7 Great Green working practices

Being greener at work means less impact on the environment, a more productive work force, and increased profits. Whether you’re the owner of the business or just an employee, whether your office is already green or becoming that way, there are steps you can take to lighten your carbon footprint. From telecommuting to investing in green technology, here are some ways to run a more environmentally friendly company. Use less energy at work.In many offices, computers are central; changing energy settings for PCs, printers and other equipment can mean modest energy savings. It’s also a good idea to shut them down at the end of the day, as standby mode draws power even when the computer isn’t being used. A simple way to save energy is to plug all computer hardware into a power strip with an on/off switch, to unplug appliances that aren’t used often, and to turn off lights when you leave the room.
Digitize your data: In the digital age, it seems counterintuitive for offices to consume large amounts of paper- especially as most of it only gets used once. The more you store your information online, the less paper you’ll need. Review documents as they’re on a screen, or send emails and PDF files rather than printing documents.
Make commuting more green.The average worker spends almost fifty hours per year commuting to and from work, adding up to billions of gallons of wasted fuel per year. Ease some of the environmental strain by carpooling, using public transit, or walking. Larger workplaces can benefit from programs which reward employees for getting to work in a green way, such as cycling. If getting rid of automobiles isn’t practical, consider switching to a hybrid, a scooter, or a car sharing service.
Take your work home with you, or change your work week. Unified communications, instant messaging, Skype and other tools make it easier than ever to telecommute. If it’s practical for your business, telecommuting will save time, and it will lessen harmful carbon emissions. Another good idea is to switch from the traditional five-day, eight-hour work week to a four-day, ten-hour schedule; it can save 20% or more in time and energy, and it offers employees a welcome three-day weekend every week!
Change your work environment.“Greening up” your workplace is simple- all you need is eco-friendly lighting and furniture, as well as clean air. Replace incandescent bulbs with CFLs or LEDs, or open windows to let more natural light in. Cleaner air makes for healthier employees; ensure adequate ventilation, and use low-VOC paints, furniture and carpets.
Green your lunch. If you pack your lunch, bring it in a reusable container. If you order takeout, get together with your co-workers and put together one large order rather than a few small ones. Workers that go out for lunch should walk or bike, rather than drive.
Get others thinking green, too.Share the above information with your colleagues, or ask your higher-ups to consider buying carbon credits to offset plane and car travel. Arrange office-wide remote working, or set up a group cycling commute. Get fair-trade coffee for your break room, and place recycling bins around the office. These simple tips can help your business do its share to make the world a cleaner place to live.

This guest post was contributed by Amy Fowler for Maintel, experts in unified communications and remote working technologies. Click here or here to find out more. Alternatively, you could 'like' their Facebook page.

Post by Guest Author - Amy Fowler

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8 Reasons Why Some Green Roofs Are White

The city of Chicago has been setting up what it calls “green roofs,” which is literally covering city rooftops in vegetation. While this may be a great idea for some buildings, it’s just not practical for all situations. How do you do maintenance on a building topped with greenery? It’s not nearly as simple as doing maintenance on one that is sans verdure.

However, a building surface that is both environmentally friendly and easy to care for is a cool roof. This option is both reflective and emissive, and it is specifically designed to be eco-friendly without creating an ecosystem on the roof itself.

Below are some specifications for this type of environmentally-friendly option:

• A green roofing system will help keep those under it cool on a hot summer’s day.

• It is made of vinyl and feather light, while traditional options can be quite heavy.

• It can house solar panels—or, if you so choose, even rooftop vegetation.

• They use green roofing materials that are 100% recyclable. There is minimal waste created from its setup, and the waste that is created is recycled back into building materials. At the end of the rooftop’s life, the whole thing can be recycled.

• Eco-roofs have a longer life than traditional ones. Since a large portion of the damage done comes from heat absorption, and cool roofs absorb less heat, this building surface option will live long and prosper. With the appropriate maintenance (which really is just infrequent cleaning), it will last much, much longer than a traditional choice.

• They have ENERGY STAR labels. This means that they are designated as a product that uses an amount of energy that is 20-30% below federal standards.

• A sustainable rooftop will help a building earn a favorable Green Globe rating and a favorable Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) rating. These ratings can translate directly into more business for you and your company.

