We’re delighted to be a part of the TGPI festival at Juhu , Mumbai starting today . A super eco , creative bringing together brands passionate about creating a sustainable world .
Visit the TGPI festival for loads of eco-goodies , organic food , music !
See you at the festival !
We don’t get out of shape with 1 heavy meal . Nor did the environment become a crisis with a single action or even the actions of 1 nation alone. We can’t build muscle with 1 intensive workout at a gym . Neither can the environment be healed in a day .
Routine , everyday choices and actions by individuals , communities , governments , businesses have cumulatively created the challenges we face on the environment front.
We need to drop the ‘what can I do’ line of thought and the consequent inaction / status quo . Each one of us can make a difference. Together , we make change.
Clean Planet supports HT’s – No TV Day initiative. It’s time to turn the box off and turn life on or like how we say it here – TV Off, Planet On! This could be a wonderful day to make the most of the outdoors, enjoy the weather and have a fantastic day out. Or you could choose to stay back home and do all the little things you love that make you happy. What would you rather do, other than watch tv today? Check out what folks have to say about what they’re about to do right here – www.notvday.in
Have a very happy No TV Day =)
How will you make this Christmas and New Year eco friendly? Spread the joy of the season to the planet and be a good pal to it. You will be shopping for clothes, decorations, sweets, gifts and more right? Do carry reusable bags and go easy on those plastics. Gift giving just brings about special joy when there is an element of personal attached with it. Gift your loved ones a green gift this season.
We would love to have your cool suggestions on how to make this Christmas & New Year, very merry yet ecoJ. The 5 coolest suggestions will win a 25% discount gift voucher from us. With a Clean Planet tote you can save up to 300 plastic bags from clogging our beloved planet. So suggest to your heart’s content and stand a chance to get an exciting discount on our unbeatably eco stylish totes. Hurry, this contest is up and running till 31st Dec. The winners will be announced on Jan 2. Be an eco hero! You don’t need no cape to be one.
Most of us possibly don’t have even a passing thought about bees . Much less ponder on the connection between human beings and bees. Yet , there is a connection . Bees don’t just make honey, they are a giant, humble workforce, pollinating 90% of the plants we grow.
Bees are vital to life on earth — every year pollinating plants and crops with an estimated $40bn value, over one third of the food supply in many countries. Without immediate action to save bees we could end up with serious disruption in food supply.
This is just the impact on human lives . There is a wider role that pollinating bees play in nature which possibly is not understood completely.
Recent years have seen a steep and disturbing global decline in bee populations — some bee species are now extinct and others are at just 4% of their previous numbers. Scientists have been scrambling for answers. Some studies claim the decline may be due to a combination of factors including disease, habitat loss and toxic chemicals. But new leading independent research has produced strong evidence blaming neonicotinoid pesticides. France, Italy, Slovenia and even Germany, where the main manufacturer Bayer is based, have banned one of these bee killers.
A world without bees is not necessarily a world that is completely devoid of life. Much of human existence is presently dependent on honey bees because they are currently the main pollinators. However, penguins and fish don’t need bees to sustain their diet. The human race is not likely to become extinct as a result of the bees becoming extinct. Instead, there would be massive deaths until the humans can evolve to eat foods that bees do not pollinate. Food production would decline as a result of the bees’ extinction but would never disappear entirely. Some type/quantity of crops can still be grown without the intervention of bees. The labor-intensive hand pollinating process would raise the price of food.
Life on Earth would survive without bees, but it would be a much different Earth. Most plants depend on insects like bees to pollinate them. Unless some other animal inserted themselves into that biological niche, most of our plants would disappear along with the bees. One source of photosynthesis that is independent of insects is in our water supply. Algae has a tremendous influence on the world’s oxygen production, so oxygen would not disappear. Because many trees and flowering plants depend on bees for their reproductive cycle, they would be highly stressed.
Avaaz is campaigning for a ban of neonicotinoid pesticides to stop the decline of bees . Pl click here to support the campaign.
A Japanese Subway sandwich shop has started growing hydroponic lettuce right in the middle of the store ! Not only is this hyper-local lettuce healthy, it’s a great visual centerpiece for the space.
The Japanese are very inventive when it comes to being space efficient . This is an eco-idea that many hotels , restaurants, canteens , communities across the world can adopt. It is understandably impossible to grow all ingredients locally . But , every bit counts.
(via Inhabitat )
“A kitchen surrounded by fertile soil where vegetables and herbs thrive … Where daylight shines in from all sides and where the chefs are free to express their creativity daily using the best the season has to offer. It seems an obvious concept, but I spent twenty years surrounded by white tiles under fluorescent lighting before I came up with it.” – chef Gert Jan Hageman
Restaurant De Kas has its own greenhouse and garden near the restaurant, where they grow Mediterranean vegetables, herbs and edible flowers. They also have a large field about 10 kilometres from Amsterdam in the Purmer Polder, where they grow seasonal vegetables.
