Green Living

Kayaking in Abu Dhabi's Mangroves

2011-12-30T23:07:00.000-08:00

Last weekend on our wedding anniversary, in search of some eco-celebration we did mangrove kayaking in Abu Dhabi with Noukhada. It was indeed educational & adventurous.

Since years I have appreciated the beauty of those mangroves while travelling on Salam street in Abu Dhabi. Specially when you always get to see some interesting birds flying in that area. As we all know Abu Dhabi is blessed with a large coast line & lot of mangroves, but because of the development I always had a fear that what if all these mangroves will vanish some day?

But thanks to Abu Dhabi Plan 2030, govt. has strict policies about conserving existing Natural Systems. Sometimes if the existing natural system can not be conserved, the developer has to compensate for it by creating similar habitat in nearby place or further away.

So my husband booked our kayaking tour with Noukhada Adventure Company, who organize kayaking, fishing and similar activities in Eastern mangroves. We are glad to hear from Noukhada's owner & founder Mark that they are in talk with TDIC & hopefully soon they will start similar activities in very beautiful mangroves around Sadiyat Island! They also told us that they are in collaboration with Nautica environmental associates, who are doing ecological survey of these mangroves since years.

As soon as we reached Noukhada Launching point off the Salam street, we signed a declaration form. Once we were ready with lifejacket, sunblock, water bottle & some basics of kayaking from our tour guide, our group set off for the most amazing experience I ever had in Abu Dhabi!

The waters in mangroves were comparatively shallow & calm. Paddling our kayaks was not very hard but our muscles were aching for a day after kayaking (in short we need to exercise regularly ;)). Soon we realized that the mangrove trees are not just shrubs but they are regular tall trees like any tree on land. The only diffrence is that their roots are in the seabed & some part of tree comes above water, which looks like a shrub.

We soon found a heron sitting at the corner of mangrove trees, we paddled little closer to him, he did not move. I remembered a Marathi language poem I learned in my school, where poet calls the standstill heron a meditating priest and I realized how it makes sense! The sight was amazing!

While I was thrilled by the serenity of dense green mangroves, Jenny, Mark's daughter said it rightly "You don't even feel you are in Abu Dhabi!". All we know about UAE is beautiful desert & cement jungle, but one has to visit mangroves to see the richness of nature in UAE.

Actually if you see these mangroves in summer, they are all green & dense like how they are in winter. And I always seen local and migratory birds flying in these areas year round.

One of fellow group member found a yellow flower in those mangroves; Jenny told us the scientific name of flower, which I don't remember now. Jenny told us she is studying in UK, but she visits her father during her vacation and kayak in those mangroves to help him in his work. Now most of us will think why my father never did this kind of work? :)

After a while of paddling deep into mangroves, our tour guide took us in the narrow lanes of mangroves, where you understand why the word 'Mangrove Forest' is appropriate. The mangrove trees are quite dense & also tall in these forests. The natural canals are so narrow here that it's very hard to steer your kayak without getting stuck, especially if it is a longer two sitter kayak.

At first when we were sort of banging in mangrove trees, I was skeptic about hurting those trees & disturbing the flora. But soon I observed how flexible most of these trees were. Whenever our kayak was going onto these trees, the trees used to flexibly bend & rise up again once our kayak is passed. I also learned to hold the branches of other strong (not flexible) trees so as to stop our kayak going onto other trees.

While struggling with steering in those dense mangroves, we were stunned by the different world in those mangroves. As it was low tide that time, we could see the sea bed & roots of trees under water. There was also some sea grass under the water. We smelt salt in mangroves but there was not a bad smell at all in those mangroves, which we feel otherwise. The mangroves were clean & as people can't reach here that easily for picnic, we could not see garbage anywhere. Some tiny orange crabs were floating in waters, Jane told us these crabs live under the sea bed. The leaves of mangrove trees were thicker to retain water I guess. Some small wooden blocks were floating on waters. Unlike old days, people don't need wood from mangroves for fuel anymore now.

As I have described how mangroves were very important for locals here so many years back for food & housing materials. We also saw some people doing fishing in mangroves. We found some boards fixed in these mangroves, which displayed does & don'ts. As well as some boards displaying information about mangrove ecosystem. These kinds of boards by govt. are very necessary for awareness.

Kayaking through the mangrove forest was such an experience that we will definitely kayak with Noukhada again! While returning to coast from mangrove forest, one more big white bird, probably stroke flied spreading his long wings in front of us. This is definitely one of the most prominent spot for nature lovers.

When we returned to the launching point, we were drenched in water, had aching muscles and we were extremely happy that we explored something very unknown. Later Mark told us that they also arrange a special Eco- tour, in which similar to our tour the mangrove forest is explored through kayaking but then they stop at some dedicated points, where they give lecture & distribute some literature about mangrove ecology & conservation. The eco tour is great for school going kids & also for anybody who is more interested to know about ecosystem in these mangroves. To find out more about Noukhada Adventure Company and the mangrove tours visit, http://noukhada.ae/. (Here are Mark & Jenny at Noukhada launching point.) Noukhada has definitely started some amazing work by starting this kind of business. Mainly because residents can now actually visit these mangroves even if they don't own a boat or kayak. And the adventure part in it works like honey to attract more people, who will be then aware of rich ecosystem in mangroves & they will definitely spread their knowledge about mangroves, which will make more people aware about it.

If anybody wants to see natural beauty of UAE, I would say one has to visit not only desert but also mangroves, without which UAE is incomplete!

My addiction for Ecofriendly Bags!

2011-12-18T22:00:00.000-08:00

Recently while walking past a shop in a mall, one cotton bag cought my attention. So I decided to buy that bag though I have a big no. of ecofriendly bags at home.

The instant response from my husband on it was, " You have some magnetic attraction towards the sustainable bag, you track them from anywhere in the World!" My husband's this reaction made me realize that I have addiction to eco-friendly bags! LOL....Yes, you may find it funny, but there is a psychology behind it.

Honestly speaking I don't look for those bags, but I stumble upon them. I am always interested in environmental news, campaigns & awareness and this leads to collection of eco-friendly bags. Because I believe in "Say no to only Plastic Bags, but not to Eco-friendly Bag though!"

To get an overview of my addiction I checked out the place of these Ecofriendly bags in my life. I have around 20-25 ecofriendly bags at home!!! Few of them I bought & other I collected from wherever I get them! The regular places of collecting these bags are sustainability/ environmental conferences or shopping from environmentally aware shops/brands.

My everyday tiffin bag to office is a cute tiny cotton bag by Environment & Protected areas authority, Sharjah. This is such a convenient & good looking bag with logo in English & Arabic. Added advantage is the bag is well suited to my job profile. Some of my office colleagues always enquire about it or appreciate it.

I always keep one cotton bag in each of my purse and few in my car. Whenever I buy something, I say no to plastic bag & use these bags. I sort of feel proud, when I hang the ecofriendly bag on my shoulder on any dress. The jute bags I use while going outdoors or for bulky shopping. I have specially dedicated some jute bags for camping & outdoor fun. I like the bags, on which some awareness message is printed instead of brand names. Some of the bags are souvenir of some trip or some event. The green bag from Paddy's market in Sydney is just one example.
My most favorite ecofriendly bag is from Beeah, Sharjah on which message is printed, "I care Do you?"

I love to give away the ecofriendly bags from my collection to friends. Many of my friends even know that I am right person to ask for cotton bags. I have gifted these bags to my office colleagues as well. So if you start saying no to plastic bags, there is a slightest chance of getting addicted to eco-friendly bags like me....be aware ;).

Charities in UAE Part 2...Get rid of your junk!

2011-10-20T00:50:00.000-07:00

Previousely I discussed some charities in UAE, where you can give away your unwanted stuff like clothes, furniture, mediciens, specs etc. But my search is still on, as most of these charities are either far away or their opening timings not matching with my timings etc. So find more charities & drop off points here....

1. Clothes drop off- In discovery gardens, there are good no. of cloth bank bins. forgive me, if I didn't mention in my last post about junk, I am using these bins since 2 years now.

2. Maria Christina Foundatation- They accept all personal & household stuff including furniture, clothes etc. You can call their personnel in Bur Dubai/ Mirdiff/Um Suqueim. For more info & contact nos. click http://mariacristinafoundation.org/

3. Electronics- You can get cash for your electronics like mobile handsets etc. click to find more http://www.cashformobiles.me/

4. All Junk at your home- This is private organisation, collects junk from indivisuals & companies & redistribute to labourers. Some of the junk they sell to keep running their organization, the junk which is not usable they recycle. You just have to email at info@takemyjunk.com or call/sms 050 1704045! Without much delay, they will come & pick up your junk. Find more on http://www.takemyjunkuae.com/

Slogan of Take my junk rightly says, "One man's junk is another man's treasure".

Reusing Household Items

2011-09-16T04:11:00.000-07:00

When I think about 'zero waste' lifestyle, I dream of a balanced ecosystem. Lush green landscape in place of garbage areas near each community. Fresher air and near-to-nature living! However, every day as some new products hit the market, we all get overpowered by the marketing tactics and end up buying stuff which we don't need - be it electronics, fashion clothing, cosmetics or home interior items, etc. Instead we keep on increasing our waste - some times we give to charity, sometimes we recycle and at most times we throw unwanted things thus ending up in the landfill. Wouldn't a public park be a more appropriate use of land than a mountain of waste?
So at first place if we shop less, then waste will be less. But suppose, people suddenly stop buying all those not so necessary things, surely it will affect the market, employment and the economy, isn't it? If the old items which we need to discard are damaged then they may not be useful for charity. Also recycling of every item is still not available in many places. So what we can do is only reusing those unwanted items creatively at our home. The added benefit is you save money & can own an unique, personalized home organizing or interior item, which will be talk of your guests for sure!

To check what can be reused & where, we need to look at our garbage & shopping list. Maybe we can cut some items on our shopping list by reusing items which we are about to discard. I did that & believe me it was fun!

The items found in routine garbage from our home are generally these,

1. Plastic/glass jars, containers, bottles

2. Packaging boxes small or large of paper/cardboard

3. Small bottles, boxes

4. Toiletry, chemical containers

5. Tin boxes, containers, jars

6. Chipped or broken crockery or ceramic or china wear

7. Take-away food containers

8. Old clothes, bags

9. Wooden/metal/plastic furniture & accessories

etc etc

REUSING TRASH ITEMS:
Here are some of my personal favorites & some experiments of reusing things which may be otherwise trash.
1. Plastic & Glass Jars- Many plastic & glass jars with proper lid can be used to store grocery & arrange in your kitchen cabinets. Ex. rice, pasta, milk drinks etc which are packed in bottle or plastic jar can be bought then next time we can buy same item packed in bag & refill the jar.

If you can reuse jars & boxes comes as package to store all your grocery like pulses, flour, beans etc, you would never have to buy separate jars for same purpose. The plastic jars of ice-cream, yogurt are also good storage containers once they are cleaned.

Most of my grocery is stored in such jars. Rice is stored in yogurt jar, urid pulses are stored in horlicks jar & ice-cream box is used to store bird feeding rice.

2. Soap, shampoo, toiletries Bottles- Just like jars, hand wash bottles, dish washing liquids, shower gels can be bought second time in loose refill package & can be refilled in previous bottle, if you use same brand then you don't even have to clean the bottles .

3. Baby food bottles, Herbs/Spice bottles, ketchup, jam bottles- we can use the same bottles for using same items or other appropriate items. Once in a while it is better to wash these bottles, especially if we use it for a prolonged time.

4. Tin boxes- The tin boxes of coffee/ biscuit etc can be used for storing same items. Alternatively planting small plants in these tins is also a good idea, only remember to make some holes at the bottom of tins for draining water . Some good looking tins can be used for organizing like pen holder or as coin box or for keeping small stationary or hardware items. Or we can also collect coins in these boxes

5. Food take away/delivery boxes- some food boxes are of good quality which we can use to store food items in fridge. Other use could be to pack food for office or outdoors. Generally I use these boxes to store cut vegetables in fridge.
6. Plastic ice-cream boxes, chocolate Boxes- These boxes can be used to store small items like stationary/medicines/hardware items or grocery. Chocolate boxes can also be decorated & used as gift boxes. I have assigned this empty Ferrero Rocher chocolate box to store sachets of sugar, coffee etc.

7. Cold drink/ wine bottles- These glass bottles are of good use to store drinking water. Also we can store some homemade juice or lemonade in this & keep in fridge. I also used one beautiful wine bottle to grow money plant.

8. Chipped or unwanted mugs/vase/flower pots can be used for storing pens, brushes, spoons etc on study table, dressing table etc. One of mug which I received as gift but don't like it for drinking coffee, is kept on bookshelf, which stored pens. Other chipped mug is used in washroom to hold items.
9. Broken ceramic plates or china wears can be used as colour pallet, if you do painting. From my experience it is better than any other newly bought pallet specially for oil paints.

10. Shoe boxes can be used to store collectibles, small home decor things, cards, documents, write ups etc. The clean & hard shoe boxes are my favorite home organizer items. I have kept all shoe boxes, some are used for storing home decore items, some hold collectibles. One box is dedicated for stationary items. This box in photo contains stock of cleaning accessories.