To be environmentally friendly, the top of your building does not actually have to turn the color green. Many of these surfaces are actually white, which is the color that is most reflective and emissive. These white materials are highly sustainable, adaptable and recyclable, like those that are made by quality companies, such as Duro-Last Roofing. This makes them the ideal choice for people who care deeply about the planet, their city and the bottom line.  

Laura enjoys writing about green living. If you'd like to learn more about Duro Last, please visit http://www.duro-last.com/

By Guest Author - Jessica Lane

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Process Intensification - 1

Process Intensification is basically a miniaturisation of process equipments and is a revolutionary approach to process and plant design & is not very old concept, hardly a decade old.

The concept was originally pioneered in the 1970s by Colin Ramshaw and his co-workers at ICI, where PI was defined as a 'reduction in plant size by at least a factor 100'. PI is about providing a chemical process with the precise environment required which results in better products, and processes which are safer, cleaner, smaller - and cheaper.

PI (as practised at BHR Group) is a business driven approach - the focus is always on what business benefits are targeted and might be achieved.

Features of PI Solutions

Move from batch to continuous processing.

Use of intensive reactor technologies with high mixing and heat transfer rates (e.g. FlexReactor, HEX Reactors) in place of conventional stirred tanks.

Multidisciplinary approach, which considers opportunities to improve the process technology and underlying chemistry at the same time.

'Plug and play' process technology to provide flexibility in a multiproduct environment

Established PI Benefits

capital cost reduced by 60%.

90% reduction in impurity levels resulting in significantly more valuable product.

70% plus reduction in energy usage and hence substantial reduction in operating cost.

90% yield first time out - better than fully optimised batch process.

99% reduction in reactor volume for a potentially hazardous process, leading to inherently safe operation.

In simple words process intensification is the development of novel equipments and techniques, as compared to the present state-of-art, to bring dramatic improvements in manufacturing and processing, substantially decreasing equipment size/production-capacity ratio, energy consumption, or waste production.

Perhaps a simpler definition could be; any chemical engineering development that leads to a substantially smaller, cleaner, and more energy-efficient technology is process intensification but the development of new catalysts is not part of PI.

Image from University of Twente

It should be noted that many of the equipments are of type never known before but there are quite few equipments which have been available to the chemical engineer but their potential was never fully exploited. Examples are compact heat exchangers, static mixers, etc.

Examples of new developments are the HIGEE column, spinning disc reactor, oscillating flow reactor, loop reactors, spinning tube in tube reactor, Heat exchange reactor, supersonic gas liquid reactor, static mixing catalysts, microchannel reactors, microchannel heat exchangers, etc.

Process intensification involves the development of new compact devices and techniques that will lead to substantial improvements in the production processes, reductions in the size of production equipment, lower investment costs, lower energy use and waste production, and finally to more sustainable technologies.

So in short, Process Intensification is basically increasing the output by reducing equipment size & the associated benefits are the reduced energy consumption, lesser impurity formation, more selectivity & hence more yield, lesser waste, reduced hazards due to handling smaller volumes etc.

In my next post I will try to cover few equipments one by one in more detail.

Some part of this article is from BHR site

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Small Water Saving Initiative from my company

Dear All,
I just wanted to share a small initiative of my new company towards saving of water. This can be presented by you to your management for implementation which will help us to keep our globe safe and provide sufficient water savings for many families to upkeep their daily life.

The water is very important for all living things and currently it is of utmost importance for any coroporate house, individual, and governments to conserve water & promote conservation fo water.

In our present company the management has implemented waterless urinals in the corporate building. This is saving around 2 Litres of water / day / person. We have around 400 people working in this office which is therefore, saving around 2 x 400 x 300 = 240000 Litre / Year.

Now see the importance of this number. Each family (4 persons) need around 100 litre of water / day for hygeine & drinking. Therefore, it can serve for 2400 families for 1 year OR 40 families for 60 years of average life.

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Hydrogen Economy: Dream or Future

Hydrogen powered automobiles are a recurrent idea these days. Prototype hydrogen-powered cars are debuting in the United States, Japan and Europe. Two major issues are driving the Hydrogen Dream – Global Warming and Over-dependence on imported oil.

