October 25, 2025, at the Riverside United Church, Joan gave CFUW-Ottawa club members and their families and friends the opportunity to learn about EVs with EVCO, the Electric Vehicle Council of Ottawa, who provide free education to the public. Information was given on how to charge an electric vehicle at home and while travelling and participants were encouraged to climb into the vehicles being demonstrated.

October 6, 2025, we visited an interactive public exhibition at the Museum of Nature, seeing the animated film The Man Who Planted Trees: An Immersive Tale, the story of one man's long-term mission to reforest a barren valley in Provence.

September 20, 2025, several of us (including a CFUW-Kanata member) took part in Ottawa's Draw The Line march "for People, for Peace, for the Planet", one of more than 70 protest demonstrations taking place across Canada on that day.

Monday, May 26, 2025, Tour of the Experimental Farm, the Dominion Arboretum and the Fletcher Gardens, together with CFUW-Ottawa's Urban Walks group.

February 24, 2025, Carolina Niño, program coordinator at EcoEquitable, welcomed seven of us in their boutique on MacArthur Avenue, where shelves and bins were brimming with donated fabrics. Proud of the fact that these textiles get used and sold, she pointed out that they also donate fabrics and sewing supplies to school programs, churches and other organizations when there is a need. We were also given a tour of the classroom where immigrant women are learning sewing skills. Fashion designer Belkis Navas has been teaching a three-level sewing skills course for more than a decade now. Each year about 30-40 women graduate and become employment-ready. 

EcoEquitable is a registered charity with the dual mandate of textile waste reduction and training for immigrant women. Thanks to the passion and efforts of a small, dedicated team and the assistance of volunteers, EcoEquitable is doing its fair share of diverting textiles from landfills, up-cycling them into useful clothing or accessories while providing a valuable service to the community and saving the city of Ottawa waste disposal costs.

February 17, 2025, group member Zivana Pavic gave a presentation on The Impacts of textiles and the textile Industry on our lives and the planet. Since 2018, global textile production has increased by 400%. Despite textile recycling efforts, a whopping 85%-90% of produced textiles in any given year end up as textile waste for incineration. Fast-fashion and hyper-consumerism mean that more textiles are burned away each year. The resulting toxic fumes affect the health of people who live near incineration sites, as well as the environment. Cumulative chemical damage to waterways, oceans, air, and plant and animal habitats is significant and often irreversible. 

We learned what is being done in Canada and globally to tackle the multifaceted environmental, labour and human-rights impacts of the textile industry and participants at the meeting discussed what each of us can do to reduce textile waste in our own households and communities.

A recording of the meeting can be found here.

CFUW-Environment and Climate Change Subcommittee

January 28, 2025, Pauline Witzke of CFUW-Belleville, an environmental geologist, gave a presentation to members of CFUW entitled Extraordinary Events Cause Global Warming! Global warming has happened several times in the last 100 million years, and we can learn a lot from studying the geologic record. She explained how we can compare these cataclysmic events with what is happening now and how present-day global warming affects us, our country, and the world.

November 18, 2024, we held a national, public meeting with Tim Gray, Executive Director of Environmental Defence. Tim's presentation described How protecting farms, forests and wetlands can fix the housing shortage and tackle GTA traffic. It included an overview of the work done by his organization. The "Yours To Protect" campaign against urban sprawl in the Toronto greenbelt was "the largest resistance in Ontario's environmental history.

Environmental Defence in collaboration with other campaigners succeeded in changing public opinion and persuading the provincial government to reverse its decisions. Another campaign spearheaded by Environmental Defence is currently pushing back against the proposed development of Highway 413 in Ontario.

After the presentation, Tim answered numerous questions, and the people present from other provinces realized that his insights and recommendations applied not only to Ontario.

October 28, 2024, OREC, the Ottawa Renewable Energy Co-operative, gave us a private tour of its rooftop solar project at the Museum of Science & Technology in Ottawa. 

June 3, 2024,  a group of us visited the Just Food Community Farm in Blackburn Hamlet, Ottawa. At the farm, Jodi Newman gave us a guided tour of the Base of Operations for Forêt Capitale Forest projects, including their Tiny Forest demonstration plots.  The farm, accessible to visitors year round, supports farmers, provides public education on food issues and helps to create a viable, healthy and sustainable local food system.

April 15, 2024, Mary Nash, a Board member of the Green Burial Ottawa Valley cooperative, explained the principles and practices of allowing a human body to return to the earth naturally.