11. Packing boxes comeing with gifts specially those of hard material, watch boxes, cosmetics boxes, skin care set boxes can be used to store miscellaneous stuff like stationary items, jewelry, hardware items like screws, nails or buttons coins etc. These boxes can be used as gift box as well.
I have made a body shop box with transperant window on top of it as our collectible box. Al our natural collectibles like dried flowers, leaves, shells etc along with some memorable photos & postcards are stored in this box.

12. Washing powder/ cereal Boxes- Big empty boxes of cereals, washing powder, tissue boxes can be used for storing carry bags. one opening could be cut in the box, from where we can pull the carry bag out. It is good reuse also a nice idea for organizing those otherwise voluminous carry bags, which filled up space in cabinet below our kitchen sink.

After cutting the top side of the box, these boxes can be used as magazine holders or for holding excess wires, assorted things in store room.

13. Planter- Many items like broken earthen/ceramic/glass wears, shoes, tin/plastic containers, paint or chemical containers, ceramic pipes, coconut shell, can be used for planting small plants in your garden. Actually if you grow a plant in anything which can hold the soil & can have a hole or two facilitate axcess water to flow, then any waste item in your home can become beatiful planter. In this photo old tyers are used as planter.

14. Clothes- Old napkins can be used for housecleaning or as bathroom mat. Old clothes can be used to stitch rugs, mats, decorative wall hangings, covers for pillow/chair/cushion, curtain, handbags, pouches, wall hanging organizers, cloth files in patch work or with other creative technique. In India 9 yard sari, traditional garment for women is reused for many other purposes. The blancket stiched from my grandma's soft cotton saree was my favorite in my childhood & is best example of reuse of clothes.

15. Bags, Purses- I never throw old bags, purses, pouches. Though they are damaged a bit. I always dedicate those bags for things according to application. One of old bag is where we store all tools. A small old purse of mine is where all sort of small locks are stored .

16. Old containers/ tiffin boxes- Some old containers, tiffine boxes with broken handle or lock can be used for keeping water and seeds for birds in your window.

17. Lids of jars- Lids of jars can be used as coasters or can be kept below bottle of oil to avoid any oiliness to kitchen platform.

18. Partition cards in tea bag boxes can be used as bookmarks. I painted some of these cards, laminated them & now these bookmarks kept on bookshelf add not only good use but beauty as well.
19. Small empty boxes of Tic-tac or menthol or tablets etc can be used for storing nails, screws or any assorted tiny items.
I have stored nails in tic tac box. Some toothpicks are stored in one of empty calcium tablet container which can be used during travel or outdoor trips.

20. Plastic trays in chocolate boxes to hold chocolates can be used to store tiny jewelry items in jewelry box or pins in stationary box or nails/buttons etc.

21. Trash CDs can be used as coasters or decoration purpose.

22. Plastic spoons coming with milk powder, ice-creams, cough syrup can be cleaned & kept in containers of floor, spice powders, washing powders etc. I have kept those ice-cream spoons in containers of turmeric, chilli powder, cocoa powder etc.

23. Old funiture accessories like racks, hooks, wall cabinets can be reused for other purpose. I have used some old hooks for curtain rods to hang clothes instead of throwing them on bed or tables etc. These small hooks made our bedroom clothes free, where one could find clothes all over before.

24. Unwanted, old, damaged furniture pieces- There could be many creative ways to use the old furniture piece for some new applications. I never did it, but I alawys like the idea of using old trunk as side table, it could add the antique touch to interior. These are some of the photos from other people, who reused there old furniture & result is these amazing art pieces.

Hope some of you would have developed interest in reusing old items, or have you started looking for them in your store room already? Let me know how it goes!

Enjoy Creative Reusing!

Reduce-Reuse-Recycle

2011-07-26T23:54:00.000-07:00

Reduce-Reuse-Recycle!

We read these words everywhere these days. We also know that these 3 Rs is mantra for waste management.

Long back in 2009 I have already explained the basics of waste managment in my blogpost, http://lead-green-life.blogspot.com/2009/05/waste-management-reduce-reuse-recycle.html

But the poster I displayed on this post which is easily available on internet, made me write this new post. Actually same poster I used in my office to emphasize significance of waste managment. But one of my collegue, an engineer always complained that 'this poster doesn't convey the message which you want to tell us. The words Reduce-Reuse-Recycle are though popular but are not enough to understand their role in waste management, there should be some more explaination.'

I couldn't agree with him at start, because these words always made lot of sense to me. But then waste managment or sustainability is not only for people who are professionals in same field. It should be understood by all & then only it will be implemented in daily life by all people, which is the need of time! So I made a new poster of Reduce-Reuse-Recycle, which should be self explainatory & should make a reader think & act accordingly! And here that poster is, to share with you all, may be it will help some more people or some more workplaces to better understand mantra of waste managment....

Story of my Baby Plant

2011-06-24T11:39:00.000-07:00

Hi guys, hope you all are leading a green life at your best. While doing the same, we had one incidence at home related to my baby plant. I have a tiny curry leaves plant. It's fresh green baby plant. I love smell of curry leaves & once in a while I use it's leaves in my cooking.

As our apartment is facing north, we don't get direct sunlight entering in our house through windows. This orientation is very useful for saving electricity for air-conditioning, but our plants don't get direct sunlight at all.

One Saturday when I was working & my husband was incidentally at home, I told him to keep our baby plant in the garden downstairs for a while, so that it will get direct sunlight hoping it will help the plant grow better. From my experience it is always better to show sunlight to outdoor plant specially early in morning when the sun is not harsh. However my husband, being short on time that day, did not want to wait with plant in garden. Instead he did the biggest mistake. He kept the baby plant in our locked car during afternoon time. After few hours when he remembered about the plant, he found a burnt curry leaves plant in car.

Because of lack of ventilation in car & in closed system like car temperature always increases beyond ambient, the plant was suffocated & burnt. Feeling guilty he brought the baby plant to home & watered it. I was quite sad after loosing my baby plant especially because of a un-thought of action. Later on we kept watering plant without any result.

Just as a last resort, I tried a trick, which I learnt in geography textbook in my school. I threw some sprout beans in that plant pot. I remembered learning about sprout beans; in India farmers, specially those who grow main corps like wheat, rice; once in two years grow sprout beans in the land, to refresh the land & add some nutrients in their farm land. The sprouts leave nitrogen in land adding fertility to it.

Miraculously my baby plant got some more stems with fresh green leaves within 5-6 days. Though the upper part of plant is still in burnt condition & may not get back to life. But these leaves at bottom stem prove the sprouts benefit of adding nutrients.

I felt this experience is worth sharing with you all, where we learnt few things 1st never use your car to store living things not just pets but not even plants, specially during summer afternoons. 2nd whenever you have to add nutrients to your plants (or give them new life) grow sprout beans in same pot. And 3rd never throw any damaged (or burnt) plant, you can revitalize it.

This was definitely our successful attempt of restoring habitat in window garden!

Fully bloomed New Ecosystem- The Gardens in Dubai

2011-06-10T17:44:00.000-07:00

UAE residents know it well, what the new ecosystem means! In all parts of UAE, where ever there are Green belts, parks, lush green golf courses & beautifully landscaped communities almost all are manmade! These year-round green ecosystems in the dessert of Arabia are definitely one of the man-made wonder! Of course the issue of water consumption to sustain these ecosystems is there, but the use gray water is evident!

In winter, we all go out to parks, which is home to migratory birds in the season. But recently I started going out of my home for a walk in Nakheel's Gardens community & I realized how this ecosystem is bloomed as if it belongs to this sand!

The landscape there is quiet natural, mix of different species, different trees & dense! The sound of birds, nest of birds, smell of fresh flowers & lush green natural looking lawns, it's unbelievable! This all stands on dry dessert sand! You could see the food chain of biodiversity unleash in front of your eyes. This is home to many birds. You can see these birds eating berries on trees or gathering thin stems of leaves to build their nests. You get to see many bird species here common myna, common hoopoe, parrot, red vented Bulbul, pigeon etc. The biggest attarction in the woods of Nakheel Gardens is finding of Sandgrouse. One afternoon when we were walking through the dense landscape, we found a big sandgrouse, a mother probably along with tiny 3-4 sandgroves. Not sure but it could be rarely seen Lichtenstein's Sandgrouses. The mother was very potective about the kids, possibly these birds don't fly. They just vanished in shrubs on ground. In next few visits we found same birds in same area, hopefully they have their nest in that area.

There are pedestrian path created which goes through the middle of community. Along these paths the swimming pools, grounds & tennis/ basket ball courts are located.

When on Friday afternoon you walk along this path you could see people, especially children playing in pools or play grounds. This definitely doesn't seem like these people are staying in dessert region. All of the street & pedestrian walk ways in Nakheel Garden are now shaded with fully grown trees. The buildings are small & their outer surfaces are shaded & covered by these fully grown trees. Obviously the heat gain is less, which in turn adds less pressure on air conditioning units in this area. So electricity is saved. Not only this but because of these trees weather feels little less extreme. People staying in Garden will agree with me, when I say temperature here is always 1 or 2 degree less than other nearby area in Jabel ali. Humidity also is lesser & m0st importantly there is fresh air & more oxygen. This adds health benefits of people staying in Gardens. The lush green surroundings & shaded pathways also motivate people to go outdoors & increase the activity level of residents.

The best part of Gardens is that, it is landscaped in such a way, when you are there you don't feel that it is man-made. They avoided to do systematic landscape & using of same plants & repeating them in some order. There are different species of plants & planted randomly, which give feel of natural jungle. You can find trees like Neem, Gulmohor (peacock flower/delonix regia), bamboo, Palm in these landscapes. Some flowering plants like plumeria (chafa), oleander (kanher), Bougainvillea, cana, jatropha integerrima are also abunduntly used in gardens, they flower year-round. People staying here are definitely staying like as if they are back home. You can see bird feeders, water bowls for birds everywhere. And most of the balconies have their own small garden. The seating areas created in balconies shaded by trees can easily envy the rest of UAE residents.

The sustainability awareness is also seen. The bins for recycling materials are kept outside almost each building. The 4 separate bins are seen for glass, paper, plastic & general waste. Other than these bins, no bins are kept, which insist people to segregate their waste & recycle it. Of course the collection of waste & recycling is done on regular basis by Nakheel. The community is very clean & looked after very well.

This is the best example of landscaped community & new ecosystem of UAE. At same time from the example of Nakheel garden, some points are also educating for future development of such communities. first is high maintenance; swimming pools, play grounds etc are to be maintained regularly. Secondly high usage of water for watering such a huge amount of landscaping & for swimming pools. Though the gray water/recycled water is used for irrigation, the high evaporation rate in summers impacts badly on water consumption. But personally I think electricity is taken care nicely, less heat gain, promoted daylights in houses because of tree shades all over & district cooling plant this all decreases electricity consumption. Also Human health is taken care extremely well by fresh air because of trees & less pollution. Vicinity of Clinics, Ibn battuta mall, services inside mall, petrol pump & shops/ restaurants in Discovery garden promotes walking, reducing need of transport for basic facilities & make living in this community now very much convenient.

All in all I will say this is definitely a tempting place to stay, the long waiting list for rental for Nakheel Garden is obvious. If you are lucky enough to have friends staying in Nakheel Gardens, then from my personal experinece I will recommend you stay at their place in summer & have feel or experience of staying at a resort somewhere far away from the heat of dessert.

Sustainable Australia!

2011-05-09T20:30:00.000-07:00

Last year I have been to Australia for my vacation! While planning for vacation, I was dreaming of the Harbor Bridge, Opera House, beaches, trams, Victorian buildings, Kangaroos & Koalas. But as we touched the land 'down under', the sign boards, energy conservation measures on Sydney airport started telling us "Welcome to sustainable country! You are going to see environmentally aware society!"

The Sydney airport is making their existing building sustainable. The recyclers are kept everywhere instead of just garbage bins. Washrooms use recycled water, and it is well informed everywhere to all users with help of signboards. There is waste water treatment plant of Sydney airport, which treats waste water & use this recycled water for toilet flushing & cooling towers for air conditioning system. Sydney Airport saved 350 kiloliters fresh drinking water each day in 2009, by using this recycled water.

When we entered the city of Sydney, we were happy to see not just natural greenery in city but hoardings of Sustainable Sydney 2030 as well. In CBD (Central business district) of city is one of the good examples of sustainable transport. First & foremost you get maps of city in details with lot of guidance so you can decide very easily if you want to walk. There are enough walk ways & pedestrian crossings. Else you have numerous transportation options like bus, metro, monorail, light rail, cabs. Commuting by ferries via sea route from farther suburbs is also popular in Sydney. The maps are so well organized that it mentions the stops for all transport services & getting information about timing is easy as well. There are dedicated bus lanes & cycle lanes to avoid traffic congestion. We also observed that many cabs were hybrid cars & people owned lot of hybrid or electric cars & bikes. Most importantly people were using public transport as primary commuting mean. Or else working people walking or riding bicycle in their business suits to & from their offices was also very common scene here. Of course they are blessed with good weather, but they all were well prepared for sudden rain as well. We were stunned to see people walking & cycling to-from their offices in CBD to nearby suburbs by using Harbor bridge everyday.