The idea of hydrogen economy is to utilize locally available and renewable energy sources, such as wind, solar and biomass to produce hydrogen gas. Hydrogen can then be used in fuel cells to produce electricity without producing pollution; replacing gasoline and petroleum with hydrogen would decrease the consumption of petroleum and also reduce the carbon-dioxide emissions.

BUT.. is it realistic to think that inexpensive, pollution-free hydrogen energy will be the fuel of the future?

First of all hydrogen is not at all a primary source of energy. It is always chemically bound in organic compounds or water. We require some other source like fossil fuel, nuclear reactors, hydroelectric dams, geothermal wells, wind turbines or solar panels to break the chemical bonds and hence produce free hydrogen. So basically hydrogen economy is incomplete without a primary energy source.

Well we can use electrical energy too for electrolysis of water (direct current + water = hydrogen + oxygen). But this process is highly inefficient. Only 45% of the initial energy is captured in this process.

Then there are numerous other problems attached to Hydrogen. Storing hydrogen is perhaps the greatest hurdle. Compressed hydrogen gas is the only viable approach. Carbon-fiber tanks can hold hydrogen at 10,000 psi. However, thee tanks hold only one-eighth the energy of a gasoline tank of equal size.

Moreover, compressed gas at 10,000 psi can be extremely dangerous. The energy released by the sudden rupture of a 10,000 psi tank holding 6 kg of hydrogen is equivalent to 50 sticks of dynamite!!

Even liquid hydrogen ( at -250 °C) has only one-fourth of the energy per unit volume of gasoline.

To add to the problems, hydrogen is odorless and invisible and has a wide range of flammability.

So, how realistic is the vision of the Hydrogen economy ?? And when will it occur ?? I guess some fundamental breakthroughs are necessary to make hydrogen economy a reality but one more thing.. Is Hydrogen economy the right goal ??

CHEW ON THIS TOO: - Recent Developments
Recently I came across an article - “Hydrogen Balls: a safe fuel of future”. This was about hydrogen powered cars. Thought of mentioning it here.

Hydrogen gas is stored in small balls – “ping pong” balls to overcome the risk of fire and explosion. Lass Stenmark, Uppsala University says, “By storing the gas in round, spherical form, it can withstand twice the pressure that a cylindrical form can. If the car crashes and tank breaks, the hydrogen-filled balls would just spread out and roll away, and the gas from any broken balls would just simply seep out and disappear into the atmosphere without causing harm”

Sounds simple and exciting, lets wait and see the application part !!


By Associate Writer - Nidhi Garg

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Are you a "Solartopian"???

In the global campaign to save the Earth, a shared vision is vital. "Solartopia" foresees a democratic, green-powered 21st Century civilization. Our economic and ecological survival depends on it.

Seems interesting read on...

Technologically, the vision rests on four simple pillars:

1. Total renunciation of all fossil and nuclear fuels. In a sustainable, survivable future, they are a 20th Century fox, neither green nor clean.

2. All-out conversion to renewable energy led by the "Solartopian Trinity" of wind, solar and bio-fuels. Mother Earth gives us the natural power we need.

3. Complete commitment to maximum efficiency, including revived and solarized mass transit and passenger rail systems. Our automotive "love affair" is a hoax.

4. Zero tolerance for production of anything that cannot be re-used or recycled, including chemical-based food. Solartopia is an organic, post-pollution world.


Along with wind, solar and bio-fuels, Solartopian energy comes from the waves, currents, rivers and tides; from the geothermal heat beneath the earth's crust; from the interplay of solar-heated water at the oceans' surface and the frigid deep.

Advanced methods of organic food production get us past the "silent spring" of chemical pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers and genetically modified crops.

The ever-evolving Internet fuels a geek-driven torrent of Solartopian innovation---and the raging e-network of green grassroots democracy.

In our 21st Century global economy, renewable technologies are already on the whole more profitable than the obsolete King CONG "alternatives" of coal, oil, nukes and gas.

But from bio-fuels to wind, from hyper-efficiency to organic farming, no green technology is without costs and limitations. All demand vigilance, limitation, regulation and innovation to stay clean, current and useful.

5. Corporations can no longer enjoy human rights without human responsibilities. Revised corporate charters must break the grip these giant economic organizations have held on our political, economic and ecological systems.

