Are you climate-friendly?

Did you notice that the terms like climate change, sustainability, and development being discussed a little more frequently these days?

Of course, sustainability is a very confusing term, but one thing we should understand is that all the resources available now, are not completely for you and me alone. There are millions who need and deserve it.

We can use everything, but at the same time, it is our responsibility to think of others as well. Though very complicated is the concept of sustainable living, there is indeed a very simple trick we all could adapt- the concepts of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

All the water you use for washing utensils could be reused for gardening. All the shopping bags you purchase could be reduced and all the fabrics you dumb at the backyard could be recycled.

Just think of us, we would have been spending at least 80% of our time at school/college/office.

Have we ever thought about the building where we are, if it is climate-friendly or not?

There are several parameters which we use in the audits to measure if a building or space is climate-friendly or not. And this audit requires tremendous calculations and extrapolations. But keeping it apart, shall we understand the concept and analysis of a climate-friendly building to the understanding of a layman?

Here are a few points based on which we can make a quick and foundational level audit of the building we are using, for example, let us take our college.

1. The climate friendliness of your college is determined by the way we use water, electricity, food, stationery and the overall structure of the building.
2. The structure of the building plays a very crucial role in the use of many other resources. Considering the case of windows, if the windows and ventilations are present at adequate positions, i.e. taking the geographical features of the location, then the use of lights and fans could be minimized to an extend. Here we are using the concept of reducing consumption.
3. In the case of electricity usage, some of the common mistakes found are:

• Allotting one single switch to all the fans in a room. If there are 5 fans in a room, even though there are only 5 students all the fans would be in ON position. Is that not overconsumption?
• There are still people using incandescent lamps, which consume more electricity and give out less luminance, there is again a wastage of efficiency.
• We generally have a habit of using the same device even if it takes more time to do the same work, for example after some time the washing machines start to take more time than usual, by refusing ourselves to buy a new one, though it is a method of reduction, reusing it after proper maintenance would be more efficient.
• An annual electricity audit would definitely help reduce the electricity wastage as well as in reducing the electricity bills.

4. Next, when we consider the usage and wastage of water, it is fully our responsibility. Do we really have to open the tap to the fullest? Can we always forget to close the tap after use? Should we not put a restriction on the per day use of water. The easiest thing to always do is set upper limits to all our water needs, which has to be taken care very very strictly. Just imagine if only 2 buckets of water would be available per day, won’t we use it more judiciously, and in that circumstance won’t we consider all the possibilities of reusing, recycling and reducing water?

5. We might be fortunate enough to get food regularly and sufficiently but think of those starving for at least one loaf of bread. The best practice is to take what we actually need, if you need more take it again but not all at once.

6. Even if there is food waste, if we could segregate waste in a logical way, that would help us reuse the same and get the best out of waste.

7. Many are a huge fan of stationery shopping, even when half of the notebook is blank, because of the cover we tend to buy a new one. We sometimes are too lazy to change the refill and go for a new one, are these all necessary? Can’t we think of all the items we have at home before purchasing something from the store?

8. Even the food that we eat has an impact on the environment and climate. Our environment also prefers more homemade and farm-fresh foods than the packed and aerated ones.

These are some simple insights which we all could think of when we say “we want to be eco-friendly….” and always try to stick on to the policy of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle….. The fact is simple, whatever is good for you is good for the environment as well.