were set up to 'sleep' when not in use, and users turned off their computerS when they leave the school, we could put a 400 s.f. green roof on OCAD -- small, but a start -- without spending one cent more than we do now.

CONNECT THE DOTS!!!!!

Green OCAD

Alright, I've got some presents for everyone. These are the responses I've gotten from the various correspondances I've been doing through the course of this project. First one's from Scott Wylie, Wytech Building Envelope Solutions, Inc. from November 8th:

"Chad,

Questions that need to be addressed:

Is the existing roof membrane in good condition. No sense installing a rooftop garden only to experience a leak! The cost of a green roof removal just to locate a leak can be cost prohibitive.

The absolute minimum green roof dead load weight is 16 lbs/sq.ft. Typically, we prefer to see between 25-30 lbs /sq.ft. These weight are typically very light for many roofs to support. If in doubt always call an engineer for advice.

The area you want to "green" is unlimited, but typically 5,000 sq.ft. is a nice sized rooftop garden. I've done as small as 100 sq.ft. projects!

A green roof can not be installed under $10.00 per sq.ft. No exceptions! Some may claim to provide lower pricing but conveniently forget to mention the added costs for transportation, installation, irrigation, maintenance, etc. At $10.00 per sq.ft. that includes a root barrier, drainage/moisture retention and aeration panels, 6" engineered soil or sedum blanket.

If a new roof needs to be installed, typically $20.00 per sq.ft absolute minimum is required.

Find attached two projects for your review. You need to phone ahead but 215 Spadina has a phenomenal rooftop garden.

E-mail any time if you have additional questions or request technical literature i.e. energy savings, dead load weight, etc.

Scott Wylie
Wytech"

Second is from Rob Pyke, Manager of Special Projects at OCAD, which he sent on November 20th:

"Chad:

Coincidentally I met Scott Wylie at a roof seminar last week.Interesting speaker and certainly an expert on green roofs. He actuallymakes a distinction between green roofs and what he calls vegetativeroofs which is a sub-set of green roofs. A green roof in his words was aroof designed with environmental impact in mind: durability, recycledmaterial content, recyclable, solvent content, quantity of insulation,solar and wind power, and other considerations.

Weight: I agree with the weight estimates, and although a structural engineer would have to be involved at some point, I don't think weightwould be a stumbling block in our case.

Cost: I think the cost estimates are a little low because of the height, limited street access, and a lot of mechanical equipment in the way. Iwould suggest a cost closer to $30/sq. ft.

Typically, the main advantage of a vegetative roof is that they areattractive and you can use them as a roof top garden. The roofs atpresent are not designed to be occupied. We would need guard rails, a2nd exit, fire alarm and so forth if occupying the roof was desired.

Wind on the table top would have to be a consideration because of soilerosion. A special mix of grow medium would be required.

As far as permission goes to do fundraising that is not my area.

Good luck with your project and let me know if you have specific questions.

Yours truly,

Rob Pyke, P.Eng.
Manager, Special Projects"

Peter Caldwell, OCAD's VP, also e-mailed me with a response to our intended ideas with the green roof/interior and exterior plantings, but I won't post that here, since it's more or less directly involved with how our project could/couldn't succeed the way we'd had it set up, instead of actual information such as what's contained in the two above.

So, yeah. If anyone wants to see the pictures that Scott Wylie sent me of the two projects he's done, leave a comment with your e-mail or something and I'll send them to you.

Well, just thought I'd share. Later!

Bio poster and card

I know there were some touching, but not that many...-_-









so..cheer up...