Today, Envirosafe Solutions takes a quick look at what it really means to be living green. How can we as businesses, households and industries, really embrace the changes that are now a part of a new world approach to the environment? How can we each play a part and do our bit?
Living green is not just about replacing a few incandescent light bulbs with energy efficient LED bulbs, or using biodegradable wrapping material or paper – it goes far deeper than that.
Here’s an example of living green: Supermarkets and malls buy massive quantities of vegetables which are trimmed, washed and packaged. The trimmed residue is dumped into the garbage bins and goes into the nearest bio-waste dump site. Instead, what if we shredded it and sent it off to the nearest cattle farm? What if the heat generated by air-conditioning equipment and air conditioners were to be redirected and used in areas where heat was required? Think about it; we could heat water for our own use or boil water, generate steam and from it generate electricity.1 Wouldn’t that be wonderful and more importantly, wouldn’t you feel nice about it? Obviously, living green involves quite a bit of advance thinking and a lot of recycling.
Another instance of living green (this one much nearer to us), would be our own house. When we build a house if we were to make use of sunlight as well as heat retention techniques to lower our heating costs in the winter and then use cross ventilation and natural winds in the summer to reduce our cooling costs we would be totally into a ‘living green’ lifestyle. 2
Living green not only makes an excellent social and business and lifestyle statement, but most importantly, it also has a significant impact on the environment. Typically, living green lowers your energy consumption. Chances are the energy your house would have otherwise consumed would have come from some coal fired or nuclear plant. The energy you save by living green can be utilized by some other consumer. Living green also has the potential to cap the total amount of energy that the country needs to be produced. 3
Living green is also synonymous with sustainable living which essentially means recycling to whatever extent possible with the intention of lowering our consumption of the Earth’s natural resources. 4
If you are an industrialist then the time to invest in living green or green lifestyle equipment is now – there is money to be made in green lifestyle equipment.5 Thanks to increasing energy costs, more and more people are adopting ‘green’ environmentally friendly equipment. Increasing numbers are becoming aware that the Earth can no longer sustain human greed and are eagerly turning to living green lifestyles.
The government too needs to step in, be proactive and promote the concept of living green more vigorously than it has been doing to date6. One area that can immediately catch on is sustainable tourism. The government could actively promote sustainable tourism wherein the tourists on nature tours could live with nature rather than in super luxury resorts. It would not only enhance their experience, it would also increase their understanding of nature and perhaps convert them to living green activists.
Being a relatively recent development, living green not only has potential for industrialists, it also has tremendous job potential and potential for environmentalists to become consultants for promoting eco-tourism, sustainable tourism and living green products.
The Envirosafe Solutions Extreme Green range of liquid products harmonises completely with the new green living approach. For more information on these excellent products please telephone the sales team on 1300 889070 who can assist with all your enquiries.
Footnotes and references:
1. http://techcrunch.com/2011/06/12/air-conditioning-water-heater/
2. Living green: building an energy efficient home: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_building
3. Gadgets and ideas on living green: http://www.greenlivingtips.com/
4. Sustainable living explained: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_living
5. Living green is catching on like wild fire:
http://knowhow-now.com/m/articles/view/Living-Green-Exactly-Why-Do-People-Today-Do-It
6. Living green policy initiatives: http://www.faqs.org/periodicals/201001/1949525541.html
7. Meaning and overview on sustainable tourism: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_tourism
Article and data by the US government on sustainable tourism: http://www.epa.gov/sustainability/basicinfo.htm
