A candle light dinner,
sharing common favourites on table…
favourite musical surrounding…
sound of raining outside,
fragrance of moist dust,

then walking again…
against the flow of air…
waving hair, sometime closed eyes…
watching and talking to each other,
then lying on sand, hands over hands,
talking romantic, seeing the sky,stars, full moon…
smiling, enjoying this beautiful first date…

To save energy, what do we need – Just simple changes in our habits and the way of living life at home and workplace. This can be easily done by adopting environment-friendly policies and other ideas (these all things are often cost-effective too).

There are two places where we spent most of our time – home and office, but a chunk of time is spent in the office. Most of us do not bother about the excessive usage and wastage of energy and resources in office because it doesn’t cost us. But we must understand that it cost to our environment at very high level. At home most of the people doesn’t bother about the bills and consume the energy a lot because either they have sufficient bucks to pay or somehow they get it free of cost.

1. Be Energy Efficient:

• Develop a habit to switch off the light in room, if you are leaving it for more than 10 minutes or you are the last one (in case of cubical/work area).
• Make it in habit to shut down the computer, switch off the monitor and unplug the power-strip when leaving the office for a long time, unless it is necessary to leave the system on for maintenance, backup or other important task running.
• Make it habit to leave your computer hibernated or in standby mode, if you are leaving your place or system for a short break or lunch/dinner time or for meeting and switch off the monitor. (PS: Screensavers doesn’t save power, those just change the display)
• Switch off the projector and other appliances, standby/hibernate the computer when you leave your conference room, unless it is necessary to leave them in on condition.
• At workplace most of you have a habit to put air conditioners on the lowest temperature which is not necessary. It cost more power consumption, which indirectly to environment. Maintaining room at 23°C – 24°C is sufficient.
• Make it habit to print at both sides of the paper. If this is temporary or rough purpose, then print on the back side of old one side printed paper. It will lead the saving of papers.
• Prefer to print in draft mode or low dpi mode, unless it is necessary. It saves a lot of ink and reduces the usage of cartridges. (It will reduce the e-wastage and landfill and oil).

2. Be Paperless as Possible:

• A lot of people, especially managers and crazy employees have habit to take a lot off printouts. The papers cost a lot of trees. So think before taking printouts, because some of the documents can still be stored and read online.
• If you receive unwanted newsletters, magazines, articles, junk mails, catalogs etc; unsubscribe or ask the sender to remove you from mailing list. (In case of e-mails it will save network load and disk space. In case of hard copies and envelopes by courier or post, it will save a lot of paper wastage).
• Prefer to pay your bills online and also unsubscribe the paper copy of the bills if feasible. It will save a chunk of papers and ink used for bills and envelops.

3. Smart Utilization of Travel and Transport:

• Make it in habit to use public transport like train, bus, metro instead for rental cars for your business. (It will reduce the traffic congestion; reduce the GHG emission and your cost). If it is necessary to use rental cars, then prefer to use high-mileage vehicles or hybrid cars.
• Make it policy to use video-conferencing, teleconferencing and other technical or infrastructural solutions for meeting, conference among the people from different places. It will save the cost of travel and time.
• Make it in habit to use shared cab service, bike pooling and public transport for daily commuting. It will reduce the traffic congestion, time of commuter checking and save the parking place.
• Consider for telecommuting if you live far from your office, or prefer to live closer to office, it will be savior in long term.
• Lobby your local government to spend on sidewalks, subways. With little cost, these improvements can pay huge dividends in bettering your health and reducing traffic.

4. Reuse and Recycle and Avoid Toxic Wastage:

• Prefer to re-use toners and ink cartridges (by refilling) and buy remanufactured toners or cartridges. It will reduce the landfill of hazardous e-wastage.
• Ask you government to setup Electronic product recycling and hazardous waste collection events.
• Prefer to retain the mobiles, PDAs, pagers and other gadgets instead of changing them frequently as well as try to recycle these all products.
• Make it in habit to recycle and reuse the papers, notepads, magazines and other company collects given to you.
• Make it policy and habit to drink filtered water instead of buying Bottled water, because mineral water production takes significant amount of energy and water. Even it also cost 240 times to 10000 times as much in comparison with filtered water or tap water.
• Prefer to use filtered water filled in metallic (like steel) bottles in meeting,  conferences or for personal purpose, because production of plastic bottles and bottles used for packaging of mineral water takes millions of ton of oil-derived plastics as well as significant amount of energy resources. Also dumping of these bottles makes landfill of toxic wastage.

