As one of the students on campus who buys Tim Hortons coffee, I sometimes contemplate the strategy behind this promotion and am blown away by how simple yet effective the whole campaign really is.

The Roll up the Rim contest comes in as an added incentive that students just cannot pass up. Not only is rolling up the rim in itself pretty amusing, but as an added bonus you may just end up winning one of the big prizes such as a car, barbeque or an HD TV. While the chances of winning one of the big prizes are slim, there are plenty of other smaller prizes to get you hooked, such as a free coffee or donut.

In 2010, Tim Hortons advertised their odds on winning as 1 in 9; however in 2011 they have increased their odds of winning all the way up to 1 in 6! This increase in odds definitely attracts new customers and develops customer loyalty – at the very least for the duration of the contest.

While the odds are in your favour to actually win something, some people on campus have been getting lucky or unlucky streaks. When talking to some of the students waiting for their daily coffee, one said that she was on her fifth win in a row, while I have had at least 20 coffees with no winnings in sight.

As of March 26th, two Toyota Matrix, six TV’s, twenty Barbeques and three hundred and twenty-nine one hundred dollar Tim’s cards have been won within Quebec. While there has not been any news of someone winning big at Tim Hortons within Bishop’s University, there have been plenty of smaller prizes being claimed by students.

In 2010, there was a sales boom during the annual contest that helped the chain’s quarterly revenue rise by 4.8 percent. To stress the success of this campaign even more, there was also an episode on Dragon’s Den in which someone invented the Rimroller.

Consumers will keep coming back for more to increase their chances to win and at the same time, it creates a fun experience for both first time and long time customers alike. It’s a contest that markets itself through word of mouth and that’s got everyone excited to roll up the rim to hopefully win! At the same time, don’t forget to properly put the losing cups in the garbage and the plastic covers in the recycling bin!

The Global Leaders Centre is a program created and supported by a national non-profit organization called Global vision. The program invites young Canadians to contribute through workshops that teach them to educate themselves and get hands on experience to help create brighter futures for themselves, their communities, their country and the global community. The Global Leader’s Centre took place at Bishop’s University on February 18^th, 2011.

The Global Vision organization began in 1991 and has trained and educated over 20,000 Canadians with their programs. The reason that the Global Leaders Centre began is because it was felt that there was a lack of Canadian youth acting as leaders in the arts, medicine, business, engineering and education across Canada.

One of the major aspects of participating in the program is to obtain experience on how to be a global leader by learning diversity management, communication and leadership skills such as working together as a team.

Another major aspect of the program, which is only recent to this year, is to get Canadian youth familiar with the unique attributes within their own regions in order to display them to the world. In this case, the topics of Sherbrooke, the Eastern Townships and Bishop’s University and what their unique attributes offer to the world were discussed at the Global Leader’s Center that took place.

After attending the Global Leaders Centre, students have the opportunity to further their experience with Global Vision by attending a national forum that occurs every year. The national forum usually consists of one hundred students across Canada. Afterwards, Global Vision will pick twenty to forty delegates to go on an international trade mission abroad.

Adam Peabody, a second year political studies student at Bishop’s University is also very involved with the Global Leaders Centre and Global Vision. In the summer of 2010, he had the opportunity to attend the G8 and G20 summits in which Global Vision was hosting for the youth summit. He also attended a trade development mission to China and Malaysia.

Relating to the trade development mission Adam Peabody said, “It gave me a really good insight as far as Bishop’s because Bishop’s was a great help in supporting that mission financially and consultatively”

He also believes that more students should be able to have these kinds of opportunities.

Snowshoes are now available to Bishop’s University and Champlain College students, as well as BU gym members thanks to a fellow Bishop’s student, Gabrielle Massicotte.

Massicotte, an Environmental Studies and Economics student, had the idea of a snowshoe rental when she visited Montana State University on exchange. During her stay, she had access to all sorts of outdoor equipment supplied by the university such as bikes, camping and hiking equipment, cross country skis, snowshoes and rock climbing gear.