Their dedication to sustainability is seen everywhere, so much that every evening Opera House & Harbor Bridge do lit up after dark but not upto the level of creating light pollution around it.

As the city is growing further into 'bushes', govt. has planned proper public transports to these new areas like trains & buses. Car share is also promoted. The impressive trick is govt. give away special funds to people for building their houses in these new areas.

These communities around the city are made environmental friendly & sustainable. People of the communities are asked to segregate their waste. Waste collection & recycling is done by authority. In some suburbs people are allowed to plant only local plants in their yard. Recycled water, storm water is used for flushing & gardening on compulsory basis.

On manly beach we found a board 'Living with Penguins'. This is the only place in Sydney where small penguins visit regularly, the beaches are equipped with information boards for beach visitors guiding how they should take care for protecting these unique penguin habitat.

We were surprised to see use of solar powered equipments like parking meter, lights etc every where, especially because at least at that time it was clouded & generally rain is common there.

The sustainable buildings or Green buildings are picking up in Australia; we could see some green buildings in Sydney CBD, which were proudly displaying their sustainable status. Australia has developed their own Green Building rating system or standard, 'Green Star'. The buildings are certified by Green star on voluntary basis & given star rating as per their sustainability levels. Also a part of sustainability & conserving their culture & heritage, we get to see many old Victorian buildings in Australia which are preserved with some internal modification and are still used as shopping center, govt. buildings or tourist centers. The year of their construction is displayed on the top of nearly each heritage building. Preserving these building & using them for public use definitely meet Australia's heritage to modern world in CBDs of cities.

We also saw some banners of a political party named Green Party! Though I couldn't find out more about them, but hope they actually care for environment or sustainability.
Amongst all this, one appreciable point was' people living in Sydney were mostly aware about sustainability & knew what is intention behind this Sydney 2030 plan. So not just people or not just govt. or organizations, but making a city sustainable is a cumulative effect & needs participation from all.

We all know Sydney as a global initiator for starting Earth Hour, the sustainable movement in 2007. And this visit to the city made me believes that they truly care for sustainability & will be a good model for sustainable city.

During our visit to Melbourne, similar sustainability enthusiasm was seen with more culture & education added to it.
When we went to tourist information center, we were pleasantly surprised. We noticed a broacher for Sustainable buildings in Melbourne including list of Green buildings in Melbourne along with their location map for tourist! Pixel Building in Melbourne is Australia's Greenest Building.

Here in Melbourne, nostalgic trams add an amazing flavor to public transport. The tram are cleaner public transport as compared to fuel emitting vehicles, also choosing not to waste already existed infrastructure of tram network made complete sense to me in sustainability point of view. Same like Sydney the transportation in Melbourne is sustainable with lot of people using public transport, walking & cycling. Use of Recycling of water, Storm water Management & green-sustainable materials were widely present in Melbourne. People looked more aware about sustainability so names of business like Eco-plumbing etc were quiet common here.There is one UNESCO World Heritage listed site, which includes Royal exhibition building & Carlton Gardens dated 1980s. Some of the trees planted in Carlton garden in 1980 are still standing tall & looked after well by authorities.

We also visited one suburb, which is famous as sustainable suburb as the houses in that suburb made of environment-friendly materials & they use rainwater harvesting

These cities are full of greenery & parks. And govt. invested appropriate funds to maintain these parks, and also attract people to enjoy parks. This gives a good large open space to increase activity levels of residents.

We hear a lot about Australia's role in carbon credit & carbon offset. Climate control & sustainability is very much discussed on governmental & policy maker level in Australia. Frankly I don't know how much it is affecting on actual energy conservation or sustainability. I won't even talk about political part behind it. But it's effect on common people is environmental & sustainability awareness on great extent. Also many businesses & developers take interest in sustainability voluntarily. This is definitely a good effect.

Overall Australia looked very much open for all sustainability ideas & in near future it will definitely be a good model for sustainability.

Generally sustainable developments are asked to create facility for educating visitors about sustainability from certification bodies. But I found, walking on streets of Sydney & Melbourne will serve the purpose of sustainability education!

What is Sustainability?

2011-04-10T00:24:00.000-07:00

Some days back I came across an article on The National, UAE's leading newspaper about 'resident's awareness about word-Sustainable'. http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/environment/third-of-residents-dont-understand-meaning-of-sustainable. The article says, third of UAE's residents do not know the meaning of Sustainable! Truly speaking, it was not a surprise for me...but this is not a case of only UAE for sure! Being a Sustainability Professional, I always come across the queries professionally & socially. What exactly sustainability means? and what exactly the nature of my work? These kind of questions come from people from all over, not only in UAE, but people from UK, Australia, Singapore, India...to name few. I will say in general, sustainability awareness is still not countable in societies all over the world. Coming across people, who believe 'sustainability & green is just a new fashion or bubble' is very regular thing for professionals like me!

Then what exactly is Sustainability?

Sustainability is not just part of HSE or CSR or some environmental certification or campaigns on industry level but all these are definitely part of Sustainability. But be sure Sustainability is not some slogans, signs, green coloured things or marketing tact! On personal or social level, Sustainability is not only recycling or saving resources, but all this is necessary for sustainability. Finally Sustainability is not for Saving Earth, but on the contrary in big picture view, sustainability is for saving humans & our existence on Earth...'Sustainability would be long term survival of humans on the Earth'! Sustainability is philosophy, initiative, measure, plan, goal, action, process, result, quality, quantity, lifestyle & all inclusive best practice! Sustain means 'maintain', 'support' or 'endure'. So one will ask, what should be sustainable? & for whom it should be sustainable?

Sustainability is broad term which deals with Environmental, Social & Economic dimensions. Sustainability could be for humans, not for environment...but human depends on environment, so it would be feasible to say 'we need to have a sustainable environment to have sustainable future for us'. But can we sacrifice economy or development or society to have sustainable future on Earth...of course not, so we can have a sustainable living, in which we can make sure environmental sustainability, social sustainability & economic sustainability to secure our all inclusive 'sustainability' for now & in future. Isn't it a win-win situation? Does 'sustainability' sound like 'harmony' or 'balance'?

The simple definition of sustainability is 'Improving quality of human life while living within the carrying capacity of supporting eco-system'

According to definition by Brundtland Commission of United Nations "Sustainable development is a development that meets the needs of present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs"

Sustainability is a scientific research, it can be measured, accounted, audited, reported & has reference standards. Environmental Performance Index, Carbon Foot prints, Ecological footprint, Life cycle assessment, Air Quality index, ISO 14oo1, Green Building certifications, GDP per capita, Sustainable Governance Indicator, Biodiversity indicator .....these are few scientific techniques to deal with Environmental, Social & Economic parts of Sustainability.

Business to business approach to sustainability varies & of course not all places on Earth can have same social sustainability approach! But I am very positive that society & decision makers in industries are being more open to sustainability now than the past years. When professionally & socially people discuss with me not only some concepts in Sustainability but also paper recycling, energy saving, carbon footprint, some signboards they see here and there & how sustainability is mentioned in their children's syllabus. I say people are getting aware of Sustainability idea! Can't say beginning is half done, but first step matters a lot at the moment!

Earth Hour 26th March 2011, 8.30PM

2011-03-02T20:30:00.000-08:00

Hi friends, Earth Hour is here again!

Let's join the world on 26th March 8.30 PM like every year, let's switch off all electrical appliances & lamps!

This year Earth hour is back with some more feature, which says, "This Earth Hour, Go Beyond The Hour". As we already follow our Green Living mission, we can surely say that we are already doing beyond Earth Hour! In addition, we will keep adopting Green habits!

You can share, what you are doing beyond Earth Hour, how you are following Green Living, not only on this blog but also on Earth hour website. I have shared my action for the Earth, will you share your action?

http://beyondthehour.org/Home/Act/75632/

Two Years of Leading Green Life!

2011-02-25T20:24:00.000-08:00

Hi friends, I have been talking to you all through this blog since 2 years now! Firstly, thank you all for reading, following 'Green Living'; giving continuous feedback & supporting this mission of 'Leading Green Life'! Our common passion for going green on personal level & love for Nature have kept us all together for 2 years! So I thought it is time to celebrate our successful 2 Green Years!

Let's cheer together for Green Living by adding all of our personal touch to it, by sharing our Green stories! These green stories are not supposed to be grand or CNN style green stories....but whatever we do in our routine life in line with our Green living mission, we can summarize. If we save energy, recycle paper, take stairs instead of lifts or do anything which shows that we care for environment, doesn't matter how small or big... Let's share how we lead our green life!!!

Let's show the world what we do, how we are leading a green life! Believe me, your stories will be inspiration for many others!

Awaiting your comments or emails with some photos if possible. I would appreciate if you can take out few minutes. Let's make colaz of Green Living leaders!

Note: This is not for any commercial purpose, the intent is public awareness. Also if you want your name to get published or not is all upto you.

Into the Wild in Musandum, UAE's favourite weekend getaway

2011-02-19T20:20:00.000-08:00

Ever wondered what is the eco-system in Arabia? How Bedouins lived in gulf of Arabia? How settlement is done in wadies & mountains or coasts? Then go to Musandum in Oman! Drive upto end of UAE upto Ras Al Khaima border & enter in this 'Beauty of Arabia'! All you get to see is sea, mountaines & wild arabia!

Musandum Peninsula has a very unique location. This is the farthest end of gulf of Arabia, right across the sea there is Iran at just 55km & in between comes the strait of Hormuz through which most of trade & oil ships pass from Gulf of Arabia. Musandum is covered by range of Hajar Mountains, which create the fjord, the cliffs plunging directly into the torqouise sea!

The best way is to camp on one of the beach amongst all those untouched beaches or rocky mountains. Of course we need to make sure that we are not leaving behind any garbage or disturbing this wild nature in any way!

Our Journey upto Khasab town was mesmerising! The curvy road from border upto Khasab town goes along the sea-coast & through mountain edges. You stop at any point and the riddle of Arabian ecosystem will be unleashed in front of you! The birds, the fishes, sheeps & goats, sand, rocks, marshes, plants, trees, mountains, wadies, water, wind, sun there is no end to it! You can fill the Nature in all your senses!

There is small town named 'Bukha', on the way to Khasab. As you enter Bukha, there is a beach & marshy land right next to road, while coming & going we got to see many birds here. Storks, colony of seagulls, one bird with colour of marshy land & pink legs. This is definetly a good spot for birdwatching. There is park next to this marshy area, at the end of park, they have built a hut overlooking the marshes for bird-lovers.

Through out Musandum, the Hajar Mountains are scenic. The rock formation, shapes & colours & textures of rocks are numerous! Every cliff is diffrent from the rest. In Musandum province there is natural vegetation, you can find date palms as well. Along the coast you can see salt water plants & on mountains we can find bushes & trees. Here is a photo of wild flower bush, we found on one of the mountain.

This part of Oman is not developed much, thankfully! So you get to see traditional Bedouin houses, their small farms, dhow building, ships, goats all over. The Bedouin houses use natural material for building house & main food is fish. There are many old castles & forts along the coast as well. The small villages are situated in the wadies or at the coasts where wadies are opening up. Though you can't see water flowing in wadies, may be becuase it is not there at the moment or channeled it to their farms. But you get to see some bushes in mountains, in the path of water. There are many small fishing villages in the fjords of Musandum dotted along the coast, where you can reach only by boat.

The best feature here is the channels; which are built all around these towns/villages. Is it for protection from flash floods or high tide or is it for water irrigation I am not sure. But it is very impressive. On roads there are signes everywhere to alert you not to drive if water is high upto some mark.

The tiny Khasab town is remarkably clean, you could see garbage bins kept every corner of road, considering distance for walking people. The town is pretty small, People were using cycles & also walking which is very rare to see in UAE. The fresh air in Musandum was enough of proof that there is no significant pollution here. I felt, it's been years I havn't breathed this much fresh air!

The biggest attraction in Khasab is a ferry ride in fjords, dolphin watching & snorkelling! The waters in this area is warmer. Travelling fjords in traditional wooden Oman Dhow is lovable experience. The fjords in Musandum are breathtaking! Though we got to see very little garbage floating on waters because it was a long weekend & this is most popular spot amognst UAE residents. But I am sure, otherwise this must be completely clean. We got to see at least 10-15 wild dolphines in those waters. Firstly we

were spotting them from some distance, as we go closer they started playing around the dhows. This is definetly a very joyful experiene for any nature lover! The dophines were happy & naughty! They were loving when people clapped for them. The dhow operators were blowing vissles to call dolphines & dolphines were coming to surface in response to it. That interaction between human & fish was notable! The Telegraphic island in between the fjords, where people do snorkelling was beautiful & comparatively clean. This is a perfect & one of the best place to see beautiful corals in sea. The grand mountains around the Telegraphic island, deep sea & open skies; somewhere felt like nature is calling!

