Posts Tagged ‘organic’

TV Off, Planet On!

Saturday, January 28th, 2012

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 =)

 

Awesome 2012

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

Decorate your wall board or desktop background with this earthy worthy calendar. Click on the link to the right to download a printable pdf or jpeg as per your screen size.

 

 
 

How will you make this Christmas and New Year eco friendly?

Tuesday, December 20th, 2011

 

 

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.

 

 

 

Living in Context with Nature

Wednesday, November 9th, 2011

 

 

Warli Lifestyle

Image Courtesy - Google

 

In the concrete jungle that the urban city has become, one tends to feel rather alienated from a natural eco existence. In fact, for people born and raised in urban spaces this is the only environment – and hence way of life one knows. Our household, cultural, educational and work related activities engage a significant proportion of our time. These life-style choices drive our interaction with the surrounding and consumption patterns. Hence, for millions of folks the urban experience is limited to their home, place of purpose and mode of commute.

‘What is this life if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare’ is a line from a poem called leisure written by William Henry Davies. Quite true, with regard to two aspects -

1) We have no time and

2) We do not have a lot to stare at, for there are quite a few surroundings that are a mere conglomeration of garbage and development debris.

Such was however not the case in every scenario, day and age. History offers us some fascinating insights in ways of living that were wisely connected with nature.

For example in the 3rd century A.D. in Ancient India groves and orchards were considered as sacred spaces where the local deities were placed. The domestic and monarchic setups within such a culture worked to protect the ecological surrounding that comprised of plants and animals.  These spaces were better known as the ‘sacred groves’ and people took their interaction with them very seriously. They were exempted from tax duties and even as of the present day they serve as rich reservoirs of seeds, saplings and plant posterity. Planting trees and donating groves earned merit. A culture such as this inspires and encourages one to live in joyous harmony with nature. Within the Sarguja district within Madhya Pradesh every village has 20 hectares of these groves. They’ve also been seen at Gani and Mangaon in Maharashtra.

One need not just look at an ancient culture to understand human life that is in harmony with nature. Even as of today there are many societies that function as part of nature and not independent from it – Meghalaya’s living bridges are a fine example of the same. Known to receive the highest levels of rainfall, the residents of these states make bridges out of fig tree roots to tackle floods. The Warli tribe from Dahanu and Talasari district, Thane also holds nature in high regard with respect to their culture and occupation. They teach their young ones to live in harmony with nature and not to fear its forces. In fact, at birth a male child is gifted an axe and a girl child a sickle to establish the connection with nature at a very nascent stage.

These examples bring us back to the urban city and our zone of familiarity. How do we make our existence more natural? We ought to take some time out to engage more with our surroundings and not live oblivious to them. We need a shift in our consciousness to change our thinking and finally impact our actions and lifestyle. We ought to make a serious audit on our consumption patterns and seek for a sustainable existence.

What we need is strong individual and collective action. A few small steps such as planting trees in the neighbourhood, composting, reducing consumption of plastic to the bare minimum, reducing waste , buying organic food , reusing & recycling , sharing, making our commute eco-friendly will definitely help the ecology around us and who knows it could be a very fun endeavour to get to know who your neighbour is.

None of these steps refer to an austere, serious life. Living in harmony with nature brings immense joy, peace and a sense of connectedness. We shape the world we inhabit – through conscious effort or inaction. Let’s honour the planet by conscious participation in the creation of a new world. In doing so the biggest gift will be to our self.

 

Stylishly green restaurant

Friday, July 16th, 2010

“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.

Stylishly green hotel

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

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 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 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 )

Organic state

Thursday, May 20th, 2010

The Indian state of Sikkim is working towards the goal of  100% organic agriculture by 2015 .

Silently, this ecological hotspot of the eastern Himalayas has moved towards sustainable agriculture in a big way, covering almost 90% of its agricultural land. Use of chemical pesticide, insecticide or chemical inputs was slowed down as early as 2003 but what was awaited was blanket certification. Now, even that seems to be on the fast track. Of 70,000 hectares of arable land in Sikkim, 6000 hectares is already organic-certified. By 2015, Sikkim aims to be completely organic certified.

Organic farming combines ecologically-sound modern technology with traditional agricultural practices including crop rotation, green manure and biological pest control to ensure reduction or total elimination of chemical inputs. In several parts of Sikkim, farmers have succeeded in growing completely organic maize, paddy, ginger, cardamom and turmeric while expanding the practices to other horticultural crops.

The first step came in May 2003, when the state government withdrew the subsidy on fertilizers. From 2006-07 onwards, the transport and handling subsidy and commission to the retailer was also withdrawn. Alongside, the government also adopted a seven-year plan to phase out use of chemical fertilizers, by gradually replacing these with organic sources.

“The government had taken the decision because it had seen the adverse impact of chemical fertilizers on our soil, water and on human health, considering ours is a biodiversity hotspot,” says S K Gautam, secretary in the department of food security and agriculture.

Wonderful to see the concerted , sustained , planned efforts to make an entire state organic . Yet another reason to visit this beautiful spot of the pale blue dot we inhabit.