ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE

Climate Change:

Members of the Environment Committee advocate for action by City Hall and encourage members of the community towards the goals of increased energy efficiency and reduced emissions of greenhouse gases.

Zero Waste:

Members of the Environment Committee actively engaged as stakeholders in the City’s planning process towards a new, 30-year Solid Waste Master Plan, to promote an ambitious scale-up of waste reduction, reuse and repair services and programs in the city, and increased diversion of organics and recyclable waste from landfill.

• For Earth Day 2025 we collaborated with the Old Ottawa South Community Association for a big waste collection which resulted in many items being repurposed, reused and recycled (see page 18 of The OSCAR June 2025).
• We handed out flyers listing charities that accept donations of many different items at the 2022 Great Glebe Garage Sale to encourage vendors to donate their unsold items to help those in need
• Committee members have also been successful in bringing to the Glebe a drop-off location for Earthub’s Items to Keep out of Landfill program, allowing local residents the possibility to offer new lives for their used goods and packaging that would otherwise have gone to landfill.

Trees and Greenspace:

Members of the Environment Committee advocate for action by City Hall and encourage residents to support increased tree canopy and greenspace. The goal is to enhance the liveability of our neighbourhood, to improve air quality and community health, and to mitigate the impacts of climate change in our neighbourhood. 

• We continue to encourage residents to apply for tree planting in front yards through City Programs (city-owned property) or to plant trees in back yards (privately-owned property) so we created Decision Trees for Tree Planting to help residents choose an appropriate tree for their property.
• Along with several community associations we successfully advocated for the City of Ottawa to automatically plant a tree on the right of way when an existing tree is removed.  In June 2024, Council adopted this “proactive approach to trees within the right of way, ensuring lost canopy cover is replaced whenever a tree is removed”.
• The Glebe benefits greatly from the work of our Garden Angels (GardenAngels@glebeca.ca), a group of volunteers who take care of the planters and common spaces located in the neighbourhood. In 2025, Garden Angels signs were created to identify these volunteer gardens with a QR code that shows their locations.