But the best experience we had was at night! We stayed in Khasab town at the end of settlement, right next to mountains. There were abundent ships & goats wandering on roads & in bushes around. At night, while we were returning, a small animal, size in between a dog & a cat with exceptionally long ears, long brushy tail & shining eyes crossed the road in front of us. We tried to take snaps but it ran back towards the mountains. We realised it must be an arabian fox or some animal in same family, which we get to see only in zoo otherwise. After a minute, we saw one more, we tried to take out our camera. As the animal heard us, it stopped, got alert, raised ears to full length & stared at us for a moment & then vanished in dark. We cliked in dark, but it was gone already. All this happened in split seconds. Till we return back to our senses other animal came & same thing repeated. we seen at least 4 of these animals in same way but couldn't catch them even in a singal shot. They were quick & alert. We walked in direction, where they all were rushing, but we couldn't find them again. After a while we heard sound of a goat for some time & then it stopped. We realised the foxes got their food, they must have gone back in mountains now. Next day when we went to museum in Khasab Castle, we learnt about the same nocturnal Blanford's Fox (Vulpes Cana)! These foxes are listed as Least Concern but hunting of these foxes is banned in Oman. These foxes stay in mountaines and are found in Middle East mainly in Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE, Iran, Afghanistan & other Middle eastern countries.
Sighting of Dophines, Foxes, Birds & fishes into the wild is definitely one of the most amazing experience for us!

Junk Problem in UAE...Solution- Charities in UAE

2011-01-07T20:19:00.000-08:00

Around 80% of UAE population is expats. Generally very less people will buy house & many people keep moving from one place to other inside UAE as their house contract is over. UAE is a shopping heavan, so almost everybody keeps buying things without giving a second thought that do they really need it or what to do with this when it will be of no use.

Good food in UAE keeps changing shape of your body & you clothes become useless after months, you keep changing wardrob according to this need or fashion! Trend of changing personal electronics, (which you get duty free in UAE) or even changing home interior is common here.

All these habits or trends in UAE leads to a Junk problem of every household. Many a times, we know the things are now junk for us are still useful for others so we keep carrying them in store/garage from one house to another for years. Most people throw them. You always get to see things in good condition, lying in roadside garabage bins.

Some kind people keep those things & give it to watchmen, domestic help people or charities stall opened in malls during Holy month of Ramadan or festiv seasons. I used to do the same, but keeping things for a year to wait till these stalls coming up again doesn't solve junk problem at your home.

Here is list of some charities in UAE who accept second hand stuff from you & distribute it to less fortunate people in need.

1. Al Ihsan Charity Center-

This center help families who lost their breadwinner due to death, divorce, negligence, jail sentence or deportation. The center provides these families necessities like new/used furniture, kitchen applinaces, clothing, shoes, personal items in adiition to the assistance to accquire their health cards & medical prescriptions, schooling supplies for children.

Contact via email ladiescooperative_backtosschool@yahoo.com or mobile 050 450 5203

2. Dar Al Ber Society- ( Unused medicines accepted)

Your unwanted medicines as long as they are sealed, unused & not expired are accepted & redistributed to needy people. You need to drop off the medicines at their location. They also accept used items like furniture. (Can't find more, as the site is in arabic)

Contact: 04 3523333/ http://www.daralber.net/

3. Jebel Ali Christ Church

You can donate your things at Jebel ali Christ Church, every friday morning. Organizers may be there to help you between 8-11am.

4. Spectacles/Goggles-Opticians in UAE

The old spectacles are accepted by variouse opticians in UAE, including Yateem Optician & Al Jaber Opticals. Hopefully they redistribute these spectacles to people with poor sight but can't afford specatcles

5. Visit this page to find more charities in UAE, where you can donate your things.

www.iacad.gov.ae/EN/Pages/Listofcharity.aspx (not sure how many of theses accept second hand things, again sites are in arabic...actually could be translated through google though)

6. According to my knowledge some counsolates/emabssies like Indian counsolate, Pakistani Counsolate etc used to take second hand good to distribute to their labous staying here. But not sure, this facility is regular basis or available occasinally.

But generally for most of above charities who accept second hand goods & redistribute to needy people, ask us to drop off. Though it sounds like a complian, but truth is becuse of a very tight schedules of working people here & generally drop off points are not accecible in evenings or far away from your daily route to & from office, many people can't drop off their things even if they want to donate those things. Finally after sheduling these drop off trips again & again they loose their patiance & one day, throw away those things in garbage bins. Some people in UAE don't even know, they could donate their unwanted things.

So I am looking for a charity, who may have a 24hr drop off point for ALL unwanted things, not just clothes/furniture etc etc. Or else they come & pick up your unwanted things, we could give them petrol cost though. Or may be there should be permanent stalls of accepting donation of used items in some malls at least!

It sounds like "Yes I want to donate, BUT I have some parameters!" But unfortunately if those requirements are not fullfilled it will be hard to encourage all people in UAE for REUSE, RECYCLE.

How a damaged water pipe complaint is treated in Dubai?

2010-12-10T03:20:00.000-08:00

I love Dubai!
Yesterday morning while going to office from Shaikh Zayed Road, me & my husband saw an unusual big water spout at the roadside near Dubal factory, Jebel Ali. Though the water was far from the road, it was bursting out as a fountain & was giving idea of how many gallons of water must be wasting because of some fault! Immidiately we decided to call Dubai Water & Electricity Authority (DEWA) to make them notice this fault & take action. But we had no number of Dewa for such complain. So at 7.20 am I called 8009090, an Road & Transport Authority (RTA) complaint no. This no. is known as "Madinati" (I think "city" in Arabic). I explianed the water leakage situation & location of it. The call attendant assured me that they will inform the case to DEWA with my contact details & DEWA will get back to me. Before we take doubt on this assurance, I received a SMS from RTA, with a case reference no, of my complaint.
After few minutes (around 7.40am) I received a call from DEWA technicians. They told me very politely that they have reached Dubal main gate & asked the location of water wastage & my observations of seriouseness of water pipe damage. As I was passing from there by a car, I coudn't notice much except a big water fountain & approximate location of it. I explained it to them. They called me few more times to confirm the location & asked the landmark nearby. During every call they promised me again & again that they will find the damaged pipe & repair it straight away.
Finally at 8.40 am I received a sms from DEWA saying 'your notification (with refernce no) for water pipe broken has been closed, thank you'
I am quite sure that they must have found the broken water pipe & repaired it soon.

In this incident the reaction timing of RTA & DEWA was really appreciable, which shows the Dubai Municipality's priority towards water & energy conservation & also policies to treat customer complains for public infrastructure!

That's why I LOVE DUBAI!

Time for Beaches, Parks, Mountains & Wadies in UAE

2010-12-05T19:40:00.000-08:00

The time for outdoors has already started in UAE. Winter is the only time when you get to see most of the people enjoying weather & nature of UAE.

As I keep mentioning UAE has developed many parks, green areas. In Dubai one can find many of them along beaches & throughout the city. The newly developed communities in Dubai are landscaped where, not just people of UAE but also some common birds & migratory birds reside. Waking up early in morning with sound of birds outside & rising sun with calmness (& with less heat & glare) is the bliss which you can enjoy at least for 4 months here.

Recently we spent a day in one of the oldest park in Dubai. As we entered Safa Park, it reminded me of the Royal Botanical park of Sydney. The resembalnace was because of lush greenery & view of city icon (Opera House in Sydney & Burj Khalifa in Dubai). But apart from this there is certainly nothing common in Safa park & royal botanical park in Sydney or elsewhere. The biggest difference is that most of famous parks on Earth generally have naturally grown trees & greenery, though it is maintened by city councils. But the parks in UAE (which has nearly no fertile land) are mostly created by planting trees after they are fully grown & has very few naturally grown plants & trees . But after seeing the maturity of parks & remarkable maintenance, many of us don't even recognise this fact.

This park is favourite place of migratory birds, as there is a special lake made for birds along with two more lakes in park. As it was a public holiday & park was full of enthusiastic Dubaisiders we though it was not right time for birdwatching. But for our surprise there were plenty of birds & park has enough space & quiet areas along lake for birds.

The dedicated barbeque areas, chidren play area is near the borders of park making the lake area & main park secluded from these activities. Safa park is definitely a perfect example of creating sustainable habitat area in desert!

After some strolls in lush green park, a funfilled & tasty barbecue and relaxing under a tree & under the star filled sky was so refreshing for us that we felt like we're vacationing outside this harsh desert country!

Nature Lover Lucinda Manouch

2010-11-07T13:20:00.000-08:00

I don't remember how I visited the blog, "My Garden" by Lucinda Manouch. But after reading her passionate posts & seeing amazingly beautiful pictures of her garden & it's visitors, I fall in love with the blog. Since then I am following this blog.

Honestly, I did not regularly read her every new post, but in between I used to visit her blog thinking, "let's see what is happening on Lucinda's Garden". Then I would read nearly all posts published on blog since I visited it last. Her compassion for all kinds of visitors to her garden was remarkable though it is a snail or insect or birds or plants. She had great caring towards her garden & tiny things in it. In her writing she used to tell us what happend in her garden that day in such way that you feel so familiar to her Garden & you are a regular visitor but you just missed it this time. I used to feel very close to her love for nature & her garden, that close that I never felt like writing her or conveying her how much I love her Garden.

Just by visiting her blog you feel you just been to a walk in a nature's reserve, you feel that fresh & that close to Nature!

I learnt all about practical gardening from her blog, specially inspiration behind my post "Wildlife conservation from your home" is Lucinda. I always had a very small garden back home, in balcony.... you can't even call it garden. But the garden I always dreamt to have is Lucinda's, though actually seeing the photos I realised how hard it could be to maintain such magnificent garden & not get irritated by insects who are eating small plants & top of it being compassionate to them... it is not everyone's cup of tea. She was a true Nature Lover!

Suddenly in my recent remembrance of Lucinda's garden, I visited her blog & my breath stopped for a moment, her husband posted the news about her passing away peacefully . This very enthusiastic & lively lady had cancer & she was doing gardening, taking care of her plants & visitors of garden & writing blog during all this! She was a famous wildlife photographer, who captured the beauty of nature in Africa, Europe & then in her own garden when travelling became difficult for her.

The blog My Garden is definitely a touching story of Lucinda's courage, kindness, compassion & love for nature. Her husband Alan Manouch is now taking care of her lovely garden & posting the updates. I would like to request you all my friends, to go through her blog & her story of love for nature. http://mysnowdoniagarden.blogspot.com/

For my Green Living awareness quest, Lucinda will be my inspiration even more than before!

(Photos Credit: Lucinda Manouch)

Sustainable Singapore

2010-10-24T20:56:00.000-07:00

Last month I visited Singapore while going for vacation in Australia. It is well famous that Singapore is very beautiful lush green city & is a model for new developments. We all know Singapore as "fine city", where there are many strict policies & rules about things & actions inside Singapore which resulted in a clean, properly maintained & functioned example of systematic urban planning.

But when we touched the Changi airport, what strike me most about Singapore, was there sustainable policies & implementation.
You can easily find recycling stations or recycles anywhere in Singapore in place of garbage bins. All those recyclers are not name sake but are properly classified & dedicated for papers, metal, glass, plastic etc everywhere. Around 45% of waste generated in Singapore is recycled at the moment. They produce power in recycling stations as well. The use of recycled material in construction is in common practice in Singapore, when the world is hailing for this requirements for new green buildings!
The MRT metro system is fantastically connected throughout the city & with other transport means, so no wonder people use this public transport as their regular transport, they don't need to have cars to stay in Singapore!
I was impressed by the fantastic system of reusing the MRT tickets. If you buy a single time MRT ticket, you also pay 1$ deposit at pay machine in addition to fair. After you reach your destination, you can put the ticket back in ticket machine & get your 1$ deposit back. So that the MRT ticket is getting reused. Isn't it amazing! I was happy to see one govt. practically care for saving & recycling resources! It is definitely the most sustainable transport system in Asia.
Singapore is proof of 'planning is key to sustainability'. Being a very small country area wise, they do not have enough natural resources. The power is generated on natural gas imported from Malaysia, the lack of enough natural source of drinking water & very small land area are the challenges in front of govt. for not only to make it sustainable city but also to survive self sufficiently.
But in Singapore they are already taking actions to be more self-sufficient & sustainable than any other city. The water is recycled to get ultra clean, high quality "new water" out of it. The 50% area covers already existing water catchment area & they are planning to increase water catchment area more to fulfill Singpore's water needs. Singapore is already investing in solar technology to make it more cost effective & to use it on large scale in future. The long-term plan of Sustainable Singapore 2050 & short-term Singapore Green plan 2012 include many practical sustainable projects like Sun City project to use solar technology, Deep Tunnel Sewerage System to recycle all of the used water , electric vehicles & recharging stations for electric vehicles in infrastructure.