February 26, 2024, Mary Sarumi talked about Reducing our Environmental Impact from Food. A global Plant Based Treaty would combat the climate crisis by halting the widespread degradation of the natural environment caused by animal agriculture and by promoting a shift to plant-based diets. Implementing this treaty could reverse some of the damage food systems have done to planetary functions and biodiversity. Mary encouraged us to endorse the treaty and to eat less meat and fewer dairy products. Our exchange of ideas included recommendations for healthy, vegan meals.

January 30, 2024 ­— Norma Domey, VP of the Professional Institute of Public Service of Canada (PIPSC) and one of the speakers at the Climate Strike rally on Parliament Hill in September 2023, discussed the need for fossil fuel divestment from the Canadian Pension Plan. 

November 27, 2023 — Mike Nickerson, author of Living on Earth as if We Want to Stay – More Fun, Less Stuff, told us that, when we acknowledge that our planet has limits and accept responsibility for living within them, we are capable of redirecting our efforts and securing well-being for the next seven generations and beyond. Our capitalist society implies that in order to be good and make progress, we have to make a lot of money and spend a lot of money, overlooking the social and environmental consequences of living in this way. We need to change that. We need to consider that “being good” means “living lightly”. The most important things we can do are to use reliable sources of energy, develop a circular economy and find joyful activities to fill our time on earth.

October 23, 2023 — we met Angela Keller-Herzog, Founding Executive Director of the Community Associations for Environmental Sustainability (CAFES), a network of local environmental and climate leaders in the city of Ottawa. She described how CAFES helps to accelerate the implementation of Ottawa's climate change mitigation plans and gave us recommendations for how to engage in local advocacy and activism. She said that making contact with municipal Councillors should be a top  priority for all who care about the city's future.

September 15, 2023 — several of us joined the Climate Strike demonstration on Parliament Hill calling for an end to the use and production of fossil fuels in Canada and throughout the world:

“We recognize the harm and danger posed by the use of fossil fuels and seek an end to them not only in our cities but in every city, town and neighbourhood across the globe. We are showing up in solidarity with all other climate strikes that are happening internationally in and around the month of September, together with our partners, volunteers, activists, neighbours, and like-minded friends both national and international.”

May 31st, 2023 — our group members had the opportunity to visit Berit Erikson's urban corner garden that has been turned into an ideal habitat for butterflies, birds and bees. She writes a blog at https://cornerpollinatorgarden.net with the subtitle: "Plant it and they will come." 

Berit recommends that we support Wildlife Preservation Canada and the David Suzuki Foundation’s Butterflyway projects like the one she has launched in her own neighbourhood.

April 25th, 2023 — In honour of Earth Day we hosted a structured online discussion of the documentary film, "Before They Fall" with members of other CFUW clubs across Canada taking part. The film showed how Indigenous land-defenders, conservation groups, and scientists joined forces to try to protect the last unprotected old growth forest in the valley known as Ada’itsx (Fairy Creek) on Vancouver Island. We honour the work of Dr. Suzanne Simard and her involvement in this campaign.

March 20th, 2023 — Janette Niwa of Safe Wings Ottawa told us about the dangers to wild birds in our urban environment, and how they can be protected through public education and preventative measures, in particular by the  installation of bird-safe window panes or by modifying existing panes of glass. The transparency or reflectivity of glass is hazardous for birds.

February 27, 2023 — Cheryl Randall, Climate Change Campaign Organizer of Ecology Ottawa made the case for neighbourhoods that prioritize people over motor vehicles. A 15-minute neighbourhood includes small shops, cafés, libraries, parks and community gardens that can easily be reached on foot or by bicycle, reducing the need to drive to a mall.  Building lower-rise multi-family homes and apartment buildings on single family lots within the city would encourage the development of such communities, reduce air pollution, build social connections and improve  our health.

January 16, 2023 — Dr. Mili Roy, Chair of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) Ontario and Co-chair of the Ontario Climate Emergency Campaign (OCEC), explained how air pollution from transportation, manufacturing, energy generation and forest fires has severe effects on all body systems, not just the respiratory system. 99% of humanity live in places where healthy air quality as defined by the WHO is not met. She also stated that climate change is "the single greatest health crisis of our time." Extreme heat, forest fires, flooding, windstorms, agricultural crop damage and loss of electrical infrastructure take a terrible toll. Finally she gave us recommendations for advocacy and action, especially in response to  Bill 23, Ontario's More Homes Built Faster Act.

Sketch by Sandra Marshall.

 December 12, 2022 — The group met for a strategic planning session led by group member Susan Carlton. The antidote to fear and frustration about the state of the planet is to do make small, positive changes in our lives. Group members brainstormed environmentally friendly habits we might want to adopt.