Due to this access, there was a greater sense of interaction between students and the surrounding community. The availability of equipment also allowed for many organized activities to happen at Montana State University.

She hopes that this initiative with the snowshoes will create the same type of sense of community that she felt in Montana.

If the program proves to be successful, there could be a chance that other types of equipment could be purchased for student-community activities in the long term.  The money supplied by the rental of the snowshoes will go directly to the Environmental Club. The snowshoes and the club go hand-in-hand because they are both creating more awareness and interaction with the environment.

There are several places in which Bishop’s students and the surrounding community can use the snowshoes such as: the golf course, the Route Verte, the Johnville Bog and behind the sports centre.

The snowshoes were funded by the Green Levy, which totalled 1600 dollars for eight pairs of snowshoes along with a pair of poles for each. While the snowshoes can be taken out at the front desk of the sports centre, a student ID is required to be eligible to rent them. Reservations for the snowshoes can also be done every Monday.

The snowshoes cost $5 per day for students and $15 per day for non-students.

However… be warned: usage of this rental might cause people to obtain a new appreciation for the outdoors and become excessively fit.

The pilot project entitled “Gaiter Gears” that became fully operational this summer is still going strong. Gaiter Gears is an initiative begun by Nick Zoghbi, which allows students to rent bikes at an extremely low price per day. This allows students to explore the many trails and areas around Lennoxville instead of using a car.

Anyone who is interested in a bike ride can head over to Paterson Hall to rent one for a paltry sum of $3 to $7 (which depends on if you are a student and the time rented).

Another great initiative starting up on campus is the new Eco-Floor located on the first floor of Paterson. The concept for this initiative is that students who are similarly eco-minded can get together to practice sustainable living styles.

Lauri Lidstone, the RA in charge of the Eco-Floor, said that its goal is “to provide a place for students to live and learn together by focusing on a common goal they share.

“By living with other students who are eco-minded, the students can encourage and learn from each other to live environmentally friendly in their daily lives.”

Some examples of living environmentally include composting, recycling, buying second-hand goods, energy conservation, water conservation, and eating or shopping locally.

Other activities that the Eco-Floor hopes to participate in include a Tomifobia nature trail clean-up, an organic farm tour, North Hatley farmers market visit, community garden, documentary movie night, and a speakers night.

The environmental club is also another great resource which students can head towards if they want to participate in environmentally friendly activities. This year the club is being led by Tegan Maharaj and Gabrielle Massicotte. While they did not have any specifics into the activities planned for the semester, they were very hopeful that a lot of people would be joining the club this year to share ideas. There is a lot of promise for the club, especially after the ban on bottled water was approved last year.

The “Bishop’s Forest Project”, led by Adam Bond, is another green initiative happening on campus. The goal of the project is to encourage students to have sustainable relationships with nature, and to make people aware of some of the unique resources that Bishop’s has to offer such as wetlands, bird watching, and nature tours. The participants of the project also plan to create fun outdoor games that will allow students to easily see these resources.

Over the summer, the project has expanded exponentially and is now attempting to create a Carbon Park on campus. This Carbon Park would allow students to reduce their carbon footprint by planting trees themselves or sponsoring to plant a tree. Also, it has been hinted that some tree planting would be done to hide the new highway extension being constructed near Bishop’s.

There are also many environmental leadership opportunities, including the Sustainable Development Student Intern, SRC Environmental Officer, and the Sustainable Development Summer Intern. While these positions are already filled for the current semester, there are lots of opportunities for newer students to apply or check these positions out for the year ahead.

There is still a lot of room to participate in the initiatives and all of the groups encourage students and faculty to help out and participate!

The 40th anniversary of Earth Day is on April 22nd. For those of you who are not familiar with Earth Day, it is a day that is designed to inspire awareness about the natural environment and about issues that negatively impact the Earth.