Co incidentally when we were there, the same time World green building council conference was taking place in Singapore. We felt this place deserves to host such world class conferences while educating & displaying visitors a very good example of sustainability within there city.
But most importantly, the Singapore govt only is not taking steps ahead towards sustainability but also the people of Singapore are taking part in it. It is pleasant to see many people walking, cycling on busy roads in temp around 28 degrees. People do recycling of their domestic waste voluntarily.
Just one incident to share with you inline with this. When we were looking for a good restaurant to feast on famous Singaporean Chili Crab, while walking we were about to pass a man who was giving away some brochers outside a shopping complex. My friend who is residing in Singapore told me to ignore that man & walk straight ahead so that we woudn't take that paper (which was of no use to us) instead of taking it & keeping it with us till we find the next paper recycling bin. Suddenly I realised how the green habits are developed in residents in Singapore just by implementing right things in infrastructure!

My take on Enviro-CSR in Khaleej Times

2010-08-04T23:47:00.000-07:00

After BP's oil leak disaster, emptiness in so called "Corporate Social Responsibilities" of giant firms came in light.

Recently UAE's Khaleej Times contacted me to give my views about CSR, specially when it comes to environmental responsibilities. It is published in their 4th Aug issue, click to read full article. http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/theuae/2010/August/theuae_August151.xml&section=theuae&col=

Even though we can see many firms are not very focused on sensible CSR, I personally appreciate some of UAE's organisations & govt. departments like Environmental Agency Abu dhabi, Abu Dhabi Urban planning council, DEWA, Dubai Chamber of commerce for making good differences for environment. They are not doing things to decorate their CSR but they actually want to do something to save environment.

Finally, even if firms are changing their policies positively to be enviro-responsible, succes will always depend on the people working with the firms. Then why to wait for our organisations to take steps? We are all free to be socially & environmentally responsible independently!

Beautiful Summer in UAE

2010-06-20T05:00:00.000-07:00

As summer starts in UAE, many people start complaining. Of course the heat is unbearable in summer. But in May & start of June it is still okay. the evenings are not cool but you can go outdoors. If you are well equipped with your sunscreen, cap, goggles & bottle of water; you can give a try to go out in mo rings.

What people do in summer is over cool their houses, offices. Energy gets wasted & on top of it many starts having cold & cough. Sometimes you need to carry coat because it's too cold indoors, specially the cinema theaters!

But have we seen outside of our windows, during these months? What are the changes in nature?Just recently I realised that the dessert & nature in UAE is more beautiful during summer! While staring outside the window on the long journey from Abu Dhabi to Dubai, suddenly I observed the no. of birds flying across the road were more than normal. On Dubai- Abu Dhabi road, there are many trees (some are natural, most are planted). Those trees were full of nests of birds. Some trees were home to 4to 5 nests. The journey became more scenic than before. The other day on same road I observed the dates trees are full of dates, yellow- reddish bunches of dates were hanging low. The date season is started! Then I realised as they have abundant food available, birds are more in numbers.

The communities in Dubai are also full of birds, every day while going to office in morning & coming home in evening, I can see many birds flying all over in Discovery Gardens, a lush green community in Dubai where I stay. Thanks to the landscaping around. The problem of food & water for birds is solved. The birds can get water from water sprinklers installed everywhere in landscaping.

Governments in UAE have taken truely appreciable efforts to make new & sustainable habitats for not just people but birds & plants in dessert!

Abu Dhabi on Water Saving Quest!

2010-06-06T21:17:00.000-07:00

Today early morning I heard on radio that Abu Dhabi government is installing water saving devices in Tourist club area for free and my day started with a big smile!

As part of Heroes of the UAE, Abu Dhabi government, The Environmental Agency, Abu Dhabi (EAD) is going to install a simple water saver device in every tap, in every house, every work place in Emirate!

Water is very precious source, specially in this region where there is very little natural source of sweet water. There was always need for water saving in region & This most ambitious, far reaching water conservation camping in the world will definitely is answer to it! Many Congratulations to Abu Dhabi govt & EAD!!!

People are asked to co operate the water saver installer, who will come to your home or office & within some moments his work will be done without any mess.

- This tiny device is installed free of charge

- 30% of water will be saved & potentially 75 billion liters water will be saved for Emirate in a year

- Each household could see the drop of Dhs 100 in water bill per month

- Virtually no difference in water flow, no difference could be noticeable.

In first phase, started on May 27th 2010, water savers will be installed in 55,000 homes in tourist club area & in next 12 months all over Abu Dhabi Emirate

Heroes of the UAE Campaign

2010-05-31T23:30:00.000-07:00

When I was volunteering for EWS-WWF under Heroes of UAE campaign (2009-2010), I took part in many awareness activities like making people aware of this campaign, giving tips of energy & water saving, giving away energy saving bulbs, ask people to get involved in it & of course I took pledge & asked my friends and family for the same.

This campaign is started to make people in UAE aware of saving energy, water & resources.

The slogan of the camping gives a fairly good message & idea of campaign, "A sustainable UAE, every child's right"

This nation wide campaign is started by Environment Agency Abu Dhabi with EWS-WWF supported by Abu Dhabi Govt. If you visit heroes of the UAE site you will get a pretty good statistic of current usage of resources in UAE in problems section & in solutions sections tips to overcome the problems.

They started with making individuals take UAE specific practical pledge to save environment.

Ex. increase my room temperature by 2 degrees. or take showers instead of baths.

They asked the children first to take pledge & the campaign was spread in schools showing some very good photos of school heroes.

The energy heroes tell us the tips for saving energy & water heroes ask us to save water.

Recently they added corporate heroes, in which companies in UAE are getting involved. The companies are taking pledge to develop & implement measurable strategy to reduce carbon footprint, document the result achieved etc. There is a useful business toolkit for greening your workplace.

Don't forget to take pledge (and follow it), to become one of official UAE Heroes!

Khors, Lagoons & Mangrove forests in UAE

2010-05-20T23:37:00.000-07:00

On my way to work, every day I pass through 4 islands. Yas , Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi main island & finally Sowwah island. Rarely you get such a scenic journey on your way to office. All I see everyday is picture perfect clear sky, blue sea, mangroves, trees & bushes, birds and beautiful islands.
UAE is blessed with number of mangroves along it's coast. unfortunately now most of mangroves are under development. In recent years Environmental impact assessment is done & environmental management plant is implemented while developing near the natural reserves. Some of the mangroves are protected officially. Still question remains developing natural resources is good or bad?

Some typical arguments are always there in UAE, that it is a desert & development creates new habitats. In some case it is very true. Specially the newly developed communities in the dessert of Dubai are lush green round the year, where there was only sun & sand previously.

In the dessert of UAE, Mangroves are home to a different ecosystem since ages. The migrating birds take their halt in theses mangroves during winter.

Let's see Some benefits of mangroves in UAE
- Mangroves are natural habitat of spawning & cultivating ground for large no. of fish.
- Traditionally the trees & shrubs in mangroves are used for fire wood, housing material, charcoal etc.
- Mangroves increase capability to resist effects of cyclone & tidal waves
- Leaves from trees & shrubs are always good food for animals

In UAE 50 sq Km area is covered by mangroves. Many exclusive species in theses mangroves are about to extinguish. To name important mangrove colonies near shore islands & lagoons in UAE,

On west coast of UAE,
1. Ras al Khor- Dubai, Bird sanctuary

2. Many mangroves around Abu Dhabi main land & islands.

3. Ras al khaima- Rabanal, Beushell

4. Umm Al Quwain- Khor al Beidah

5. Khor kalba- Only mangrove on East Coast of UAE
While writing this article I remembered last year I watched documentary film "Marshes & Mangroves" by Animal Planet screening arranged by WWF-EWS. The documentary is focused on mangroves, marshes & wet land areas in world, rich biodiversity found there & how climate change is threatening these mangroves & their habitats. Do not miss to watch this documentary if you get a chance.

With vanishing mangroves the biodiversity is also vanishing. The mangroves are UAE's most significant biological ecosystems & we all need to protect it at least on individual basis!

Green Buildings!

2010-04-22T20:00:00.000-07:00

Hi Friends, it's been long time that I didn't write any post! We celebrated this year's biggest ever 'Earth hour' by walking near 'Burj Al Arab' but couldn't find time to post about it. The reason is I have started working on my first 'Green building' project! Conserving Environment & making awareness about it is not just passion & hobby for me now, it's my profession! Quite exciting!!

In this blog I never mentioned about Green buildings & LEED. This blog is specially created to make everybody aware of environment, irrespective of one's knowledge about this subject. So I never added any technical information here. But now as everybody is hearing about Green Buildings & have some funny misconception about it. it's time to talk about it!

Here is brief introduction to Green Buildings,
Theses buildings are made sustainable to environment & humans (constructing & occupying the building). These buildings are constructed to reduce adverse effect of buildings on environment & human health.

LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental design), developed by USGBC is a Green Building rating system. Based on certain criteria buildings are certified as 'Green building'. those criteria are,
1. Sustainable sites
2. Water efficiency
3. Energy
4. Materials
5. Environmental Quality

There are some other Green Building rating systems also, Ex. BREEAM, Estidama, Green Globe, Greenstar, Griha.

But again, even if the resources (energy, water etc) saving buildings (Green Buildings), energy saving vehicles, energy saving appliances are coming up all over the world; finally we are the one who will use them. So I feel the change should start from us. We all need to follow Green Living in our own way to save environment, get used to Green Habits & spread the awareness about it!

Here is the poster I made to encourage my collegues to follow Green Building requirements!

Recyling In Sharjah with Bee'ah

2010-03-01T13:00:00.000-08:00

Sharjah Buhaira Cornishe looks more beutiful than before, because Bee'ah keeps it clean!

When we used to live in Sharjah, Bee'ah recycling stations used to be integral part of our life. We used to recycle paper, plastic, tin regularly & sincerely...thanks to Beeah!

Bee'ah is a Arabic word for environment! The movement Beeah started in emirate of Sharjah for environment is really appreciable.

When you will enter Sharjah specially after Sharjah city center, you will start noticing waste recycling centers by Bee'ah on the side of roads. These recyclers facilitate to store paper, glass, plastic separately. All these segregated waste is collected and send to waste recycling plant based in Al Saj'ah, Sharjah. Bee'ah offers complete waste management. They have range of street cleaning, waste collection & management products under Tandeef services. They also do public awareness by launching some campaigns & arranging seminar.

I visited Bee'ah stand in biodiversity conference, their enthusiastic employees gave me above information & gifted a very beautiful cotton bag. I loved the quote painted on the bag from Bee'ah, "We care, Do you?"

Keep recycling!

In the Wadies of UAE!

2010-02-13T00:56:00.001-08:00

During the winter season in UAE, it's only perfect time to go outdoors and explore the rich environment and wildlife here!
Recently I have been to Wadies in Fujaira, Wadi AL Asima and Wadi Al Sidra-Sana. Wadi is valley in rocky mountains situated in East coast of UAE. During winter Dec-Feb rare raining occurs. This rain water gets collected in these wadies to form water pool. They have built dams in wadies to collect this rain water and use to for farms. While entering wadies we see many small farms owned by locals. They grow dates, vegetables etc. In middle part of wadi, where the main water pool location is, dense natural plantation is found.

They have built water tanks in these areas. As we travel further in wadi the trees become rare and wadi gets open in larger planes.

What I observed in Wadies :
Wadies are popular outdoors in UAE. So generally in this season many people visit wadies
- People always throw waste after their camping. I found plastic bottles, plastic bags, cans, BBQ coal etc in wadies.
- People also turn on loud music to have fun. which may disturb the wild life which people don't know that it exists.
- To visit wadi we need 4 wheel drive vehicle. but tourists take it just off road drive and they drive ruthlessly to scramble all small new plants and species in wadies.
- many people burn local trees to make campfire. thus they destroy trees which are already less in this region naturally.
- Natural Wadi pool was completely 'unclean'! cans, bottles, disposable glasses, cigarettes were floating in water. creating hazard to local fish species in wadi pool water.

On this back ground the work Fujaira Municipality, WWF-EWS are doing to conserve- clean up wadies & to make people aware about the local environment, flora fauna is very appreciable.

WWF- EWS & Fujaira municipality has protected a very popular & beautiful Wadi Wurayah since March 2009.

To know more or get involved visit,
http://uae.panda.org/what_we_do/projects2/2j/

To see the beautiful photos of Wadi Wurayah,
http://gulfnews.com/pictures/general/the-wonder-of-fujairah-s-wadi-wurayah-1.6383

Friends, now onwards whenever you will go for Wadi Bashing please think of conserving environment!

International Conference on Biodiversity Conservation in Arabian Penninsula, Sharjah

2010-02-08T08:56:00.000-08:00

Environment & Protected Area Authority, Government of Sharjah organised first International Conference on Biodiversity Conservation in Arabian Penninsula, Last week in American University of Sharjah. Many local & international scientists, conservationalists were invited to promote opportunities to strenghten and extend biodiversity network on Arabian peninsula.
Many important topics like protection of habitat, managment of protected areas, regional scope & challenges, biodiversity conservation assesment etc were covered in this conference.

As a volunteer for EWS-WWF, I got chance to attented this conference. I was representing EWS-WWF in exhibition of conservation specialist organisations. I enjoyed the work of spreading awareness about UAE's wildlife, need of protection and conservation and projects handeled by EWS. As part of Heroes Of UAE Campaign, we were giving away energy saving bulbs and awareing people about energy conservation in our day to day routine for protecting environment.

