http://www.o-vert.com Wed, 09 Mar 2011 01:07:04 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Join WWF in celebrating water from coast to coast to coast during Canada Water Week. From March 14 to 22, Canadians will organize and participate in fun and educational events as part of Canada Water Week. Check out the events calendar for great ideas. From guided walks to documentary screenings, you ... http://www.o-vert.com/events/canada-water-week-march-14-22-2011/ Nadine Gudz, National Director, Sustainability Strategy for InterfaceFLOR shared insights on "Transformational Sustainability" with interior designers and sustainability leaders in Omicron's Vancouver office this week. InterfaceFLOR is the worldwide leader in design, production and sales of environmentally-responsible modular carpet for the commercial, institutional, and residential markets, and a leading designer ... http://www.o-vert.com/green_practice/climbing-mount-sustainability-interfaceflor/ Throughout the month of March our Vancouver landlord, Bentall Kennedy, and their Forever Green Tenant Team are undertaking a waste reduction and recycling initiative. As a component of this initiative, they wish to encourage tenants to use travel mugs or reusable mugs for their beverages, as opposed to disposable cups. This particular campaign runs for just one week from ... http://www.o-vert.com/resources/bentall-kennedy-forever-green-team-coffee-cup-challenge/ Starbucks and Tim Horton’s have reusable ‘commuter mugs’ available for their hot drinks and even offer a small discount to customers who use these mugs. In 2003 alone, Starbucks customers used commuter mugs 13.5 million times, keeping an estimated 266.2 tonnes of paper from landfills. Based on random checks of garbage bins ... http://www.o-vert.com/green_tips/take-your-own-mug-to-get-takeout-coffee-or-tea/ Vancouver and Lower Mainland: http://cascadiagbc.org/calendar http://vancouver.ca/oneday/connect/calendar.htm http://www.bcsea.org/get-involved/events/chapters/Vancouver http://www.sustainablebuildingcentre.com/events Calgary: http://www.greencalgary.org/events/ http://www.albertaecotrust.com/ http://www.reapcalgary.com/ http://ecolivingevents.ca/ http://climbforwilderness.ca/news.asp http://www.sustainabuild.com/calgary/index.htm http://www.o-vert.com/events/events-fall-2010/ http://www.o-vert.com/deep_green_thoughts/deep-green-thought-february-04-2011/ http://www.o-vert.com/deep_green_thoughts/deep-green-thought-january-25-2011/ http://www.o-vert.com/deep_green_thoughts/deep-green-thought-decmeber-14-2010/   o-vert excitedly presented the first annual Sustainable Gingerbread House Challenge in our Vancouver office in December 2010! We had an opportunity to rethink the gingerbread house in a form more fitting for our modern, sustainable world while having fun and celebrating the festive season. With five teams competing, the challenge ran in Omicron's Vancouver office from December 6 to ... http://www.o-vert.com/overt_initiatives/sustainable-gingerbread-house-challenge/ For Canadians, snow is a significant part of our culture and identity. Whether you ski, snowboard, play hockey, figure skate, build snowmen, go ice fishing or live in an igloo, without snow these activities wouldn’t exist. With the holiday season now in full swing, we wait with anticipation for our ... http://www.o-vert.com/green_tips/let-it-snow/ http://www.o-vert.com/deep_green_thoughts/deep-green-thought-november-30-2010/ Looking for great green deals? Look no further - part green city guide, part green deal site, part green action network, ethicalDeal helps you discover the best green stuff to do, see and buy, at exclusive discounts, through the power of group buying!   Think that going green is too expensive? Don't know ... http://www.o-vert.com/resources/ethicaldeal-daily-green-deals-in-vancouver-and-calgary/ The o-vert construction committee has been working hard since its inception in 2009 to provide a seamless connection between the construction teams in the field and the design teams in the office. As the first tool to assist in this integration, we have created a template for the Construction Waste Management Plan ... http://www.o-vert.com/green_practice/construction-waste-management-plan-template-is-available-for-use/ Living in Vancouver, the ocean is our playground. Whether you run along the sea wall, hike up a mountain for its spectacular view or take a boat out onto it, you're connected. It's important to know just how critical our oceans are to our lives so as inhabitants we take care ... http://www.o-vert.com/green_tips/coast-to-coast/ Bermuda [AKA the “Rock”] is a small, 21 square mile island located in the mid-Atlantic, approximately 600 miles due east of Wilmington, North Carolina.  