From the time Earth Day began in 1970 to today in 2010, there has been a sky-high increase in the number of people participating in environmental activities all over the world. It is anticipated that approximately 1.5 billion people will be participating in Earth Day activities.

The Green Generation Campaign will be the focus of Earth Day’s 40th anniversary. The campaign is a two year initiative that was launched during the previous year’s Earth Day. The campaign serves to engage individuals located anywhere in the world to improve their health, their schools and participate in finding a solution to the core issues our Earth faces today and in the future.

There are several core issues about which the participants of Earth Day hope to generate more awareness, such as: climate change, energy, food and agriculture, conservation and biodiversity, recycling and waste reduction, sustainable development, and water.

However, all of these issues don’t stand alone—many of them spawn from one another. For example, the use of pesticides in agriculture and the growing issues related to water are linked because of the use of pesticides and fertilizers which contaminate declining fresh water sources.

According to earthday.org, Americans consume approximately 25 per cent of the earth’s resources, but consist of only five per cent of the world’s population. It is no wonder that Earth Day has been designated a special day to make people more aware about consumption and pollution.

Many cities choose to extend the events of Earth Day to a week. Earth Week tends to span from April 16th to April 22nd, in order to draw more people to participate in activities that would benefit the environment. Earth Day has also grown into Earth Week in order to accommodate the large amount of events and projects. In many areas, tree planting and community clean-ups are the most popular ways in which people choose to participate.

Students who wish to take part in Earth Day can give themselves an environmental challenge. It can be to clean up a street section within Lennoxville or to bring awareness and share tips with their peers about environmental issues and how to be more sustainable.

Participating in Earth Day isn’t the only time that students should choose to become friendlier towards the environment. Adopting a sustainable lifestyle is only one of the habits that people should be taking on during this day of awareness.

The sun is coming out again, classes are almost finished, and it’s nearly time to pack up and head home for the summer. Thousands of students all over Lennoxville and Sherbrooke choose to travel by car or plane to make the journey home, but what are the environmental implications of choosing one over the other?

The majority of the concern is still over one of the climate change factors, like carbon emissions that are produced from the use of cars and planes. So which one of these modes of transportation produces the least carbon emissions?

The simple answer is cars that are relatively fuel efficient will beat out planes in terms of emissions per person.

Specifically, if you had to travel from Montreal to Toronto by plane, the flight would produce about 0.43 metric tons of carbon, while using a car would only produce 0.11 tons of carbon. However, the gap in emissions between using a car or a plane does get smaller if very far destinations are chosen like Montreal to Vancouver.

Even if driving is the better choice because it produces less carbon emissions, the real power behind using cars is by carpooling. For example, if students from Bishop’s decide to carpool, their emissions would be essentially cut by half, or even a quarter. However, if they all choose to use a plane the same amount of carbon emissions would still be produced.

This is also true for the opposite of carpooling. If students all choose to individually drive their cars because of the belief that it would be better for the environment, the amount of emissions could equal or top an airplane’s because the amount of cars on the road is now multiplied.

On the other hand, students must not forget that while cars are better for the environment in terms of emissions, planes will still be flying whether there is one empty seat or not. A collective impact from more than one person would be necessary in order to remove a plane from the sky.

Though driving is backed up by numbers, it isn’t always the best choice to make, especially if you want to head home quickly. Economically, taking a plane would likely cost you less than fueling up a car for the 4900km trip from Montreal to Vancouver, not to mention that it would be a lot less time consuming.

Therefore the biggest way that students at Bishops’ University and the rest of Sherbrooke can help reduce their carbon emission is to get together and carpool. Carpooling isn’t only achieved by driving a car though. Public methods of transportation such as buses and trains would make your carbon footprint significantly smaller.