2010- International Year of Biodiversity!

2010-02-06T08:41:00.000-08:00

The United Nations declared 2010 as International Year of Biodiversity. It is a celebration of life on the earth and value of biodiversity for our life.

To celebrate the International Biodiversity Year, intiatives are taken through out the world to take direct action to reduce the constant loss of biological diversity worldwide.

To take part in such events in your country visit, http://www.countdown2010.net/

Save Biodiversity!

My experience of Clean Up UAE Campaign

2009-12-15T22:34:00.000-08:00

Thousands of UAE nationals and expats from all background and cultures gathered for Clean Up UAE event on Saturday morning. The campaign was held in all 7 emirates at around 70 sites. Everybody was wearing Clean Up UAE logo T-shirt and cap. we gathered near the clean-up site. After a worm welcome by scouts and guides we started with our work in groups. All necessary gears like hand gloves and garbage bag was provided. The site selection was good for the campaign as there was lot of garbage in the sand :). Specially glass, bottle caps, teens, plastic was included in garbage. the slight drizzle also took part in the campaign to clean up UAE!

For an NGO it is really hard to provide gears, food and drinks to thousands of participants and mainly to get such no. of volunteers to take part in clean up campaign. But EEG organised and managed it well.

On my part I worked hard and collected about 4kg of garbage containing glass, metal and plastic all non-decomposable waste. I personally felt if some instructions about classification of waste and which is important to collect to clean the site was necessary. Because some people were not clearing glass but wooden sticks which should be vice-versa. Also the garbage bags given to each one of us was plastic bag, instead better if it would have been paper bag!

But at the end of day everybody present there came with good intention of cleaning up and the campaign was real success. I am happy I was part of this campaign!

I signed the petition to Seal the Deal!

2009-12-09T14:05:00.000-08:00

The UN-lead Seal The Deal campaign aims to galvanize political will and public support for reaching a comprehensive global climate agreement in Copenhagan in December 2009.

www.sealthedeal2009.org

Clean Up UAE Campaign 2009!

2009-12-09T09:00:00.000-08:00

Emirates Environmental Group, EEG started Clean Up UAE campaign in 2002. Thousands of UAE residents volunteer for this campaign. They clean up a specific area to show their concern to protect and clean environment.

It inspires people to be more responsible about their own actions, habits and practices.

In first year 4,500 volunteers participated in the campaign. Last year the no. was 23,000, the residents from all 7 emirates. People from all sectors students, individuals and organisations volunteer for the evnt.This year around 25,000 volunteers are expected to join hands to clean up UAE on Dec 12th. I am happy that I will be one of them!

Let's Clean Up UAE!

Wildlife Conservation from your home!

2009-11-29T02:58:00.000-08:00

We can conserve our wildlife even from home without going in jungles and taking out lot of time from our busy routine! While doing the same we can sit back and enjoy the view of colourful birds, butterflies in out back yard or balcony! We don't have to do much to get this pleasure. Birds and small animals need only shelter, food and fresh water!

- Even a small yard can be landscaped to attract bird, butterflies, beneficial insects & small animals.

- Plant local trees, shrubs, plants in your backyard or balcony of your apartment. This can provide food & shelter to these wildlife. Check with local nurseries for local plants

- Freshwater: Make watering site in your backyard or keep water container in balcony for birds and don't forget to refill it! This is very helpful for birds specially in summer. The watering pan should be shallow. In garden it should be about 2 to 3 feet wide and about 3 inches deep.

Birds are attracted by gently moving sound of water. hanging dripping bucket above the birdbath can attract birds. before refilling always empty and rinse the birdbath.

- Nesting boxes can provide shelter to birds we can hang or fix it in our small garden.

- We can add feeder to improve habitat. We get different types of feeders -tray feeder, tube feeder etc in market.

- Dead drying trees can be home to birds, plants, fungi etc. Consider leaving them as it is unless they cause any hazard. Use old logs & stumps in garden & landscape.

- Don't use pesticides for your plants they are pollutants. instead you can use

- Buy sustainable fish.

- You can creat pond and keep fish in it. It needs little maintanance but will add beauty to your garden.

Inspiration & Credit (Photos): Lucinda Manouch, "My Garden" blog

Recycling Locations in UAE

2009-11-18T02:48:00.000-08:00

I have uploaded recycling location finder on this blog at the bottom. But it covers only US, Canada & Japan. As there are recycling stations in UAE and I am using it since long time I always felt there should be directory to these recyclers.

Finally, today I got this google map on which most of the recyclers in UAE are pined. Visit this link to find recycling locations in UAE, http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=100927200895987292381.00046f46c36e3b03486bd&z=8

These recyclers are kept and maintained by EEG (Emirates Environmental Group). This map does not contain the recyclers kept by other NGOs or Institutes like Beeah in Sharjah. But still it very helpful to all the residence in UAE.

About Emirates Environmental Group

Emirates Environmental Group is voluntary, NGO devoted to protecting environment through means of education, action programs and community involvement. EEG is actively encouraged and supported by concern local and federal government agencies. It is first environmental NGO in world to be ISO 14001 certified and only organisation in UAE with accredited status in the United Nations Convention to Combating Desertification (UNCCD).

Conserving Wildlife!

2009-11-05T09:52:00.000-08:00

These many days we were talking about energy saving techniques, recycling in our Green Living. After I attend this workshop by EWS-WWF, I learnt perspective for conserving wildlife.

Let's see how our small careless action can threaten wildlife and how each individual can take part in conserving wild life.

Threats faced by Wild life in water resources (i.e Seas, Rivers, Lakes, natural pools, *Wadi etc)

- Fishing & Diving: anchors can damage coral reefs
- Fishing endangered species: High prices & demand can lead fishermen to target rare species
- Coastal & offshore development: dredging can damage reefs, alters habitats
- Overfishing: fish are caught when they are too small and in numbers which the populations can not sustain
- Throwing rubbish: Can be eaten by turtles or other species, which then gets stuck in their digestive system & kills them

- Red tide: seasonal phenomenon possibly accelerated by high nutrient loads in coastal water
- Oil pollution: tankers waiting in seawater to enter the gulf occasionally wash out their tanks, resulting in dangerous oil pollution along the coast.
- Toxic waste: Can pollute water and damage animals. Animals become trapped by plastic
-Introduction of non-native i.e. 'alien' species: compete directly with native wildlife for food & space
- Excess ground water pumping: cause drying up water resources like wadi pool.

*Wadi- It's Arabic word. It's a valley , gully or stream bed that filled with water from rain or oasis.

Threats faced by Wild life in mountains and forests

- Quarrying: Result in habitat loss & fragmentation
- Hunting: large mammals traditionally hunted for food are now needlessly hunted for sport. population of these animals is decreasing at alarming rate
- Throwing rubbish: toxic waste can pollute water, damage trees and animals. Animals can eat the rubbish which may be harmful to them.
- Introducing alien species: Can compete with local species for food and space.
- Developments: Cause loss of habitat in region

Threats faced by Wild life in Dessert

- Off road driving: burrows can be destroyed, animals & plants can be damaged by vehicles.
- Hunting
- Throwing rubbish
- Leaving pets in dessert wildlife
- Development: Large development in dessert leads to loss of habitat

Wildlife Conservation tips when you are outdoors

-Take your rubbish home with you
-Do not realise any pet in wild
-When driving off road stick to tracks, do not disturb wildlife
-Take care not to damage coral while swimming
-Do not remove or damage any wildlife
-Do not damage plants or burn trees
-Don't use plastic, use paper or clothe
-If toilets are not available find location at least 100ft away from water resource. dig deep whole and cover up your deposit
-Don't drink aerated drinks. It's not healthy and cans, bottles are huge waste problem

WE ALL CAN PROTECT OUR WILDLIFE!!!

Volunteering EWS-WWF...

2009-10-27T08:42:00.000-07:00

Hi there! I hope you all are keeping up with our Green Living and saving some energy!

Recently I got opportunity to volunteer for Emirates Wildlife Society- WWF for a awareness program. Today Conservation officer Emma Smart form EWS arranged this workshop for preparation of this program. It was great to meet people, other volunteers who truly believe in conserving environment and give their bit for it! I will post regarding this programme later as it is still under construction!

But I thought I should give you some information about EWS-WWF.

EWS, The Emirates Wildlife Society in association with WWF, World Wide Fund for Nature is non-governmental organisation working to promote Nature Conservation in UAE since 2001. EWS-WWF aims to work with people and institutions within UAE and region to conserve bio-diversity and promote sustainable living through education and conservation initiatives.

The mandate of EWS-WWF covers:

- Species

- Habitats

- Climate Change

-Ecological Footprints

-Natural resources.

After Long Time...

2009-10-12T04:27:00.000-07:00

Hi friends!!!!....It's been loooong time.
In these days I was too busy with my work and was feeling bad that I can't get time to update my blog. But today, though I have not studied or researched enough; I decided to write a general post to give a restart to my blog writing!

In last month I saw 2 documentary films arranged by 'Heroes of UAE' & EWS-WWF along with Animal Planet. One was 'Fresh Water' and other 'Marshes & Mangroves'. The films were about the impact of climate change on animal populations around the world. These films were very informative and educating! I loved them & I decided to join voluntary work for Heroes of UAE team. After screening we were gifted the energy saving lights. It was a very good initiative in terms of awareness. I saw many parents with theirs kids for these screening and the good no. of people present there were indicating their interest in sustainable environment.

Now, Let me tell you about greening my workplace.
- I found about 200 waste visiting cards of a previous employee. Instead of throwing them away I am using them to make list of tasks or giving some notes to my colleagues. I took some of them to home to make grocery list :).
- The blank-side of waste printouts I am using to reprint the sample files or to do rough work.
- The pages which are completely waste after reuse I am keeping aside so that I can recycle them in recyclers kept on Cornish.
- The waste water in my bottle I am throwing in plants kept in my office.

Some things I still need to convince.
- keep one recycling bean for papers in office.
- Energy saving by introducing the system of turning off unnecessary lights.

Waiting for your Green suggestions...

Energy Efficiency standards for appliances.

2009-06-25T02:14:00.000-07:00

Before buying any electric or energy consuming appliances we need to check, does it save energy? Is it energy efficient? However, how to check that? Here come the energy efficiency standards to help us decide our green appliance.

Worldwide there are different energy efficiency standards, ratings or labels. Some countries have their own standards some countries are following standards set by other countries. Most of them are similar. Some are voluntary, some are mandatory.

Therefore, here is the list of most of these standards & labels according to their country of origin. If you want to buy product made in ‘country’ then check out energy rating given in front of it.

Made in India - BEE star ratings (Buro of Energy Efficiency, India)

Made In US - Energy Star Label, California Energy commission

Made in Australia- Energy Star rating
Made In UK - Energy saving recommended certification

Made in Germany- Blue angel, Nordic Swan

European Union- Energy plus, EU Eco Label, the Group for Energy Efficient Appliances (GEEA)

Made in Japan- Top runner label

Made in Singapore- Energy Efficincy rating, NAE (National Environment Agency)

In Asian market, the China Energy Conservation Project is expected to issue standards for electronics. Korea's voluntary Energy Saving Office Equipment & Home Electronics Program is important.
Other worldwide Energy efficiency labels are as follows

So check out these labels on the appliances before you buy any!!!

(Send me energy efficiency logo which is not listed above)

World Environment Day 2009- 5th June

2009-06-04T00:54:00.000-07:00

World Environment day (WED) was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972. WED is hosted every year by different city and commemorated with international exposition through the week of June 5. The United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP), also created in 1972, uses WED to stimulate awareness of environment and enhance political attention and public action.

On this day individuals, non-government organisations, community and youth groups, business, industry and the media
organise activities to renew their commitments to protect and develop environment. they organise activities such as clean up campaigns, tree planting, colorful street rallies, green concert, essay and photo competitions in schools and recycling efforts.
To know more about the World Environment Day please visit the link,
http://www.unep.org/wed/2009/english

World Environment Day Themes for past years:

The theme for 2005 World Environment day was "Green Cities" and the slogan was "Plan for Planet!".
The topic for WED 2006 was Dessert and Desertification and the slogan was " Don't desert dry lands"
The topic for WED 2007 was "Melting Ice - a Hot Topic?" During International Polar year.
The host for 2008 WED was New Zealand. With the main international celebrations schedule for Wellington. The slogan for 2008 was "CO2, Kick the Habit!"

World Environment Day 2009:

The theme for WED 2009 is 'Your Planet Needs You-UNite to combat Climate Change'. It reflects the urgency for nations to agree on a new deal at crucial climate convention meeting in Copenhagen some 180 days later in the year, and links with overcoming poverty and improved management of forests.
This year's host is Mexico, which reflects the growing role of the Latin American country in fight against climate change, including its growing participation in the carbon markets.
Mexico is also a leading partner in UNEP's Billion Tree Campaign. The country, with the support of it's President and people, has spearheaded the pledging and planting of some 25 per cent of trees under the campaign. accounting for around 1.5 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, the country is demonstrating its commitment to climate change on several fronts.