Lightening is the most important thing in organizations, hotels for indoor work as well as interior and exterior decoration. Lowering the wastage of energy in this level may contribute the most.

• Implement better ideas to utilize day lightening as it is possible, it can lead to save the energy at large level.
• Buy Energy Star rated light bulbs or other lightening appliances (preferably CFLs or LEDs) which save at least two-third of the energy consumed by regularly used bulbs.
• Install the sensors (time based / motion based), which can automatically switch off the lights, when these are unnecessary.
• Install the solar energy based pole-lamps for infrastructure lightening and solar garden lightening.
• Think over the least wastage of lights in terms of wattage and usages even if using in royal decoration or any celebration.

2. Energy Efficient IT:

Today most of the organizations have IT infrastructure and some are IT companies itself. They can play a major role in saving energy and other resources by making their IT infrastructure more energy efficient.

• Make it policy to put penalties for careless computer users as well as some motivational rewards for most careful employees.
• Make it policy to run energy saving computer system and appliances.
  • It includes installing TFT/LCD/LED monitors in place of CRT monitors.
  • Installing power saving featured operating systems for servers (like Microsoft introduced Windows server 2008).
  • Using virtualization, it saves cost of hardware also.
• Conduct quick audits for efficiency of computer systems and other appliances as well as for their employees’ co-ordination in such activities.
• Old computer systems (in working conditions) can be donated to other small organizations, schools etc that will quicken them and will be able to save their purchasing cost. That will also lead to save the hazardous e-waste as well as donators may get some tax benefits too.
• Make it policy to print at both sides of the paper and enforce the employees to reuse the old papers. It will lead the saving of papers.
• Make it policy to purchase chlorine-free papers and recycled papers. Always opt for eco-friendly papers (made of bamboo, hemp, organic cotton, kenaf, Zein-coated papers for packaging etc).
• Make it policy to print in draft mode or low dpi mode, unless it is necessary. It saves a lot of ink and reduces the usage of cartridges. (It will reduce the e-wastage and landfill and oil).

3. Be Paperless as Possible:

A lot of papers and documents are used in organizations for data and records. Paper Industry consumes billions of trees and millions kilolitres of water for paper production (in multi millions ton per year). In a case study, 1 tone of paper production results in 1.36 ton of CO₂ or equivalent GHG (Green House Gases). Organizations should take initiatives for being paperless unless it is necessary to use paper.

• Make policy to post manuals, circulars, memorials, weekly/monthly magazines or other similar documents either online or through email. (They should avoid the printed copy distribution).
• Service providers should promote bill payments online and also provide bills online or through e-mails until and unless consumers explicitly demand for hard copy. It will save a chunk of papers and ink used for bills and envelops (It’s often cost effective too).

4. Efficient Utilization of Travel and Transport:

Travel and transport is the major contributor in emission of Green House Gases (GHG). Most organizations provide separate cabs/taxis for their managers and employees , few of them prefer to use class vehicles/SUVs (have low-mileage); these activities increase the traffic congestion, emission of GHG as well as excessive consumption of energy resources.

• Make it policy to provide transport services through buses instead of providing cars/taxis. (It will reduce the traffic congestion; reduce the GHG emission, fuel consumption and the cost incurred).
• If it is necessary to provide high quality of transport (especially for senior employees), use luxury buses if head counts are ample, or use high-mileage vehicles or hybrid cars for low head counts for particular route, preferably on shared basis.
• Make it policy to use video-conferencing, teleconferencing and other technical or infrastructural solutions for meetings, conferences among the people from different places. It will save the cost of travel and time (indirectly flight fuel in case of abroad journey).
• Prefer to buy the hybrid vehicles, vehicles with high-mileage or the vehicles which consumes CNG or other alternative fuels which emit less GHG.
• Telecommuting if employee live far from the office, unless his/her presence in office is necessary.