The snow is almost all gone and we’re seeing the first signs of spring: sunshine, mud and lots and lots of garbage. All of the cigarette butts and McDonald’s wrappers that were left behind in the cold winter months don’t just disappear, and now we are paying the price. Here are some tips for reusing and recycling some things that you may not even consider, so the summer months can be a little greener and a lot cleaner on Queen and College.

1. Don’t just throw it away!

When walking from the fast food areas restaurants as McDonald’s, Subway or Tim Horton’s, take the recyclable materials that are plastic and cardboard based and bring them with you instead of putting them directly into the trash. For example, the take-out plastic bags from Subway are lightweight and can fit nicely into your pocket until you find a recycling bin.

2. Reusable accessories.

Buy a water bottle or coffee mug or container. Instead of using a cardboard container that is coated with wax (and therefore not recyclable), use one that can be reused every day. Not only will you be able to refill your bottle or mug with water where water fountains are accessible, but you won’t have to worry about dirtying the environment every time you have a coffee. Also, since our campus will no longer be selling bottled water (since the referendum passed) it will be your best option!

3- Printer cartridges and ink.

Instead of buying a new ink cartridge after every time you run out of ink, why not just refill it? There are places that can refill your ink for you for less rather than buying a new cartridge. Also, if getting your cartridge refilled isn’t possible, having your printer cartridges recycled is another green option.

4- Make your own bin.

Whether you live off campus or in residence, try to make your own recycling bin or container. Having a designated bin for the paper and plastic makes it easier for you and your roommates to recycle, and it doesn’t require much effort. Just try and remember to take it outside every week.

5- Donate clothes.

Spring cleaning may be underway, and instead of throwing away the clothes you will never wear again, make a separate pile for donations. The Salvation Army, Estrie-Aide, the women’s shelter or a church around town would greatly appreciate your gently used items. The same goes for old books—if you don’t have a use for them anymore, think about donating them to a high school around town or a local church.

6- Cell phones.

Maybe you have a cell phone that you don’t use anymore because you have upgraded to the latest and greatest. Instead of throwing the phone away, donating the phone to organizations such as the women’s shelter would be a good idea. Donated phones are given to women who are victims of domestic abuse and violence so they can contact the police if they are in a dangerous situation. They don’t have to be fancy to get the job done.

7- Envelopes.

If you’re a student who uses snail mail to write to your parents, significant other or to a friend, you can reuse the same envelope. Just don’t forget to cover the old address if you’re writing to someone new. You still need to use a new stamp and would have to cover the black or fluorescent barcode on the envelope. One of those thin white labelling strips should do the trick!

8- Rechargeable batteries.

Sure, buying batteries from Dollarama only cost a dollar but they don’t last very long and are not reusable. Whether you use an electric toothbrush, a TV remote or a digital camera, buying rechargeable batteries will save you money in the long run. It’s almost like recycling a single battery a hundred times over!

9- Clean your recyclable items.

Whether it is a juice container or a plastic Tupperware, make sure that it is properly cleaned out. If a recyclable item is dirty, the recycling center will label it as a contaminant and will not be able to recycle it. Therefore it is very important for everything to be clean in order to make the process as easy as possible.

10- Plastic bags.

If you’re one of those students who are constantly forgetting to bring an eco-friendly bag and have to use plastic bags at the grocery store, you can always reuse those plastic bags for other household necessities such as garbage disposal. Another use for the plastic bags would be to use them for the sorting of your recyclable material. That way, not only will the paper be recycled but the plastic bag containing the paper will be as well!

When students at Bishop’s hear the word ‘sustainability,’ ‘environmental’ or ‘green’ seem to be implied at the same time. But does sustainability really put the needs of the environment first, or do economic and social needs take priority?

This question is important to everyone who hears the word sustainable because there are at least four different aspects of the word, which makes it ambiguous. For example, sustainability could be viewed from a human, social, economic or environmental perspective. It is easy to fuse one or two of these types together and have them mean very different things.

