By Mr. Ved Krishna Managing Director and Strategy Head, Yash Papers Ltd.
New Delhi, June 01, 2018: It is easy to preach difficult to practice. I work in the area of sustainability and it is possible to get a holier than thou attitude but then each time I look at myself I find that at almost every moment my acts are harming our planet, our home. I have to find ways of learning and minimising that damage.
My favourite philosopher/ poet Kabir says ‘bura jo dekhan main chala bura na milya koi. Jab ghar dekha aapno mohse bura na koi’ (When I searched for worse in people I could not find a single person, when I looked within I found no one worse than me). As life and learning continues I realise it is all about perception. When I look around me I see so much light in all those I encounter and also see the workings of my own mind that goes into judgement so easily and there is an immediate lack of understanding and empathy.
Life has to ideally be towards contributing to leave the planet better for the next generation and that will happen through really understanding how our actions impact. We will have to work towards reduction in that impact and then work towards a positive contribution.
There are simple harmful acts that we do on a daily basis that we don’t even think about as we get used to our conveniences of a modern life.
The water I drink goes through a treatment that rejects more than accepts. The reject goes down the drain and there is no reason it should. The mechanism itself uses electricity. There are simpler ways of filtering which may not be as cool but should do the job or perhaps even be better as the water may retain some minerals that may benefit the body. I will work towards finding that solution.
I brush my teeth. Use a bamboo toothbrush that can compost however it still needs energy to manufacture the same. It is far better than a plastic one that would definitely stay around forever. I still use a toothpaste that comes out of a tube. I minimise the same to a meagre amount and my tube lasts a long time but ultimately it will be disposed and I am not sure whether it will really be recycled and even if it does get recycled it will use a decent amount of energy to reach a different state. We try making our own toothpaste but I find that the ingredients used are all coming packaged in plastic- bentonite, oils etc and are travelling a fair distance. Using a traditional neem stick is perhaps the best option but that needs a significant shift and a lot more time in the process. I need to find or grow some alternatives locally that would work.
The flush in my toilet is connected to a soak pit and that is a waste of a valuable resource. We need to make a proactive shift to generate biogas and use the remnants as manure. We seem to ignore the waste so easily whereas it has so much potential. Nature doesn’t really create any waste, every bit has a use. There is also no reason for me to be using a toilet paper that has its own carbon footprint.
We pump water out of the ground and the grey water does go back to the orchard. How do we channelise rain water better? We need to build better systems for that purpose. We would still be utilising energy for pumping but the impact would be a lot lesser.
We use so much energy in cooling and heating. We need to insulate more and reduce that impact. We need to design better for channelising airflow. We can create funnels, manipulate air and make it cooler. We need to get our bodies more used to higher temperatures reducing the need to cool with a high energy source and we need to utilise less energy sources for heating.
We use LPG for cooking. There are easy alternates and we need to build towards the same. There are good quality rocket stoves available now that would use a biomass and we would also get the ash in the end for soil enhancement. We need to find an easy solution that keeps convenience and yet does the job of cooking.
I need to travel less. That is a difficult one! I love to travel but it can definitely be reduced. I also need to shift to cycling more and only use gasoline when there are multiple people. Can I do more interactions through technology, guess I can but it is definitely not quite the same as meeting in person.
We still buy and use so many things that come in packaging. We order from Amazon that delivers more plastic packaging than the actual substance. Transportation also has so much impact. We need to work more and more towards buying more locally, in bulk without packaging. This needs a shift in habits. We need to eat more seasonal, fresh and find local sources for the same. It is so much better for health as well. I am a snacker. I need to let it go or at least shift to something prepared locally and fresh. My wife is so much better at this. She picks a fruit to snack on.
The whole food system will need a rethink. Literally everything we make is coming in a can, a packet or a sack and has been transported a long way.
We need to shift our habits in what we wear. We definitely do not need the amount we have. For me it is a distraction. My sensibility in clothes is more utilitarian but I still find myself being conditioned to variety. I need to work towards simplification and localisation. We see most materials today have poly based fibres that would leave behind micro particles at the end of life. This doesn’t have to be the case. A cloth will definitely need energy in the processing but at least we can choose to have a product that will disintegrate and also reduce the number of things that we own through simplification.
The energy that we use is still grid and a back up diesel generator. We need to work more towards solar and a biomass back up. Not that this is a perfect solution either but it will reduce the impact that we have.
I work towards producing sustainable packaging products but I find we still use a lot of energy, water and transportation for the same. We have to keep thinking and working towards improvements in all those areas to eventually ideally neutralise the effects from our production processes.
These are just the immediate reflections that I have on my own conveniences and habits that need to be worked on. There are also mitigations that we need to do in order to move towards contributing towards betterment. We need to plant more trees. We need to improve our water bodies again. We need to make our rivers drinkable. We need to shift our agricultural practices towards diversification and learn more from nature. Most of all we need to work on ourselves and become more sensitive towards the impact our actions create. We need to then work with the next generation by changing the content and methodology of the education that we are providing to raise the level of empathy.
I will continue to make shifts in my life ideally at a better pace than what I have so far and I look forward to learn from all that many others are doing around me.
We will together leave a better planet for the future of humankind.
Corporate Comm India(CCI Newswire)