5. Build up Reusing and Recycling and Avoid Toxic Wastage:

Reusing and recycling the devices, accessories and promoting these activities will not only save the energy and other resources used in their production, but also reduce landfill of e-wastage as well as toxic wastage plus pollution. In long term these activities are also proved to be cost-effective.

• Make it policy to re-use toners and ink cartridges (by refilling) and buy remanufactured toners or cartridges. It will reduce the landfill of hazardous e-wastage.
• Prefer to buy high-quality and long-lasting products as well as avoid frequent replacement of the appliances and other utilities. It will reduce the landfill of hazardous e-wastage.
• Prefer to use filtered water filled in metallic (like steel) bottles in meeting, conferences, because production of plastic bottles and bottles used for packaging of mineral water takes millions of ton of oil-derived plastics as well as significant amount of energy resources. Also dumping of these bottles makes landfill of toxic wastage (Even it also cost 240 times to 10000 times more than cost of tap water).

6. Green Office Environment:

• Grow mini plants inside office (those who do not need sun light) instead of placing artificial plants for decoration. It will absorb CO₂ and other indoor pollutants as well as decorate interior of the office.
• Usage of nontoxic cleaning products in the office.
• Make it policy to avoid purchasing of furniture made of composite wood, because these give off harmful vapors called VOL (Volatile Organic Compounds).
• Make it policy to buy the furniture made of reclaimed lumber or recycled materials or biodegradable furniture, because manufacturing wooden furniture cost a lot of trees.
• If organizations, hotels wish to use wood for interior decoration, then prefer to use salvaged or harvested lumber.
• Make it policy to use natural flooring such as organic wool carpeting, bamboos, corks, linoleum made of linseed oil and tiles made of recycled glasses or porcelain.
• Conduct awareness programs as well as eco-friendly activities for their employees.

Watch a girl delivering speech to UN…^

“Go Green” is the most prominent topic today and all of us ought to join this campaign. This is not a campaign with hot advertisement, a lot of media attracting statements or a high class meetings and conference. This campaign doesn’t require any of technical, financial or extra-ordinary skills, it just need your co-operation and support with humility. “Go Green” doesn’t belong to specific class of society. Either you can take this initiative with your interest or you must follow it as a rule sometime in future.

Global warming is the top level problem caused by human activities. There are a lot of activities which are responsible for Global Warming – Green House Gases emission, De-Forestation, Toxic wastage, Pollution et cetera.

Directly or indirectly human activities are responsible for ozone depletion, climate changes, ice-melting, rise in sea-level, extinction of many species, water scarcity, rise in temperature, forest fire, acid rain, damage in ecology production and ecosystem et cetera. That day is not too far when we would need to carry oxygen cylinders in backpack to breath, paying more than 500 bucks to drink a glass of water, living under fire, fighting for a bit of food, killing each other to get a shed over head.

Everything in this world creates equilibrium and these all are connected to a chain. If even a single ring is broken, the whole chain will collapse. All natural resources are being consumed in production of all comforts for our life, with the rate more than what is needed to grow them up. As well as, people are so ignorant to these facts, that they deny accepting their mistake if any.
People, please wake up, and accept the facts without pre-occupied minds, stop misusing the resources, participate in activities to save this earth. If you do care for nature, the nature will do for you. Each person’s small contribution will result in mass participation. What do we need to do – Just simple changes in the way of our business and the way of living life, that’s it. This can be easily done by adopting environment-friendly policies and other ideas (these all things are often cost-effective too).