On one hand, the economic definition of sustainability is to use or consume something that has monetary value over a period of time and still have enough when that demand slows down. A major problem with this perspective is that intangible, intergenerational and common resources like air cannot have a monetary value associated with them.

On the other hand, an environmental definition of sustainability would be to protect natural resources such as land, water and air so that humans can co-exist with the environment without overstepping an ecosystem’s regenerative limits. Other resources could include fish or anything else that we harvest. In order to protect these resources, a reduction in consumption is usually a solution to be considered.

It is easy to confuse environmental and economic sustainability because both focus on reducing or managing consumption of resources. Therefore another question is raised when people hear about products or projects that are labeled as sustainable: “Is the product or project reducing consumption to save money or to preserve the environment?”

This question can be raised when we hear about reducing the amount of electricity that we consume every day. Some would attribute this example to environmental sustainability because by using less electricity, a coal or gas power plant would have less demand to create power, and therefore create fewer emissions in the air.

But on the other hand, the same situation could be viewed when thinking about economics. If a coal or gas power plant is unprofitable and citizens reduce their energy consumption, the power plants could sell off the extra energy to other areas instead of reducing production, and still be considered sustainable. This is because, as mentioned earlier, as long as a company or resource is profitable over time, it is regarded as sustainable.

This is the biggest problem with the use of the term ‘sustainability.’ A company, government or organization could be saying that a certain project or action is sustainable under the pretext that people will immediately think that it is a ‘green’ or environmental movement. Instead, they put the economic needs of the project or action before the environment.

Therefore when you hear the term sustainable, make sure to ask yourself a few questions about the meaning behind the word, and think about which context it is being used in. After all, the environment itself isn’t the only thing that is being taken for granted.

The beginning of the new year has not shown too much promise for environmentally conscious students. You would think that the hotspots for trash would be inside garbage bins. However, this is not the case. Bits and pieces of garbage have made another strong appearance on the streets of Lennoxville and on the Bishop’s campus.

This can be seen if you take a walk on College Street on your way on or off campus. Bottles, cans of beer, cartons of milk, Tim Horton’s and McDonald’s wrappers are half-hidden within the snow, waiting for the eventual thaw to take place. Some trash is even located right beside, rather than within, garbage cans. Other trash won’t make it as close or even in one piece, with the evidence of shards of glass on the pavement.

Regarding broken glass, one student expressed his concern by saying, “The biggest problem is that students are neglecting safety.” Another student noted, “I’m so happy that I don’t have a dog. I’d have to carry it halfway to school.” The concerns of these students aren’t simply environmental. The trash is also a safety issue. With the ice and snow involved, people could easily slip onto glass.

To add to the environmental issue of trash around campus, a lot of garbage that isn’t being disposed of properly is recyclable. A group of female students stated that we seem to be taking a step backward instead of forward in becoming environmentally friendly—at least in the recycling department: “People don’t seem to know how to recycle.”

Not only are there risks for us, but there are also risks for small animals that live in and around Lennoxville, and on Bishop’s campus. Squirrels, birds, stray cats and dogs might come across some half eaten meal or part of an iced cappuccino that wasn’t properly thrown out. This could potentially harm or kill them if they ingest the plastic, or, as stated before, if they step on broken glass.

With all of this being said, the amount of trash might not be completely visible thanks to fallen snow. We have to keep in mind that it will still remain after the big thaw in the spring. Some may think that it is easier to pollute our surroundings without repercussion since it cannot be seen right away. An example of “out of sight, out of mind” is the amount of trash that is building up in the forests on campus. Specifically, large amounts of broken glass bottles can be found in the forests located near the pathway from Champlain residences.

While this trash might not affect students as much as trash on the streets of Lennoxville, it actually has a greater ecological impact since animals and plants are more common in that area. In addition to this, because the trash is not noticeable by students or other residents of Lennoxville, it tends to not get picked up. The consequence of this is that the amount of garbage will be amplified over the years and as a result cause even more damage to the environment.