To celebrate World Environment Day, Use Less, Act More! Daily Do Something!

Waste Management – Reduce Reuse Recycle!

2009-05-11T03:58:00.000-07:00

Waste management is very important stage in Green living. In our Green habits, we followed some tips to reduce our waste. Now we know how to reduce garbage at our home & office. We have found out how things can be reused for different applications once their primary use is served. Finally, if we are throwing anything as waste we take a minute and think can we recycle it? Therefore, we recycle papers, plastics, metal, glass etc.
Now we need to be keener about recycling our waste. Generally, our Garbage bin contains 35% Organic waste, 30 % Paper, 12% Construction, 9% Plastic, 6% Metal, 5% Other, 3% Glass. Let us see how we can save energy by recycling the waste.

Recycling Facts

Aluminum

- Recycled aluminum saves 95 percent energy versus virgin aluminum; recycling of one aluminum can saves enough energy to run a TV for three hour.
- Recycled aluminum reduces pollution by 95 percent.
- Four pounds of bauxite are saved for every pound of aluminum recycled.
- Enough aluminum is thrown away to rebuild our commercial air fleet four times every year.

Glass

- Recycled glass saves 50 percent energy versus virgin glass.
- Recycling of one glass container saves enough energy to light a 100-watt bulb for four hours.
- Recycled glass generates 20 percent less air pollution and 50 percent less water pollution.
- One ton of glass made from 50 percent recycled materials saves 250 pounds of mining waste.
- Glass can be reused an infinite number of times; over 41 billion glass containers are made each year.

Paper

- Recycled paper saves 60 percent energy versus virgin paper.
- Recycled paper generates 95 percent less air pollution: each ton saves 60 pounds of air pollution.
- Recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees and 7,000 gallons of water.
- Every year, enough paper is thrown away to make a 12-foot wall from New York to California.
- Production of recycled paper uses 80 percent less water, 65 percent less energy and produces 95 percent less air pollution than virgin paper production.
- If offices throughout the country increased the rate of two-sided photocopying from the 1991 figure of 20 percent to 60 percent, they could save the equivalent of about 15 million trees.

Plastic

- Plastic milk containers are now only half the weight that they were in 1960.
- If we recycled every plastic bottle we used, we would keep two billion tons of plastic out of landfills.
- According to the U.S. EPA, recycling a pound of PET saves approximately 12,000 BTUs.

Waste Management Steps

Once you have reduced your waste and made a plan, it is important to decide the disposal method you are going to use.

Step 1: Separate the waste depends on material. We have to make different recycle bins for Paper, Plastic, Glass, Metal etc.
Examples:
· Paper recycling bin will contain white paper, colored paper, cardboard, office mail, magazines/catalogs, etc.
· Plastic recycling would have bin will contain each type of plastic: #1-7
· Metal recycling bin will contain all metals, tins etc.

Though it is, better to further more separation of these waste like separate bins for plastic #1-7 or separate bins for aluminum and steel. This will add more prices to the waste and will reduce time at final stage of actual recycling. However, it might create space problem as well as increase time for classifying the waste and then throw in separate bins.

In a company, it is easy to make different bins because you can allot a space as garbage area. Alternatively, you can locate different bins at different location and inform your employees about it. In office if you are, making different bins for different material then you need to make it compulsory for employees to separate garbage. For papers, you can keep shredders and make sure all employees should throw waste papers in shredder at the end of day.

At home, we can make space for garbage bins in balcony, terrace or bathrooms or hallway or even space under kitchen sink. For paper collection, it is not very dirty so we can collect papers for a month and then recycle it. The waste from kitchen or waste from vegetables, food etc we can go for compost in our personal garden or building garden for all. We get low cost compost bin in market or even we can make our own compost. If you are living in apartment, you can get involve the building management to allocate the garbage area where different bins for metal, glass and plastic can be kept and can be recycled once in a week. Building management can request local authority to place a recycler in nearby location.

Step 2: Find the recycler in surrounding

Here the local authority comes in picture. In some countries like US, Japan, UK, Canada, UAE there are recyclers placed by government in public areas. The interesting thing is these countries have carbon footprint on quite higher level than the required. In most of the developing countries there is no recycler system but there people don’t waste things.

In overpopulated country like India, there is no such system available. There is no recycler in public areas. Only in some metro cities, you can find recyclers. However, there is a very good system since many years, people collect the papers, metals, glass, plastic, clothes, electrical appliances, electronics or even furniture broken or good condition and sell it to people called kabadiwala/ bhangarwala once in a month. These kabadi people act like a recycler. They collect these items and sell it to plastic, metal, glass, paper, furniture-manufacturing companies as row material. Therefore, if you collect your waste you can save energy and even earn money. Many people even do compost in their gardens or fields. People are keen not to waste things. May be this is a major reason why carbon footprint in India is less than what is required.

If there are, no recyclers kept by government find out some organizations, which recycle the products. Sometimes some shops have recycling junctions like some electronics shops accept mobiles, electronic waste. Electrical appliances shops accept electrical waste, acid batteries. Motor garage accepts tires, automobiles waste.
If there are things at your home, you want to get rid of it like books, clothes, spectacles etc. instead of recycling them you can give away to needy people or to some charity organizations, which help the people in war or flood or earthquake.

Step 3: Improve recycling process.

To reduce contamination and improve recycling efficiency, wash and squash!
Wash
· Scrape out any food remains/pour away excess liquid.
· Rinse the container (use your washing-up water)
· Don't put recyclate in the dishwasher – no need to waste resources to achieve an unnecessary level of cleanliness!

Squash
· Crush metal cans.
· Squeeze plastic bottles flat to expel as much air as possible.

These steps help prevent contamination and reduce the volume of recyclate, making collections more energy efficient.
Removing the caps and lids from plastic containers is more important. Plastic caps are often made from a different polymer type, and therefore have a different melting point when compared to the plastic used for the bottle itself.

Step 4: Analyze your waste.

To better understand the kind of materials that enters and leaves your home, office or school, consider conducting a waste audit. Set a span of time like a week or a month, and separate your waste categories. Weigh the different kinds of material flows that go out the door (landfill waste, organic compost, aluminum, recyclable plastic, reusable material, etc.). Design a “material recovery” program that minimizes the amount going to the landfill. This is a great exercise to do with kids so that they will understand waste management and it’s importance.

To know more on waste management please visit the following sites

http://earth911.com/
http://www.recyclenow.com/
http://www.recycling-guide.org.uk/
http://kids.niehs.nih.gov/recycle.htm
http://www.thinkgreen.com/home

REDUCE REUSE RECYCLE!

It’s 39th Earth Day today!

2009-04-21T23:53:00.000-07:00

Earth Day is celebrated to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment. It was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in in 1970 and is celebrated in many countries every year. This date is Spring in the Northern Hemisphere and Autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. The United Nations celebrates an Earth Day each year on the March equinox, which is often March 20, a tradition which was founded by peace activist John McConnell in 1969.

Lot of programs get arranged all over the world. To find the events & campaigns visit, http://www.earthday.net/earthday2009
http://earthday.envirolink.org/guide6.html
http://www.earthday.gov/
http://www.epa.gov/earthday/

http://www.energystar.gov/ This website provides tips on how to save money and protect the environment through energy efficient products and practices. ENERGY STAR is a joint program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Energy.

Recently I came across a site on which you get information about waste management & recycling. If you want to recycle specific waste ex. Electronics, CDs, glass etc; you have to type your location & type of waste it gives you nearby recycling location. Presently on this site recycling locations in US, Canada & Japan are given. I have requested them to create the country option for UAE so that I can feed the recycling locations. There are plenty of recycling locations in UAE, near to Parks, Malls, Creek, Cornish, beaches. I have uploaded the quick window to find recycling locations from same site, please scroll down to the bottom of blog for it.

Some quick ideas to celebrate Earth Day,
-Collect your household waste & recycle it
- Clean up Community Park, beach, lakes and rivers
- Plant trees & vegetation
- Pledge some of our Green habits
- Spread the awareness of Earth Day
- Make every day earth day!

Be A Green Citizen!

2009-04-02T00:13:00.000-07:00

Following green living is a real achievement! We know now how to make our home & office green. We believe that one person can make difference! Now we need to become Green citizen!

· If you notice any water leakage, broken pipe or open hydrants when you are out, or any electric short circuit, electric wire not in place or any source of water pollution , land pollution, air pollution report it to relevant local government authority, so that action can be taken to repair the faults and water or electricity can be saved.
· Share conservation tips with family and friends to help spread awareness about Green living.
· Teach your house cleaner, cook, car wash person, security guard, office-boys energy saving techniques. They need to know this. Do not forget to mention that these energy saving techniques are going to save some money for them.
· If anybody on road or in your neighborhood is wasting unnecessary energy say water or electricity etc, please do not hesitate to tell him or her about it in friendly manner.
· If you get any opportunity of presentation or speech in front of any audience say in business, community, schools or even family /friends get together please give some of your favorite green tips to audience and tell them proudly how green you are!

UAE's Gulf News supported Green Living!

2009-03-28T23:58:00.000-07:00

I am glad to announce that many people are supporting Green Living! The response to this blog within 2 months is heartwarming (not global warming ;-)..)!

UAE’s leading newspaper Gulf News featured a story on this blog, published today (29th March 2009). Link to the article in Gulf news about blog- http://archive.gulfnews.com/nation/General/10299425.html Or http://www.citigroup.com/uae/gcb/comm_services/images/press_clips02.pdf
Gulf News appreciated the Green Habits and Green Living approach. I would like to thank Gulf News for the acknowledgement of my efforts!

Many people are writing to me to show their support. My request is to please comment or suggest on the blog so that other people also can see your words. Your Green suggestions are always welcome!

It's Earth-Hour Today!

2009-03-28T00:39:00.000-07:00

It’s Earth-Hour today!The countdown is about to end.
To support Earth-Hour we have to switch off all lights at 8.30 pm wherever we are! We need to spread awareness of Earth-hour wherever possible Office, friends, family, schools, local authority etc. I have already informed most of my friends and family about Earth-Hour.
During Earth Hour 2008, lights dimmed at Sydney’s Opera House, Rome’s Coliseum, New York’s Empire State Building, and San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. Even Google’s homepage went black. In total, more than 50 million people participated in Earth Hour last year.
Visit http://www.earthhour.org/home/ for more details.

Earth Hour 2009 will be even bigger, with some of the world’s largest cities, including Bangkok, Chicago, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, London, Manila, Mexico City, New York City, Paris, Singapore, Sydney and Toronto joining WWF in turning off lights. Tens of millions of people around the world will demonstrate concern about the future of the planet by doing something simple yet remarkable - they will turn off their lights for one hour.

In Dubai, a lantern parade is going to take place from iconic Burj Al Arab to mark Earth Hour. http://www.gulfnews.com/Nation/Environment/10201111.html. Nevertheless, as we are staying far away it is not wise to spend petrol for Earth-Hour! Several other companies and organisations are going to take part. Last year Dubai was first Arab city to join the movement.

My Plans for Earth Hour-
I remember last year we religiously switched off all lights, equipments even A/C and TV during Earth Hour and called up friends and family and told them ‘switch off your lights quickly!’ This year we have planned for it and I would like to share it with everyone here. My husband and I will go out, have a walk around during earth hour of-course switching off all lights in our home. After coming back we will have a romantic candlelight light dinner (to prolong earth-hour). We already follow Green living by reducing unnecessary energy consumption. However, today on earth hour we will have dinner for which fuel will not be required, special menu for the dinner! Thus, we have planned to cut off energy use for not just hour but for whole evening.
Happy Earth-Hour to you all!!!

New Carbon Footprint Calculator

2009-03-24T08:41:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody, I came across a very useful carbon footprint calculator. You will find the new calculator at the bottom of this page. Before, there was a CO2 calculator for vehicles on this blog. However, this new CO2 calculator is quite proper and more systematic covered all carbon usage in our life! It is a good measure to check how green you are!
There are options to calculate your carbon footprint for house, car, bike, flight, public transport and secondary. When I calculated my carbon footprint, it came 2.3 tones /month. The average footprint of UAE people is 37 tones/ month. Thanks to Green Living that I save that much energy than other people in UAE! The average for the industrial nations is about 11 tones. The average worldwide carbon footprint is about 4 tones. The worldwide target to combat climate change is 2 tones. Now my target is to reduce my carbon footprint up to 2 or less than that!

Make your Workplace Green!

2009-03-22T01:46:00.000-07:00

We spend most of our time in offices. That is why if we want to follow Green living, our office also should be Green. Here are some techniques to make your office green.
- Waste papers should go into shredder or recycler.
- Before recycling, use blank side of waste papers to do rough work.
- Don’t print or copy if not required. - Make compulsory printing on both sides of paper and double-sided photocopy.
- Maintain different bins for different recyclable materials. Give importance to waste management - Use Coffee mugs and glass instead of plastic cups. Consider gifting all employees coffee mugs and glass on which company logo is printed. - Remind staff to turn off lights or terminals.
- To save electricity, put computers, printers, copiers and fax machines in standby or sleep mode after about 20 minutes of inactivity. The shorter the period, the more energy is saved.
- During lunchtime, tea-coffee breaks, meetings turn off lights and A\Cs of your workplace.
- Make your websites green. Background black and text white. If background is black, it consumes less energy.
- Instead of taking elevators use stairs. You will save energy and have exercise too!
- Avoid keeping unnecessary extra equipments, share as much as you can in between each other to reduce energy consumption.
- Every day before leaving for home, checkout you have switched off all equipments you use.
- Provide task lightings instead of lighting up whole office room.
- Promote day lighting in offices.