6. Population is the province of women, who in Solartopia are empowered, educated and equally paid. In synch with Mother Earth, they bring us the number of children She wishes to accommodate.

7. Where everyone has a right to the basic necessities of life, including free education, nobody starves. The Solartopian rich may be plentiful, but no civilization thrives unless all have access to sustenance and dignity.

8. Big Money is barred from the campaign process. Free and fair elections and referenda power non-violent community-based evolution. The universal right to ballots on recycled paper means accurate vote counts and recounts for all.

Solartopia demands that business serve society and the planet, rather than vice versa. Capitalism may be one thing, but Enron cannibalism is quite another. Balancing competition and the profit motive with human and ecological need, the Solartopian vision demands accountability, efficiency, service and justice.

Atomic reactors are pre-deployed weapons of radioactive mass destruction. Shutting them ends the fear of apocalyptic disaster by both terror and error. Transcending coal and cars cures much of global warming.

But everywhere we turn, the King CONG corporations build barriers. They use government subsidies and media disinformation to prolong their failed investments in obsolete technologies and the fossil/nuke fuels that run them.

By contrast, Solartopia is the diverse, democratic, organic place we go to survive and thrive. Born of hyper-linked grassroots non-violence, empowered by post-pollution prosperity in synch with Mother Earth and all her children, Solartopia is the 21st Century vision of our necessary future.

Are YOU a Solartopian?

We may not subscribe to the view expressed here. It is just to share with our readers.

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Water Saving - Amazing Nos

Recently going through some blog articles, I found the use of low flush toilets where water can be saved by more than 50%. Amazed by numbers, I thought to work out my self these numbers with ref to India & possible quantum of savings.

Therefore, my search began on this issue & found that technologies are available which can reduce the consumption to more than 80-90% and is totally developed indeginously by Indians. We do not realize the importance of any small change unless we see its impact in totality which may be very useful for the nation as a whole.

Here is the total Maths.

Basic Nos.



There is simple math till this point which itself indicates the prosperity achievable by simple education to all people be it rural or urban citizen, where water is a scarce resource. Imagine the condition in southern state Tamil Nadu where now it is mandatory to make roofs compliant to rain water harvesting systems. ~~Where water is available only at 4 - 5 AM everyday through tankers from local water corporation. ~~Where water is available to industry at more than 35 Rs. / M3.

On the other hand people from northern states like UP, Uttarakhand, Punjab etc do not care at all including local industries which uses this valuable resources as a free commodity without any concern for future & sustainable growth of humanity and planet.

If we plan to save water in this manner than, we can have enough water to feed 93 Million houses in water scarce states with ~87 litres/day which is sufficient for daily needs in states like Rajasthan. (Here the planning of connecting all the rivers by making a national river grid by Earlier Govt. would have solved many problems)

Now consider the direct saving nos related to environment - just for a feel.



Imagine the difference from one country, if globally we put it together, probably you wont need to spend millions of dollars on research related to global warming or cooling. (I'm not able to debate on this issue without having my breakfast - But I know only one thing - CO2 is never beneficial to the society in current scenario).

I forgot to include Fuel savings e.g. coal, gas, oils used for power generation which is saved from pumping of this water in local municipal limits. (Can you please add that?????).

Finally, the monetary gains are also not less lucrative.

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HydroPower - Is it clean or not?

Opponents of dams have long argued against putting barriers in the natural flow of a river. Dams, they point out, prevent endangered fish from migrating, alter ecosystems, and threaten the livelihoods of local communities.

Native Americans, fishing communities, and environmentalists have made these arguments in their quest to decommission four dams on Klamath River, which runs from southwest Oregon to the coast of California. But with California requiring a 25 percent reduction in the state's carbon dioxide emissions by 2020, clean energy has suddenly entered the Klamath dam debate.

However, replacing the power from these dams could result in adding combustion emissions to the environment.

Hydro-Québec, the world's biggest producer of hydropower, claims that "compared with other generating options, hydropower emits very little greenhouse gas," thus "contributing significantly to the fight against climate change."

Maybe not. Recent reports on methane emissions suggest that dams are anything but carbon-neutral.