Cleaning up all of the trash might not be enough if the problem still persists from semester to semester. Students who want to give Bishop’s a green identity will have to find creative ways to resolve this issue at its core.

Yannick Daoudi’s Siberian expedition was a year in the making. In order to prepare for his journey, he volunteered on a ranch every Saturday to become familiar with horses and learn how to care for them; he also planned a 6-week menu ahead of time, looked into the necessary travel permits, and researched the terrain and the cultures he would encounter.

Once on the ground, things proved more complicated than he had anticipated. The muscle-powered expedition was to last 6 weeks, the estimated time necessary for completing the 1000 km loop following the Northern Mongolian border with Siberia – a route purely constructed in Yannick’s imagination from various maps, satellite images, stories and pictures.     However, logistical problems in reaching the area, acquiring the horses, and getting authorization from the military, meant that the seasoned adventurer left his base camp a week late: a fact that guaranteed failure, according to every nomad he passed. While most predicted he would never make it back with his horse, some feared he might not make it at back at all.

The Taiga is the subarctic forest that stretches from Asia to Europe. It is a beautiful but unforgiving land of extreme weather conditions: from hail, gale-force winds and snow-covered mountain passes, to blistering heat down in the valleys.  It is also home to small populations of nomads, such as the Tsaatan or “Reindeer People”. The Tsaatan live in tipis, and their survival relies entirely on their herds of reindeer, which they use for transportation, food and clothing.

The difficulty of travelling through the most sparsely populated country on earth, without signs or roads and where the inhabitants are nomads who speak only the local dialect, cannot be overstated. Yannick had to use all the navigation skills he learned over his 10 years of expedition on 4 continents. It was no easy feat to navigate through swamps, bug-infested valleys, dense forests with large wolf populations, and an area known as the Wild West of Asia for its lack of security.  But the beauty and the peace of the landscape made it all worthwhile. Snow-capped mountains, crystal-clear lakes and rivers, meadows of wildflowers and untouched forests make Northern Mongolia one of the most pristine environments on earth.

The challenge of escaping society and finding refuge in his own head equated to a deep spiritual journey for Yannick. As they overcame myriad obstacles together, the bond that he forged with his two companions (a horse named Fart and a dog named Shaman) created one of the most profound relationships one can experience.  Adding to the enormous challenge of accomplishing such an expedition was the fact that Yannick had taken on the task of producing a film that would document his journey. In addition to carrying all the survival gear and food required for over a month, he carried along all the necessary filming gear, and set up and filmed every scene by himself.

Back in Canada, after three months of intense editing, the result is Taïga Quest, a feature-length documentary film that chronicles the adventure of the three unlikely travelers. While it transports the viewer to a surreal and timeless place with scenes of breathtaking beauty and untouched wilderness, the tone of the film is also light-hearted and entertaining. Yannick has become known for the humanitarian spirit of his ventures abroad, and this film is no exception. Admission is free, and DVD sales of the film will go towards improving the living conditions for women and children in Northern Mongolia’s only prison. The screening will also launch Social Justice Week on campus, a week during which internationally- and socially- focused clubs band together to raise awareness of problems facing humanity around the world.

This month, Yannick invites you to embark on an impossible quest into the remote Siberian Taïga with three free spirits: a vagabond dog, a mighty horse and a mad man. See how against all odds, the trio manages to ward off packs of wolves, outmaneuver horse-thieves, suffer swarms of bugs and  heat, push on despite injuries,  navigate impassable terrain and finally make it back to civilization after five trying weeks. The trailer is available on Yannick Daoudi’s website at: www.postcardsfromtheedge.ca (click on “TAIGA QUEST: The Trailer” on the navigation bar).

Taïga Quest: A Film by Yannick Daoudi.
Saturday Nov. 21st, Wednesday Nov. 25th, 7PM
Centennial Theatre, Bishop’s University
ADMISSION: FREE!