November 21, 2022 — Jake Rice, Research Professor and Professor Emeritus at Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans, explained the changing interaction of warm and cold ocean currents which move over the coastal bank where the fish feed and are in constant flux due to global warming. Colder water flowing over the banks off Newfoundland caused the cod fisheries' collapse. Heat and drought along the west coast have caused similar catastrophes for the salmon-fishing industry. These scenarios have long-lasting consequences. As the climate changes, our governments need to respond "more nimbly" to increasingly frequent extreme weather events that affect life off our shores, incorporating the knowledge of coastal fishermen, Indigenous peoples, government and scientists to develop mitigation plans that can be immediately carried out. We cannot afford to wait months and months to react to unpredictable weather and its consequences on the lives of coastal inhabitants and on the fisheries. We need integrated plans, ready for immediate implementation.

The image is a sketch by group member Sandra Marshall.

October 24, 2022 — new group member Mary Muduuli, an economist from Uganda, taught us how climate change affects African women and about efforts to modernize agricultural practices in Africa. She spoke of deepening poverty, worsening health, loss of food and work (due to extreme weather events and conflict) and a disrupted supply chain. But she reminded us that ''women are enterprising" and learn to cope. Technical aid and expertise, farming cooperatives, the sustainable use of natural resources without reliance on dangerous chemicals and the wide-scale planting of trees can help. For farmers, equipment, seedlings / seeds and animal stock, building materials or other infrastructure like water tanks or pumps and crop processors (e.g. for rice, maize, wheat, nuts) are important. For other businesses, sewing machines, bicycles and motor bikes and small trucks, to support transportation needs, have proved popular. Some African countries have put "revolving funds" into cooperative saving societies, so that as savers slowly repay their loans others get a chance to borrow. In the case of animal stock (exotic cow breeds, goats, pigs) the loans are paid back and distributed to other farmers in revolving programs. 

September 8, 2022 — members of our own group and of the CFUW-Kanata environmental action group, along with a few friends, met four representatives of the Ottawa Field-Naturalists Club for guided tours of the Fletcher Wildlife Garden, a wildlife refuge that demonstrates how to create wildlife-friendly habitat and gardens, using native plants. 

June 15, 2022  — at Remics Rapids, four of us spent an hour clearing litter from the banks of the Ottawa River.

June 13, 2022 —  Peter MacKinnon and Peter Eggleton jointly gave us "A Peek into the Developing Hydrogen Economy" — discussing the potential for hydrogen as a replacement for fossil fuels, with particular reference to the railway sector where hydrogen-fuelled locomotives engineered in Canada are already being used.

May 16, 2022 — nuclear energy expert Dr. Andrzej Czajkowski of the University of Ottawa described fission reactors, discussing how they work as well as their benefits, and how they are kept safe. He also talked about the potential for fusion reactors. He said that adopting new science means taking risks and suggested that the world cannot afford to wait until we tap into nuclear energy production, a clean, affordable and unlimited alternative to fossil fuels. He believes that "the future will be bright!"

April 20, 2022 — the third and final webinar of our series jointly planned by CFUW-Nepean, CFUW-Kanata and CFUW-Ottawa. Seth Klein, Director of Strategy with the Climate Emergency Unit and author of A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency, described what Canadians ought to do here and now to counteract the threats of climate change. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAdgNwpY2BY. He introduced the audience to Sabah Ibrahim, his counterpart in Ontario, who encouraged everyone to sign up to Ontario's Climate Emergency Campaign. Both CFUW National and the CFUW Ontario Council have done so.

April 13, 2022 — the second event of our webinar series jointly planned by CFUW-Nepean, CFUW-Kanata and CFUW-Ottawa. Bill Steer, founder / director of the Canadian Ecology Centre (CEC) discussed the value of native forests with Dr. Diana Beresford-Kroeger, author of To Speak For The Trees. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErPwncR17oI. She urged us to "put fire under the politicians" who lack awareness of the climate emergency and said that we "have to be cunning" in the way we, as women, approach this challenge. Diana  was proud of her own achievements as an awareness-raiser, adding emphatically, "Don't tell me one person can't do a lot!"

April 6, 2022 — the first event of our public webinar series jointly planned by CFUW-Nepean, CFUW-Kanata and CFUW-Ottawa, attended by 235 people. 

