Living green makes sense : Go Green

A Jolly Devi *

Every year, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) honours World Environment Day on June 5 to raise awareness about environmental issues. This day is celebrated to raise global awareness to take positive environmental action to protect nature and the planet earth. The first World Environment Day was celebrated in 1973. Since then it is hosted every year all over the world.

Eco-friendly living has been embraced by our generation and we all know that we can each take small steps towards saving the environment for future generations. The most positive thing that one can do is GO GREEN and THINK GREEN and take care of the environment in every way that one can.

Think and Be Green

Be mindful and be sensitive to the natural environment and advocate the 3 Rs of environmental protection. Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

Reduce: Your consumption, your waste, your energy consumption, your oil consumption and pollution.

Reuse: Plastic containers can become food storage, paper can become wrapping paper. The waste in which to reuse things is unlimited. All you need is to be creative- Reuse envelopes, designate a box for scrap paper and use it for printing all drafts or unofficial documents. Reuse plastic bags or better get a reusable canvas bags.

Recycle: While buying any type of product, see the labels-post consumer recycled content. Production of recycled paper uses only half the water and ¾ of the energy than new paper, every ton recycled saves almost 400 gallons (1816 litres) of oil, three cubic yards of landfill space and seventeen trees. Recycle those catalogues and newspapers rather than throwing them away and you just may save a forest for future generations to enjoy.

Thinking green means being aware of our interconnectedness with the world and reflecting on the unintended damage we cause nature in the daily course of our lives. Thinking green leads to acting green taking corrective action to make environmental responsibility a reality. Every person is the right person to act. Every moment is the right moment to begin.

Green Living

Green living is a simple way to give or provide a better future and ensures that the next generation inherits more than carbon footprints (a measure of your impact on the environment in terms of the amount of green house gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide).

Make the green choice

Life is often so busy and stressful that consumers tend to choose products that are convenient without giving much thought to preservation of health and environment. Perhaps green living is not the complicated and time-consuming affair that it seems to be.

Going green is easy to do and like most things that are good for you begins with a change in mindset. Jute bags and paper bags are thus regaining popularity. This alternative may not be as cheap as its plastic counterpart, but the price paid will still be cheap compared with the cost of saving the environment.

Go green at home

Installing solar lighting sources reduces the amount of harmful emissions released into the atmosphere during the production of electricity. Purchasing energy efficient appliances is another way to reduce harmful emissions and it pays off in a several ways.

For example, reduced energy bills save money that can then be put to use elsewhere. Use less electricity. Switch to compact fluorescent bulbs each time you replace an old incandescent bulb. Compact fluorescents save 75% in energy use and last upto 10 minutes longer. As a bonus, you’ll save money on your electric bill.

Energy saving

Choose zero VOC paint for your next home decoration purpose. Most paints contain toxic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are released into the air when you paint. VOCs can cause short and long term health problems.

Properly dispose of hazardous waste. Cleansers, oils, paints pesticides, batteries and solvents should never go out with the household garbage. They end up contaminating the soil and ground water in your community. Contact your Municipality, Government or the concerned NGOs to find out how to properly dispose of these items.

Get active

Instead of driving to your usual destinations, try walking, taking the bus or riding your cycle. For every 4-mile (6.4 km) trip avoid taking your car, you can prevent approximately 6.75 kg of air pollution from entering our atmosphere.

Go green society

Going green can improve your health and your environment and can save you money. In the process, you also can save animals by not wearing fur, conserve water by taking shorter showers and not let the water run while you brush your teeth, and conserve resources by recycling, among other choices.

Turn your kitchen into an eco-friendly environment

You will eliminate toxins that can destroy your health as well as eliminate non-biodegradable trash that ends up in a dump site. If you remodel your kitchen, use materials that someone else has disposed of, such as piece of wood or glass and metal that can be utilized in some form in your kitchen, also known as re-purposing. If you are corporate entity or business owner, take measures to go green can help to save the environment.

The next time if you buy a household appliance make sure to buy a household appliance and make sure to purchase one that has the energy star label and you can reduce the amount of energy your family consumes dramatically.

Reducing green house emissions is to everyone’s benefit

Conserving water has become a priority nowadays. Using solar energy and wind energy is a green alternative and an excellent way to reduce energy consumption. Going green generally requires an initial financial investment by an individual or company. The health of workers also improves in a green company, which reduces sick days and health insurance costs.

A cleaner world is a healthier world

Participate in recycling, which saves energy and landfill space, prevents pollution, and conserves natural resources, and buy recycled products, note that recycling one ton of paper saves 17 trees, two barrels of oil, 4,100 kilowatt hours of electricity, three cubic yards (2.29 cu.m) of landfill space and 31786.3 litre of water.

Go green in your daily life
Say no to bottled water

Water is an excellent, healthy drink but drinking bottled water creates an extraordinary amount of waste.

Clean your green

Many store brought cleaning supplies contain harsh chemicals that aren’t good for you for you or for the planet. Did you know that baking soda vinegar and lemon juice can be just as effective as store bought cleansers ? Try using some homemade green cleanser in your home today. Tamarind, lemon, ash, straw, dried sponge gourd are very good agents for cleaning household articles.

Go e-friendly

Most companies now have an online option for paying bills these days which creates a lot less paper waste. If every household paid bills online, we could save many trees each year.

Use cloth over paper

Instead of using paper napkins and towels, try cloth instead. It’s gentler on the environment and on your grocery budget too !

Plant tree

Tree produces oxygen, absorbs carbon dioxide and helps clean the air and the soil of our planet. Without trees, we humans would not be able to exist here on the Earth. Give a little something back to the planet by planting a tree in your backyard.

Conclusion

The only way to make our environment green is to think green, and implement it. Everybody should be involved in Go Green environment activity.


For further details contact:-
Public Relations & Media Management Cell,
CAU, Imphal.
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