पहर पर पहर बीते जा रहे हैं
ज्योत्स्ना खोती जा रही है |
चन्दा को पश्चिम खींच रहा है
तारों की चमक रोती जा रही है |
लो, ब्रह्मवेला शुरू हो गयी
विदाई कि तैयारी ख़त्म हो गयी
मेघ पवनान्दोलित हो आ गया
सिंहनाद करता छा गया |
मेघों की कराल तड़ित के पीछे
चन्दा विदाई पा गया |

अब उस मयंक के साथ मेघदल चला गया,
स्वर्ण वेला का संदेश आ गया |
खंजन नीड़ से निकले, मधुमुकुल खिल गए
मानो क्षितिज पर दिनेश आ गया |
दिग्मंडल का स्नेह-स्पर्श करने को
अर्क ने अपने अरुण करों को फैलाया |
निशा में चाँदनी से नहाई धरित्री को
सूर्य ने लालिमा से अभिषेक कराया |
व्योम से संसृति की धरा तक
प्रकृति का छविजाल बढ़ाया |

हरी दूब के नीहार आवरण की
मानो अब शामत आ गयी |
जैसे ही दिनकर ऊर्ध्व को बढ़ा
रवि की धवल किरणें छा गयीं |
पंकिल शतदल खिल उठे हैं
भौंरे फूल में पराग ढूंढ रहे हैं |
गिरि पर कानन से आती मर्मर ध्वनि
और बसन्त-दूत के संदेश गूँज रहे हैं |
निर्झरिणी कलकल करती बह रहीं हैं,
प्रात की समीर से कह रही हैं -

रवि का आलोक मद्धिम हो रहा है
काली घटा का आगमन हो रहा है |
क्षैतिज पर घटा से आलोक घटा
यह देख हर प्राणी अवाक् हो रहा है |
तभी तड़ित की रौर ध्वनि ने स्तब्धता स्खलित कर दी
घनतिमिर के तम में चमक से रोशनी कुछ क्षणिक कर दी |
मेघदल के रौद्र स्वरों से
झंकृत हो गया विश्व का हर जड़-जंगम |
फिर पावस की रंजन फुहार छूट गयी
हुआ मिट्टी से पावस का संगम |

पावस की बंकिम पड़ती बूँदों से
हर प्राणी उच्छ्वसित हो गया |
साथ समीर के ठण्डे झोंकों से
हर रोम समीरान्दोलित हो गया |
पावस, मृदा के संगम-सौरभ से
भीगे चन्दन की महक से अनुरंजित हो
बयार से अन्तर्मन को कुछ तोष हुआ |
पुष्कल पावस की रूमानी ध्वनि से
समीर से कम्पित वृक्ष की मर्मर ध्वनि से
अभ्यंतर अब कुछ खामोश हुआ |

पावस की गति मन्द हो रही है
मानो मेघ का तरकश खाली हो गया |
चला अभ्रदल बूँदों को समेटकर
मानो अम्बर अब खाली हो गया |
अभ्रदल की वापसी से पहले
इन्द्र ने अपना धनुष उठाया |
सप्त अश्व के रथी दिनकर ने
वह सप्तरंगी धनुष हटाया |
अर्क की गर्मी पावस से ठण्डी हो गयी
गर्म धरा भी बूँदों से ठण्डी हो गयी |

जलधर की इस उद्दाम वृष्टि से
इस धरा पर जलमग्नता आ गयी |
ये संसृति जल पंजर गत हो गयी
प्रकृति के रंग में नव्यता छा गयी |
चमक उठे सब प्रसून व पत्ते,
नील वितान में भव्यता आ गयी |
स्वच्छ, निर्मल इस नीले अम्बर में
पीताम्बर ओढ़कर सूरज निकला |
लम्बी प्रतीक्षा करने के पश्चात्
तपन छोड़कर सूरज निकला |

समय व्यतीत, गोधूलि वेला आ गयी
परन्तु कहीं धूल नहीं उड़ रही है |
रवि अस्ताचल की ओर बढ़ रहा है
दिन की राह निशा से जुड़ रही है |
लो, दिनकर वापस चला गया,
देख यह खग वापस आ गये
अब धरा तिमिर में खो रही है |
दिवसावसान हो गया अब
शशि फिर से निकल आया है
स्तब्ध तिमिर में रात हो रही है |