Rebecca Prince-Ruiz from Australia, Executive Director of the Plastic Free Foundation told us the story of how the idea of a plastic-free July" developed into a global initiative.  See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqBUyCOKeNM

March 14, 2022, Dr. Jim Rollefson, former advisor at the NRC, gave a presentation entitled Challenges! Climate Change and Sustainable Development: A Case Study From Peru. Mentioning the COP26 agreement to curb deforestation and the latest IPCC report on climate change, he described the Montane rainforests of Peru, a highly vulnerable, "disappearing" landscape. We must make an effort to draw attention to such challenges. For encouragement, he recommended that we read Saving Us by Katharine Hayhoe and Thinking Fast And Slow by Daniel Kahneman.

February 21, 2022, Arin de Hoog, Senior Communications Officer for Wetlands International, writer, teacher and press liaison officer, met us from Amsterdam to discuss the importance of strategic communications in today's world, encouraging us to tell stories about environmental issues to a targeted audience in creative ways, giving examples of how Greenpeace has done this successfully in its campaigns. He felt that media pressure is the best way to influence governments, and progress is best made through courts of law.

January 17, 2022, Ashley Cheslock and Meike Woehlert of the City of Ottawa's waste management services gave us the latest news of the Master Plan For Solid Waste and answered our questions about garbage disposal and recycling. (Click on those links to see the videos we watched as part of the presentation.)

December 13, 2021, Laurel Carlton, an environmental activist and mother of a baby whose future is at risk from the climate crisis, joined our group meeting to discuss why individual actions matter, giving suggestions for taking action at a "systems" level and encouraging us to rethink our habits as consumers and investors. She left us with recommendations for books worth reading and websites worth exploring. Taking action empowers us, making us feel less paralyzed.a

November 8, 2021, Nicholas Stow, Senior Planner at the City of Ottawa, described  threats to wetland ecosystems in our region and the ways in which they are protected by legislation and policies.

October 18, 2021, Dr. Philip Porter of the University of Hertfordshire, UK, talked about glacier science in a warming world. He vividly described descending 60 metres into the ice, to monitor and observe the hidden passageways of a glacier's "hydrological system." He also described the changing environment of  the Svalbard Archipelago, at 78° North, where his research station is situated, and where tourism is becoming a significant industry. The melting of glaciers has worldwide consequences. The education of ourselves and others is the first step towards the mitigation of the climate change crisis and his advice to us was to lobby our elected representatives and reduce our consumption of unnecessary things.

September 17, 2021, taking an active part in the City of Ottawa's Cleaning the Capital program, some of our group members met to clean up Bordeleau Park and the banks of the Rideau River. We picked up ~11 kg of litter.

May 10th, 2021, Natasha Jovanovic, Living City Program Manager, Ecology Ottawa, introduced us to campaigns for rewilding Ottawa's urban environment,  suggesting ways in which we can protect biodiversity in the city ourselves,  for example by planting native species of trees and creating pollinator gardens.

April 12, 2021, Emma Langham, Outreach and Communications Coordinator of the City of Ottawa's Climate Change and Resiliency section, described the priorities for the city's Energy Evolution strategy, how Ottawa is attempting to meet its "net-zero" targets. She gave us suggestions for helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in our own lives, recommending, for example, that we take steps to make our homes more energy-efficient. 

March 29, 2021, Scott Demark of Zibi Community Utility spoke to us about the sustainable, 34-acre development within downtown Ottawa-Gatineau, currently under construction on the former Domtar industrial site: "Zibi, the Waterfront City."

 February 8th, 2021, Rachael Jones, Project Manager, Environmental Services, gave us a comprehensive overview of the Solid Waste Master Plan for the City of Ottawa, and encouraged us to be personally involved in its 30-year development, by participating in Engage Ottawa.

January 11th, 2021, Dr Marco Bertaglia spoke to us from Italy about the benefits of Agroecology. Dr Bertaglia is a Scientific Officer of the EU Commission (currently on sabbatical leave), researching and advocating for ecological agriculture and sustainable lifestyles. He warned that unless we change our agricultural policies, we are heading for extinction, but he also believes that there are viable solutions to feeding the world without destroying it. Tillage, monoculture, fertilizer and pesticides should be banned. The world needs smaller farms and more collaboration.

November 9th, 2020, we met the leader of the Ottawa Riverkeeper program, Elizabeth Logue,  who described a wide range of community-based projects to monitor contamination of the Ottawa River watershed. She also mentioned strategies to help conserve endangered aquatic species. 

N.B. the Pollution Hotline is 1-888-953 3737.

October 19, 2020, Dr. Emma Woolliams of the National Physical Laboratory in London, UK, told us about the way in which satellites measure what is happening on the surface of our planet, how scientists make predictive models from these composite measurements and how these models could be of value to decision-makers, as "powerful motivators for change".