Our View:
Today, 5th of June is the World environment day . Let us try to reduce our carbon footprint, our resource consumption habits and our lust for the maximum, our relentless quest for bigger and better living. Let us instead push for a sustainable and efficient growth model profitable for all of us on this planet earth.
Let us pledge to follow 10 simple rules in life that will make our world a better place to live, perhaps with equal rights for humans, the wildlife and the sea and river creatures and the plants and vegetation, little more sustainable for the planet earth.With Humans at the top of the food chain does it give us right to dominate, decimate, devour all other species, drive them to extinction. Let us take a good hard look at the planet earth and understand our social responsibilities towards the wild life, sea creatures and the plant life... and of course towards our great grand children who have the right to enjoy planet earth as much as we do.
Let us as a first move,try to change ourselves only a bit.Take just a small step forward. Taking such a step forward, I assure you, will not really mean a great sacrifice or cause a great discomfort. As a matter of fact it will lead to profits. Profits that this human race always looks forward to.At the core of these 10 simple rules that we put forth today and ask you to practice for one year is also a pragmatic profit story for each of us. We hope you like it. For this is the biggest motivator for us humans who love profit, seek it in whatever we do.
• World Environment Day SAVE ENERGY. Switch off when you leave the room. Net savings 14 % on domestic and 27 % on commercial connections
• World Environment Day SAVE ENERGY Paint your Roofs White. Net Savings in energy cost 10 % as per Berkley research.
• World Environment Day RECYCLE WASTE. Net savings of 5 % to 8 % each month per household
• World Environment Day Use towels for drying your face neither blowers nor use and throw tissues. Net saving $10 to $15 per month per person.
• World Environment Day Close tap run while shaving, or brushing your teeth. Net Saving $ 6 per person per month
• World Environment Day Insulate your water heater. Net saving 22 % of energy consumed by heater
• World Environment Day Keep your air conditioner off when leaving your room. Net saving 25 % in energy cost.
• World Environment Day Follow Nat Geo’s Consumer GREENDEX tips for a living. Net saving 10 % of your family budget.
• World Environment Day Go vegan twice a week. Net saving 2 % of your food and healthcare costs.
• World Environment Day Shop when you need, not shop when you want. Net savings of 15 % in your monthly budget
No, I am no flag waving activist who will tell you to swallow a bitter pill,give away your comforts for a crusade which stops this relentless growth of the human race. I am just a pretty ordinary bloke who believes like you in profits, growth, efficiency and progress. Ofcourse,I am a long term investor, I want all this growth to be sustainable, so that we don't finish the planet earth, all its species and the human race in the next few decades. After all my son is barely 24,and I would pump for him to get married in times to come and a happy future for my grand daughters and grandsons too.
In this blog from “ecology to economy” we deal with discussing sustainable practices in economy and ecology .
We could be wrong. Tell us if we are & why? We encourage diverse opinion even if it is from commercially interested groups opposed to our thinking
All very simple and very do-able. Sandip Sen, don't you think the need to even express these solutions speaks to bigger issues? And don't you think that the time to make these changes is now, while the entire world is in upheaval?
ReplyDeleteFor example, the biggest reasons behind all of this are rampant consumerism. Gotta have, gotta have, gotta have. First of all, who says we gotta have bigger, better and more? We all fall for the messages imparted by the marketing machines. So, case in point for me, as a marketer. Can I in my small way start to change things, by sending out a message that at least nullifies one of the others?
Is it possible that this "social entrepreneurship" that is rising up will be the solution? I hope so.
I as a human being don't intend to be so much of a consumer. But, I get damned mad when I spend good money on things and they break way before their time. And there are no replacement parts, you must buy new. SO, there it goes, into the trash. Can't be recycled, reused or reduced. So, what is the answer? Maybe as consumers we quit buying these things, or we demand replacement parts?
Most of all, I think the way to take your 10 items and actually use them and maybe expand them is to turn to our children. Nurture the pockets of people that are rising up with credible solutions and point our children towards them as examples. And then use our incredible powers to communicate and spread waves of support to them and for them.
Besides doing your ten steps, that is what I am going to do as often as I humanly can. Maybe then you, Radiance, TreeBanker, I and the others can be those proverbial drops in the bucket. Onward and upward.
Thx for your thoughtful comments
ReplyDelete1)The economists started this perpetual growth model and the marketeers followed it up. You, me and a handful apart, the world by large still believes in it. But even non-believers do not have a fully thought out solution, for the thinking has just begun. Social entrepreneuship just hastens the process in its melting global melting plot.
2)The U.S. market is different from the Indian market. We have replacement of parts, small repairs and all those things here that you miss out in the U.S. The guys out here can repair almost everything including hermitically sealed stuff that is normally considered use and throw.
Besides there is a thriving seconds market and a robust recycling industry
3) Yes ofcourse you must use your incredible power of communication and also practice these small things in life. If we paste a chart at our homes and keep looking at the 10 things we have to do off and on, once in a while, it would help.
But the real boost comes when you really save big money when your airconditioning or heating bill falls. That is the start point. White roofs,
insulate heaters,use Airconditioning sparingly
etc.... the big profit areas
I really don't know what we can give to the world by this, as I am not a very good networker
Perhaps You, radiance,treebanker and others can and will do that better.I'll follow. One thing I know for sure is that this is the mess we created, so let us not leave it to our children to clean up.