According to recently published estimates from Brazil's National Institute for Space Research, the world's 52,000 largest dams release 104 million metric tons of methane annually. If these calculations are correct, then dams would account for about four percent of the total warming impact of human activities -- and would constitute the largest single source of human-related methane emissions.

If methane released from reservoir surfaces, spillways, and turbines were taken into account, India's greenhouse emissions could be as much as 40 percent higher than its current official estimates. But, India as a developing nation, is not required to cut emissions -- and has yet to measure methane from its 4,500 dams. And that's a problem, because while methane does not last as long in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, its heat-trapping potential is 25 times stronger.

A Swirling Debate

In 2004, National Institute for Research in the Amazon suggested that a massive surge of methane emissions could occur when water is discharged under pressure at hydroelectric dams in a process known in the industry as "degassing."

The problem with dams is that organic matter gets trapped in them when land is first flooded, and more gets flushed in, or grows there, later on. In tropical zones, such as Brazil, this matter quickly decays to form methane and carbon dioxide.

But just how big a problem this creates is controversial. A debate has been raging for years between researchers connected to Hydro-Québec and Brazil's Electrobras, the world's largest hydropower companies, and several small teams of independent hydrologists.

According to Fearnside, if degassing emissions were factored in at several large hydropower plants in Brazil, then these dams would be larger contributors to global warming than their fossil fuel counterparts. To be precise, Fearnside suggested that during the first decade of its life, each of these dams would emit four times as much carbon as a fossil fuel plant that makes the same amount of electricity.

Fearnside's claims have triggered a firestorm. Luis Pinguelli Rosa, formerly of Electrobras but now based at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, claimed Fearnside had made "scientific errors," including a failure to grasp how degassing works, and so had exaggerated the emission levels.

Rosa pointed out that Fearnside had extrapolated his calculations from data taken from the Petit Saut dam in French Guyana in the years immediately following the creation of the reservoir, when organic matter, and thus methane emissions, would likely be their highest. Patrick McCully, executive director of the Berkeley, CA-based International Rivers Network, says that one of the areas of strongest disagreement among reservoir emissions researchers is how to quantify net emissions.

In a recent paper, "Fizzy Science," McCully shows that key factors influencing reservoir greenhouse gas emissions include fluctuations in water level, growth and decay of aquatic plants, decomposition of flooded biomass and soils, the amount of methane bubbling from the surface, and the amount of carbon dioxide diffusing in.

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A simple way to convert waste methane

About 100 billion cubic meters of natural gas are burned off or simply vented at remote oil rigs and refineries that are not connected by pipelines. The practice wastes a precious fuel and pumps methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. Technologies for compressing or liquefying natural gas in order to transport it are expensive and only make sense at large oil fields. So, researchers have been looking for viable technologies to convert the natural gas found at small, isolated oil fields into compounds that are easier to transport and distribute.

Specifically, the researchers found a simple way to convert methane into methyl chloride, which can easily be converted into petrochemicals such as ethylene or propylene, used to make plastics. Ethylene and propylene, says Johannes Lercher, a chemistry professor at the Munich University of Technology, are far easier to transport than methane is.

The current process for making methyl chloride takes a lot of energy and involves multiple steps, including first converting methane into a combination of carbon monoxide and hydrogen. In an online paper in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the Munich and Dow researchers demonstrate a straightforward technique that uses much less energy. They show that mixing methane, hydrogen chloride, and oxygen in the presence of a lanthanum catalyst yields methyl chloride. "Capital and complexity frequently go hand in hand," says Mark Jones, a plastics and hydrocarbons researcher at Dow. "The general trend is that reducing processing steps is good."

The technique could have one drawback, though: it uses chlorine, a toxic gas. The researchers' plan includes recycling the hydrogen chloride and repeatedly using it for the reaction. "In the vision we're playing with, the chlorine would not ever get on a boat," says Eric Strangland, a chemistry and catalysis researcher at Dow and a coauthor of the paper.

However, companies that are not used to handling chlorine might initially be intimidated by the technique, says Bert Weckhuysen, a chemistry professor at Utrecht University, in the Netherlands. "Dow has a long experience with chloride chemistry, so working with chloride streams is not a big deal" Weckhuysen says. "Others companies could, at least in the beginning, be scared off due to the requirement of being able to work with chloride compounds. It requires infrastructure."