- Reduce use of toilet papers
- Introduce water efficient taps or half-flush toilets.
- If there is any leakage in office, toilets treat it immediately.
- If you have half-used bottle of water lying around the office, use it to water the plants in or around office.
- When it is weekend check all equipments computers, copiers, projectors, fax machines, coffee maker, kettle, microwave etc are switched off and unplugged. Also, make sure all taps are rightly closed, not dripping.
- Try not to give car to everybody. Arrange transport for employees so that instead of separate vehicle they will share one vehicle.
- Hold a contest among employees with a prize for the best ideas for reducing waste and cutting energy consumption in your company’s daily operations.
- Make No Smoking policy in office.
- Award a green employee every month
- Organize tree plantation program for employees around and in office
- Lastly, if any co-worker or even cleaner in your office is unaware of energy conservations, aware those by telling green tips.

Here is special poster I made, which we use in our office...

Wipe Out Waste Campaign in UAE

2009-03-15T00:20:00.000-07:00

In UAE, a local paper Gulf News has started a campaign recently 'Wipe Out Waste'
And residents are supporting this campaign by reducing wastes in their regular routine.
There are some interesting articles explaining how to wipe out wastes. After reading those articles I find it is in line with my Green Living campaign! So I am also a supporter of Wipe Out Waste campaign by Gulf News, and I'll follow zero waste lifestyle! Below is given link to Gulf news online paper.
http://www.gulfnews.com/indepth/wipe_out_waste/index.html

UAE govt. has already declared to build green buildings is compulsory. The authority of water and electricity of Dubai (DEWA) has issued some energy saving tips for residents (I found the booklet in Global Village, and I am quite impressed by seeing UAE oriented energy saving tips which can be used in everyday routine). Last year under Go Green campaign, Gulf news urged to 'say no to plastic bags'. They gifted jute bags to all their subscribers, the bags are really good looking and useful. (But people are still using plastic bags in supermarket). I think cheap jute/ cloth/ paper bags is the solution, because in market those green bags are above AED 30!
UAE really needs to go green, one gets a real high life here, spending more energy and heavy on pocket, which means no saving (in any way ;)..).
Good to see that Local governments, news papers, many local organisations, businesses and even residents of UAE are going GREEN!

Green Habits

2009-02-09T23:14:00.000-08:00

How to save WATER

· Over 50% of water used in house takes place in the bathroom. Toilet uses around 27%, showers 17%, taps 8% and baths 2%
· While taking bath instead of filling the bathtub and take a lavish bath, we can take quick showers
· At start, water is not hot so we can collect cold water in bucket and use it to water plants or clean the floor or washroom.
· During shower while applying soap or shampoo, we can close the tap and avoid running water.
· While shaving , brushing teeth close the tap
· During hand wash or face wash as we apply soap and rub the hands or face we can close the tap
· If possible, replace tap filters and shower heads around the house with water flow reducer. They are inexpensive, easy to install, and cuts water consumption from 10- 15 liters to 2 liters. Water flow reducer on taps save 50-70 % of water
· For washing machine, every time checking the water level depend on load is necessary. Remember on average washing machine uses 40 gallons water per load!
· We can collect a week's laundry and then run washing machine instead of frequent cycles
· In kitchen while washing pot, we can close the tap while applying soap.
· While washing vegetable and fruits instead of washing them in running water, wash them in collected water in pot and then rinse
· While defrosting frozen meat or food don't use running water. Instead defrost overnight in fridge or use microwave or best is trying naturally defrosting it.
· if you need to throw ice cubes or ice formed in fridge drop them in house plant
· In gardens use organic mulching around them to help plants retain moister and reduce evaporation
· Instead of a hose, drip irrigation to water the garden. A hose can release up to 10 gallons of water/ minute. Keep on checking any leak in irrigation system.
· Try to use local plants to minimize the problem of extra watering and specific soil need.
· Water roots, not leaves. Watering leaves increases loss of water in evaporation.
· Use some waste water from kitchen, laundry to water the plants.
· wash your pet on lawns so that the grass get watered automatically
· Use brooms to clean balconies, driveway, and sidewalks instead of washing it off.
· Most important we can reduce the flow rate of water coming to our home at main control valve; it will automatically reduce the amount of running water.

Regularly check if any LEAK is there in any water pipe. If it is there repair it immediately. A leaky toilet can waste 200 gallons water /day and leaky faucets can waste up to 2,700 gallons water/ year!

How many gallons of water I alone can save?

· If we reduce shower time by 2 minutes 150 gallons water/month will be saved = 1800 gallons / year
· While shaving if one closes tap 100 gallons of water/ week will be saved=4800 gallons/year
· Regular tap use about 2.5 gallons of water per minute. While brushing teeth, hand wash and face wash water saved will be approximately= 5000 gallon/year
· While washing dishes approximately water saved=5000 gallons/ year

Therefore, just by small change in habits one person can save minimum 16,600 gallons of water per year!

How to save ELECTRICITY

· Many people in UAE used A/Cs in winter. Therefore, if weather is good then we can avoid A/C and save some energy. It is even good for health
· During summer we can keep A/C control on 24 degrees centigrade instead of 20 degrees and save energy by avoiding over cooling
· While leaving home we need to check if A/C is off. Many people leave A/C on just to cool the house when nobody is at home!
· When A/C is on be sure that all windows and doors are closed properly. If the room is not properly sealed A/C will take more energy to cool
· Clean A/C vents and replace A/C filters to ensure A/C consumes less energy
· When we are working in one room lights in other rooms must be turned off
· During daytime use natural DAYLIGHT
· Try to use energy saver lights, compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs) where possible instead of incandescent lamps. We can use energy savers in lamps and mood-lighting also. CFLs use about one-quarter of the energy and last up to 10 times longer than regular incandescent lamps.
· Use task lighting; put your light where you need it most instead of brightening the whole room. Ex. table lamps, study lamps
· Make sure different switches for different lights instead of a single switch for multiple lights
· Dust light bulbs regularly. Dirty and greasy light bulbs can reduce light output by 10 %!
· Install dimmers in areas like dining room, bedroom. Light that is dimmed by 15% reduces energy consumption by 15%.
· Many people forget to switch off lights and exhaust in toilets.
· Unplug electronic devices and chargers when not in use. These devices use energy even if they are not in use but plugged in. It is estimated that in the average home, 40% of electricity is consumed while home electronic devices are turned off and just plugged in.
· Make sure you unplug your mobile charger when not in use. Only 5% of energy is used to charge the mobile, the rest is wasted leaving charger plugged in.
· Switching on and off very frequently consumes more energy. So if you are going to another room and coming back in 2-3 minutes then no need to switch lights off.
· If you are watching TV then other appliances like computers, CD players to be turned off. Don't turn on too many appliances at same time if you really don't need each one of them
· While washing clothes you can skip dryer cycle and can use solar energy to dry your clothes! 15% energy will be saved!
· Many times, we heat water and somehow keep it as it is and again heat it. so try to use hot water (bath or in kitchen wherever) immediately to avoid reheating
· Don't use water heater in summer. Water gets naturally heated in summers
· Regularly set your refrigerator temperature according to seasons. In winter, you don't need very low temperature in your fridge. Don't keep your fridge too cold
· Clean your fridge regularly and get rid of frost and ice formed. This frost and formed ice increases consumption of energy
· Keep the refrigerator full if possible. Surprisingly, it takes less energy to cool a full refrigerator or freezer than empty one. However, don’t over load your fridge.
· Never keep hot food directly in fridge, instead keep it to cool naturally and then keep in fridge
· Close the door of fridge properly ever time you use it. If door is not getting closed properly repair the fault immediately
· While going on vacation switch off all appliances and unplug the wires.
· If you are planning to buy new electronic appliance go for Energy Star rated one. They are energy efficient
· Switch your laptop to power saver mode
· LCD monitors are 66% more energy efficient than normal CRTs.
· Every day while going to/from your office or apartment, take stairs instead of elevators. You'll save energy and can control your belly as well!

Don't forget EARTH HOUR is on 29Th March! But you can actually keep following it throughout the year!!!

How to save FUEL

· If we pressure cook some items instead of boiling like rice, dals, potato then less gas (fuel) will be used
· The gas flow rate can be reduced at control valve so as to reduce the use
· Try to minimize the use of your vehicle. If we walk regularly, then fuel will be saved and in addition, Gym fees will be saved too!
· Instead of using your own vehicle, public transport can be used whenever possible.
· While going to office try to share vehicle give lifts, so that no of cars will be less on road. Fuel will be saved and you can help reduce Traffic too!
· Long walk is better than Long Drive. Experience it! (Don't forget sunscreen, water bottle, cap, goggle, appropriate clothes....if it's summer morning or evening)

How to save PAPER

· At your home keep a separate garbage bag for papers and put them in shredder or recyclers
· try to use less tissue papers
· In kitchen, you can use napkins instead of kitchen tissue papers.
· Instead of daily news papers you can buy it on weekend and everyday you can read newspaper online
· The papers which are used at one side the other side is blank. These papers can be used as rough papers.
· Before throwing envelops, invitation cards, grocery bills, receipts, post-its you can use the back side (if it's empty) for shopping and grocery list!
· If you are throwing old diaries, notebooks take out all blank pages. Those can be used.

DON'T THROW ANY PAPER, RECYCLE IT!

How to save PLASTIC

· Say no to carry bags at supermarket!
· At some applications, plastic bags are unavoidable, that time try to avoid unnecessary bags.
· Fruits and vegetable bags from supermarket or those unavoidable carry bags can be used as garbage bags. We can avoid black trash bags.
· Jute bags, Cotton bags, Paper bags are in vogue! Then why we need synthetic fiber bags, leather bags and Plastic Bags?
· If you are going for any plastic bottle, Tiffin box etc go for 5 grade or above plastic. (5 is written in recycle triangle). So that you can keep reusing that plastic safely for food.Instead of disposable plastic item use another options. Ex. instead of plastic glasses go for earthen or thermacol glass

Manage GARBAGE & Prevent POLLUTION

· Never dispose waste or garbage in toilets. It chokes the drainage pipeline and extra water is used for flushing.
· Make separate garbage bins for plastic, glass, tins/cans, paper and biodegradable wastes
· Recycle papers, glass, tins/cans.

Leading a Green Living

2009-02-01T12:58:00.000-08:00

Now a days the weather is changing drastically. Any one can observe this change in weather and even a kid can tell that the reason is 'Global Warming'!
These days we talk a lot about global warming and some enthusiastics even debate about it. In fact on large scale, governments, environmental institutions and scientists are taking big efforts to minimize it. However, if everybody around will do something to prevent or minimize global warming then the results will definitely be 100% better.

As soon as we read some bad news related to global warming, we do take some efforts to save some energy here and there; but then after a while, many of us think, 'what difference I alone can make by saving little water or paper?’ and this approach keeps us away from leading a green life.

Another approach, which affects green living adversely is the tendancy to show off. People actually like to show how rich they are by consuming unnecessary energy! They use thousands of lights in their houses and switch them on, all at the same time just in the name of creating the mood! Walking on roads affects their status so badly that they take their vehicle to nearby grocery just to buy some small things. Long drive is considered enjoyment when options like trekking, sports activities etc are still available. People keep changing their mobiles and electronic gadgets just to be in vogue! In addition, shopping for fun is the new religion.

Instead of all this why not to show off HOW GREEN I AM!

Why to get shy while saving some things and spending the resources lesser?

We can get all the statistics on the internet showing how many trees would be saved if we take care to recycle the used papers or how much fuel can be saved if each one of us takes a walk to nearby shops or cafes.

Why our laziness is overpowering green living when we need it most?

We just have to make small changes in our attitude, to lead a green life, just small changes!

1. Think Before Throw!
Before throwing anything (food, plastic, clothes, papers …anything) one can think can I use it somewhere else? Is any use of this thing still remaining? If NOT, then how can I recycle it? Is there any recycling station available?
Managing our garbage is not very big task. How we create some space in our home for new electronic gadget in same way we need to give space to different bins for different recyclable matter.

2. Save Resources!
Another change in approach is whenever we are using any resource (water, gas, fuel, electricity etc) we just need to take a few seconds to think how much less I can consume this to fulfill my requirements.
Then we will find out on our own how to save water, electricity, or even petrol. Moreover, we can reduce our bills. Isn’t it good as now recession is threatening each one of us?

Even though green buildings, green cars, green appliances and many more green things are hitting the market; if we don’t learn how to LIVE green, these green things will just remain a fad.
So… GO GREEN! Secure the future of generations to come!