This is a question, which haunts most of us because we want to help but we do not how. We don’t have the time to take part in clean up or plantation drives. Nor do we feel that suggestions like using public transport or using a bucket to bathe instead of a shower suits our lifestyle.
Most of us do our bit by cultivating simple things like switching off electrical appliances when not in use or turning off the vehicle engine at signals. Quite a few of us have developed habits like closing the water tap while we brush our teeth or carrying our own bags when we go to shop.
We still want to do more and we need to figure out how.
If you ask yourself this question and then sincerely search for an answer, you will find that you can do a lot more. You can find solutions that suit your schedule and are easy to carry out in your organisation’s set up.
For example, a friend was very upset about the number of print outs that his job requires him to take every day. He was using at least 200 A4 sheets per week! He did not have the option of not taking out these prints, as keeping a hard copy of every report was compulsory for him. A little thinking gave him a very simple and effective solution.
He decreased the font size to 10 instead of 12. 12 is the suggested ideal size but 10 is equally convenient when it is for record keeping and needs to be referred to rarely. With a little convincing, he managed to make this new size acceptable to his seniors. This enables him to save 30 - 40 sheets of paper every week!
Another friend decided to put a simple poster near her office’s tea dispenser. The poster said “Plastic cups harm the environment. Don’t paper cups do the same? Use your own cup and save many trees”. The company actually had to decrease its purchase of paper cups to half of the number being brought earlier.
I had a similar experience in my office. Green Team had suggested using printed sheets with one side free by simply punching holes into them and then using a ribbon to tie them together into a notebook. I implemented this.
Following my example, my entire office today, does the same. Not everybody has made the effort of compiling used sheets into a notebook. Some use them as loose scribble sheets while others use the other side to take fresh print outs for next day’s in house jobs. No paper with one side free is now wasted.
Depending on your work requirements, you can also find simple and effective ways of doing your bit for the planet.
Think about it. Let’s put Planet First!
- This article is written by Vidushi Agarwalla, Copywriter at Green Team Welfare Society.
1 comment:
well said. we can all find simple ways to do our bit for the environment. it is then not a question of how much we do but whether we do it at all..
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