The process will also face competition. New gas-to-liquids technology, which converts natural gas into synthetic liquid fuels, is starting to become popular as an alternative to liquefied natural gas, and it's garnering the attention of oil giants like Exxon and Shell. It has not yet been widely used, though, because it's expensive to implement: it requires a lot of energy and large facilities. Weckhuysen says that if Dow could develop an affordable commercial process based on it new reaction, it could compete with gas-to-liquids technology.

Another competitor, Gas Reaction Technologies, based in Santa Barbara, CA, is commercializing a technology to directly convert natural gas into liquid fuels and chemicals. The process is very similar to the new Dow process, except it uses bromine instead of chlorine. Gas Reaction Technologies, which is working with several partners, including Cargill, expects to have facilities going within three to five years, says Eric McFarland, the company's CEO.

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Green Chemistry - 12 Rules

THE TWELVE PRINCIPLES OF GREEN CHEMISTRY

Anastas and Warner have developed the Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry to aid one in assessing how green a chemical, a reaction or a process is.

1. It is better to prevent waste than to treat or clean up waste after it is formed.

2. Synthetic methods should be designed to maximize the incorporation of all materials used in the process into the final product.

3. Wherever practicable, synthetic methodologies should be designed to use and generate substances that possess little or no toxicity to human health and the environment.

4. Chemical products should be designed to preserve efficacy of function while reducing toxicity .

5. The use of auxiliary substances (e.g. solvents, separation agents, etc.) should be made unnecessary whenever possible and, innocuous when used.

6. Energy requirements should be recognized for their environmental and economic impacts and should be minimized. Synthetic methods should be conducted at ambient temperature and pressure.

7. A raw material feedstock should be renewable rather than depleting whenever technically and economically practical.

8. Unnecessary derivatization (blocking group, protection/deprotection, temporary modification of physical/chemical processes) should be avoided whenever possible.

9. Catalytic reagents (as selective as possible) are superior to stoichiometric reagents.

10. Chemical products should be designed so that at the end of their function they do not persist in the environment and break down into innocuous degradation products.

11. Analytical methodologies need to be further developed to allow for real-time in-process monitoring and control prior to the formation of hazardous substances.

12. Substances and the form of a substance used in a chemical process should chosen so as to minimize the potential for chemical accidents, including releases, explosions, and fires.

My Comments on some other day...........

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World Environment Day - Some Pledges

My Company’s Message on World Environment Day

1. I will boil only the water I need, rather than filling the kettle every time.

If you boil a full kettle three times a day you’ll raise carbon dioxide emissions by 52kg a year. It takes two trees to absorb that amount. If you only boil the water you need each time, you’ll save energy and reduce your carbon dioxide emissions by more than 7kg a year.

· Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, which contributes to climate change. We need to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide we release to limit the effects of climate change.

· Although trees can be planted to absorb some of this carbon dioxide, we really need to use up less energy in the first place.

2. I will replace two light bulbs in my house with energy saving versions.

Over one year, it would take 13 trees to absorb the 40kg of carbon dioxide you would have emitted into the air.

· The release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, caused by the burning of fossil fuels, contributes to climate change. We are experiencing more floods and droughts, and wildlife and plants are also affected.

· Countries that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol must reduce their carbon dioxide emissions.

· Reducing the amount of electricity we use will mean that less fuel is burned for the generators that supply it. Doing this will also save you money.

3. I will turn my biodegradable waste into compost for my garden

Each person dumps 194kg of organic waste a year. That is the equivalent of 12,900 apple cores.

· Much of the waste we produce is collected by local authorities and burned or buried in landfill sites. Burning creates carbon dioxide emissions, which contribute to climate change. Landfill is also unsustainable, as we cannot keep creating more landfill sites.

· The only solution is to reduce the amount of waste we produce, or do something else with it. When you shop, try to find items with less packaging, and when you produce waste such as leftover food, put it in a compost bin and watch your garden bloom.


4. I will volunteer for a green project in my local community.

Many projects are completely reliant on volunteers giving up their time. The sort of projects you could do can range from litter picking, to planting trees, to running a green event.