In the world teeming with McDonalds , Pizza Hut and other industrial food serving outlets it’s wonderful to see a restaurant that is built around fresh food grown and harvested by the restaurant team.
De Kas is more an exception because of the sheer space needed for such an initiative . Yet , that are restaurants with the luxury of space who choose to adopt the beaten bath. Increasingly hotels are beginning to grow some herbs / vegetables in their gardens (hotels tend to have more space than a restaurant ).
What’s striking about De Kas is the combination of eco friendliness and style that makes it so distinctive.
An Indonesian businessman contributes to environmental wellness on a bike connected to a generator inside the “100 percent green” Crowne Plaza Hotel in Copenhagen. The energy produced by pedaling guests is stocked in a battery before being injected into the hotel’s power supply.
The Crowne Plaza’s concrete and steel tower is covered in some 1,500 solar panels that produce 170,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity, which is enough to power 55 households. In the basement of the 86-meter (232-feet) skyscraper there is a geothermal well which covers the hotel’s heating and air conditioning needs, slashing its energy bill by about 90 percent.
And in each of the 366 rooms, personal care accessories are biodegradable, taps are equipped with water-saving devices and all light bulbs are low-energy.
But that doesn’t mean the Intercontinental chain’s first “all-eco” hotel has clients roughing it.
“Everything was thought out with technologies respectful of the environment, without sacrificing quality, comfort, and the feeling of being at a four-star hotel,” spokeswoman Toemmergaard insists.
Wall coverings, carpeting, and even the feet on the design furniture are made from recycled materials and are guaranteed not to contain chemical products, while the computers have power-saving screens.
And the guests who redeem their electricity-production vouchers dine on organic food, and the high-tech kitchen grinds all its garbage and sends it to a local biogass central to be transformed into fuel.
Brilliant idea . It would taken the hotel meticulous effort to plan , create and source all the materials. The end result is an eco-hotel that’s an inspiring example to all businesses to think non-linearly and holistically about sustainability.
The eco-paradise wasn’t an easy sell to the slightly sceptical Intercontinental chain, Toemmergaard concedes.
“Often, when people think environmentally friendly, they think of smaller organic products that are less appealing than traditional offerings,” she says, adding that there had been a real fight “to convince the chain we had made the right choice.”
In the end, the franchises’s owners agreed to carry the project through because they believed Copenhagen needed a hotel that reflected its green ambitions, Toemmergaard says.
The bicycle-filled capital, which is “one of the world’s showcases for the environment and quality of life, which wants to become the first emission-free capital in 2025, should have a hotel that fits that image,” she says.
The carbon-dioxide neutral hotel cost some 125 million euros (156 million dollars) to build and is about five percent more expensive to run than a normal hotel, but the owners expect to make up the difference.
“In five or six years we will have a return on our investment that shows that it pays to make an effort for the environment,” Toemmergaard says.
( via physorg.com )
Visited a local supermarket today evening . I try to avoid going there on week ends . If I do it’s earlier in the day when the crowd is somewhat lesser.
- Use the basket instead of the cart . This alone will help to focus the purchases to essentials . Having a cart somehow seems to create the illusion that one is buying less (subconsciously comparing it with the volume of the cart ) + moving the cart is relatively effortless. Using a basket means that the space is limited + the basket getting heavier with every addition – is likely to limit wandering in aisles buying stuff that’s unnecessary
- Eat something before you go shopping . When hungry you are likely to buy more / snacky stuff
- Please carry a reusable bag for your purchases . It was despairing to see the volume of plastic floating around . The retailers are happy to give bags to customers . Hey , more bags means more purchases . The customers don’t seem to give plastic a second thought . Convenience rules . Sometimes I wonder where will the change come from . Retailers and (most) customers happily colluding for profit and convenience.
- Take a few mins to fill out the feedback form in the store to ask the retailer to start offer biodegradable bags .
We should not need an ‘incentive’ to be eco friendly . The fact that we inhabit earth is reason enough. Pl choose to make a difference – to yourself and to the planet.
Brilliant , much needed book by Michael Pollan. While he has written this book based on food habits of Americans it is (sadly) true and relevant for urban inhabitants in many parts of the world.
Besides the food wisdom in the book I love the design and style of the content . Simple , easy and quick to read . The style of writing may ensure that the book is widely read and many of the ideas are adopted by readers.
Some of the food rules…
- “Don’t eat anything your great grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.”
- “Don’t eat anything* with more than five ingredients, or ingredients you can’t pronounce.” (* processed food)
- “Don’t eat breakfast cereals that change the color of the milk.”
-”Eat all the junk food you want as long as you cook it yourself”
-”It’s not food if it’s called by the same name in every language (think Big Mac , Pringles..)”
It’s amazing to see the cocktail of ailments many folks bring upon themselves due to poor eating habits . There seems to be a generation of children who are being raised with irregular food habits and ‘industrial novelties’ aka processed foods. As my grandmom used to say ‘it’s better to pay money to the grocer than to the doctor’ (a point of view endorsed in the book as well).
Read the book . More importantly recreate your relationship with food .