We spent 2 years there and brought with us some west coast sensibilities for maintaining a sustainable household.  We figured that given the high cost of ... http://www.o-vert.com/green_practice/sustainability-in-bermuda-or-pushing-a-rock-up-hill-on-the-%e2%80%9crock%e2%80%9d/ http://www.o-vert.com/deep_green_thoughts/deep-green-thought-september-24-2010/   The City of Vancouver is actively working to create a green sustainable future.  As a way to communicate some of these green achievements to the public for education, the City has created Green Building Audio Tours. The Vancouver Green Building Audio Tours were created through a partnership between City of Vancouver ... http://www.o-vert.com/green_practice/city-of-vancouver-green-building-audio-tours-2/ http://www.o-vert.com/deep_green_thoughts/deep-green-thought-august-20-2010/ Granville Online, the interactive web companion to Granville magazine, is the place to learn about and discuss the sustainable movement in Vancouver. Granville Online features the best of Granville Magazine plus exclusive stories, podcasts, videos and commentary inspired by top articles in Granville Magazine. Granville Magazine explores sustainable urban living in ... http://www.o-vert.com/resources/granville-online-an-excellent-green-resource/ o-vert recently hosted an open house in our Vancouver office to reintroduce the taskforce and its committee members to existing and new staff members alike. It was a fun lunch-time event with an introduction by Omicron's Director of Sustainability, Kevin Hanvey, and presentations by each of the sub-committees to summarize ... http://www.o-vert.com/overt_initiatives/o-vert-summer-open-house/ http://www.o-vert.com/deep_green_thoughts/deep-green-thought-july-27-2010/ The air is cold and dry, the lights flicker uncomfortably.  Your metal cart skids along the slippery floor, it's back wheel get stuck as you try to push it.  You reach for a package and find you can't decipher any of the ingredients except for the fine print which says 'may contain traces ... http://www.o-vert.com/green_tips/farm-fresh/ In an effort to be more sustainable Omicron recently began to use Hemlock Printers for a variety of our custom print jobs. I had the opportunity to tour the 79,000 sq.ft. printing facility, located in Burnaby, BC. There I learned firsthand about their wide variety of FSC certified papers, the low VOC vegetable based inks ... http://www.o-vert.com/resources/choosing-a-green-printer/   Ever wondered why the Olympic Village at Southeast False Creek has been so highly touted as a sustainable development?  Now you can get insight into the process of the development, design, and construction process to understand the lessons learned from the process. In a truly unique retrospective, the sustainability consultants have ... http://www.o-vert.com/green_practice/the-challenge-series-lessons-to-learn-from-millennium-water/   The development on Southeast False Creek lands, the Olympic Village temporarily housed the world’s athletes and has permanently created the most sustainable development in Vancouver.  How did they do it?  As part of the LEED platinum community, the development boasts two truly unique features commissioned by the City of Vancouver.   The ... http://www.o-vert.com/green_practice/southeast-false-creek-net-zero-energy-building/ http://www.o-vert.com/deep_green_thoughts/deep-green-thought-june-16-2010-2/ In North America we definitely have perfected the ‘Active House’ principle and it has nothing to do with families with kids!  So what is Passivhaus or Passive House?  Passive House is a sustainability initiative focused solely on energy efficiency and occupant comfort through smart passive design.  Created in 1991 in ... http://www.o-vert.com/green_practice/want-to-have-a-passivhaus/ In keeping with Omicron’s commitment to sustainable operations, we are pleased to announce a new initiative at our Burrard Office: an in-office composting program! Beginning today, we will be using a service called Growing City to help us compost in our kitchen areas on both floors. We believe that the Growing City ... http://www.o-vert.com/overt_initiatives/in-office-composting-program-launched/ Tasked with finding a locally made, environmentally friendly, unique and budget friendly client holiday gift, I had a minor meltdown. I was sure such a thing did not exist; I was just as likely to find Big Foot or the Easter Bunny as I was to find a gift that ... http://www.o-vert.com/resources/green-gifting-at-its-best/ http://www.o-vert.com/deep_green_thoughts/deep-green-thought-april-15th-2010/