· Trees planted absorb this carbon dioxide release caused by the burning of fossil fuels etc.

· You’ll also get the opportunity to meet lots of new people, develop new skills and put something back into the community.

5. I will reuse plastic bags for my shopping.

If you throw away four fewer plastic bags every week, you’ll save 4,160 bags from ending up in landfill sites over 20 years.

· Landfill space is limited and will eventually run out if we continue to increase the amount of rubbish we produce. Although there are alternative ways of disposing of rubbish, the best option is to produce less in the first place.

· Plastic bags also spoil the look of our environment. If we re-use the bags we already have, this will mean that fewer new ones are made... and then abandoned.

· Many supermarkets will sell you a “bag for life” which you can reuse, or you could just reuse standard plastic bags by taking a few with you when you go shopping.

6. I will share my car journeys to work with a colleague, or replace those car journeys with public transport.

The average car commuter drives 19 miles a day. Cutting that by half through car sharing would save 648kg of carbon dioxide over one year, the same as that absorbed by 216 trees.

· Carbon dioxide is one of the gases that contribute to climate change when it is released. Planting more trees is an impractical option, and we really need to reduce the amount of energy we use to cut down carbon dioxide emissions.

· Walking or cycling, even just once or twice a week, can help reduce emissions and it has financial benefits. Walking to the bus stop can also contribute to the 10,000 steps a day we all need to do to improve our health.

7. I will switch off my television or computer screen, rather than leave it on stand-by.

Over a year this will save 30kg of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the air - the same as that absorbed by 10 trees.

· The release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, caused by the burning of fossil fuels, contributes to climate change. We are experiencing more floods and droughts, and wildlife and plants are also affected.

· Although trees can be planted to absorb some of this carbon dioxide, we need to use up less energy in the first place. Reducing the amount of electricity we use will mean that less fuel is burned for the generators that supply it.

· Countries that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol must reduce their carbon dioxide emissions. Doing this will also save you money.

8. I will take showers instead of baths.

A daily bath uses 16, 425 liters more water a year than a shower.

· Even though the INDIA gets a lot of rain each year, but this is not in every state of INDIA, the density of our population means that water supplies are limited and must be looked after carefully.

· Many underground water sources rely solely on winter rainfall to fill them up. As summers become longer and hotter, this reduces the time that water sources can be refilled.

· We all need to make an effort to save water, or we could face drought in many parts of the country.

9. I will use an outdoor clothesline instead of a clothes dryer

The electricity used to run clothes dryer results in emission of carbon dioxide. Burning fossil fuels, such as coal is not a sustainable way of providing energy, as fossil fuels will eventually run out.

· Although trees can be planted to absorb some of this carbon dioxide, we need to use up less energy in the first place. Reducing the amount of electricity we use will mean that less fuel is burned for the generators that supply it. Doing this will also save you money.

10. I will turn the tap off when I brush my teeth.

If you brush your teeth for three minutes, twice a day with the tap running while you clean your teeth, you are wasting 10,950 liters of water a year.

· Many underground water sources rely solely on winter rainfall to fill them up. As summers become longer and hotter, this reduces the time that water sources can be refilled.

· We all need to make an effort to save water, or we could face drought in many parts of the country.

11. I will switch my household to energy generated from renewable sources.

The electricity used by the average household results in 1,892 kg of carbon dioxide. You can reduce that to zero by switching your electricity supply to a green tariff. That is the equivalent of planting 631 trees.

· Burning fossil fuels, such as coal is not a sustainable way of providing energy, as fossil fuels will eventually run out.

· Coal burning releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and contributes to climate change. There are a variety of alternatives we can use such as wave, wind or solar. All of these have various advantages and disadvantages but one thing is clear. We do need to move away. Doing this will also save you money.

12. I will recharge ground water by the method of rainwater harvesting in my house.

Even though the INDIA gets a lot of rain each year, but this is not in every state of INDIA, the density of our population means that water supplies are limited and must be looked after carefully.

· We all need to make an effort to conserve water, or we could face drought in many parts of the country.

· Many underground water sources rely solely on rainfall to fill them up. As summers become longer and hotter, this reduces the time that water sources can be refilled.

If Anyone of us take any one resolutions out of above 12, I will feel happier to contribute something to our society.

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