Environment Action Toolkit ; Part 2

In the last post, I tried to outline the basic toolkit for individuals willing to contribute positively to the environment.

As mentioned in the last post, this is the second out of the three-part series intended for individuals willing to take proactive action towards creating a cleaner and greener environment. 

Part 1 of the series called the Basic toolkit discussed very basic steps that one could start right away without much lifestyle compromises or investment.  

Let us see what are the few more initiatives that one can take as a part of an individual action towards contributing towards the climate cause.

1. Have a White Roof: When sunlight falls on the dark surface like a rooftop, it warms the surface heating the building below. On the other hand, when sunlight falls on a white surface, much of it is reflected back through the atmosphere. So it is not converted into heat. Technically, white surfaces have a higher degree of solar reflectance and emittance. 

Painting the Roof White is Simple, cheap, and Doable.

Advantages of White roofs are 

1. Reduces the energy consumption inside the building. 

2. Increases the Life of the roof. 

3. Increases the rainwater runoff from the roofs. 

4. Reflected Light increases what is called Albedo, slightly increasing the energy input into the solar panels (If present). 

5. Drastically reduces the conversion of light to heat.  

2. Make your Bio-Enzyme: The vim bars and the rin bars that we use daily are some of the reasons for the poor quality of our water bodies. Frothing in the lake, eutrophication of lakes is because of the heavy chemical discharges into the lakes. 

Preventing Industrial effluents and domestic sewage from entering our water bodies may be difficult at the individual level. But one can start from his or her home. Switching to organic locally made soaps and detergents or even better making your own Bio-Enzyme is one of the best ways to stop chemical effluents from entering the water bodies. 

I will not go into details on how to prepare Bio-Enzymes here. It is pretty easy. Hundreds of videos are available on YouTube on how one can make Bio-Enzymes. Making Bio-enzymes at home also reduces the wet waste that one generates and aids in the circular economy. 

Making bio-enzyme is a little time taking and demands some commitment. But it is a wonder material for one's own health and the environment's health. 

3. One tree per Person per year: In my last post, I mentioned having few plants at home. The natural extension is to graduate to a tree. It is said that one person needs seven trees to provide him with adequate oxygen for his living. So it becomes our natural duty to Plant and nurture trees for our own well-being and the well-being of our children. 

A simple way to care for the trees is for everyone to plant at least one tree per year. Many of us may not have or may not find space for planting a tree. We can first start by planting trees on the roadside. Next is the neighbuorhood. One may not find any space anywhere. In that case, a good idea is either to buy or make seed balls and throw them on every patch of soil. The success rate of even 1% is good. 

Many towns have tree clubs that are mostly into organized tree planting. Weekly or monthly programs are organized where volunteers plant hundreds of trees. One can volunteer there or contribute to the cause. 

A small word of caution here. Post pandemic, I have seen many over-enthusiastic folks planting trees on the roadside without any cognizance of the tree species. One must plant native, 'slow-growing trees' that have deep roots and solid girth. So-called fast-growing trees are more a problem than a solution in the long run. 

4. Conserve Rainwater: In my last post, I mentioned the true cost of water and the true energy footprint of water. To reiterate, Sourcing, pumping, filtering, and conveying water is one of the most energy-guzzling and polluting infrastructure activities in the urban scenario. For political reasons, the true cost of this process is never discussed in the public domain. 

So any environment-conscious individual must conserve as much water as possible and augment as must water as possible locally. On the demand side of the water, one must become more efficient by having aerators, water meters, etc. On the Supply-side, harvesting rainwater is one of the simplest ways. In my next post, I will talk more bout rainwater harvesting. Here, it suffices to say that one can start small, as small as keeping the bucket in the rain to save a few drops of water. The joy and the pleasure of harvesting cloud juice will naturally encourage and inspire him or her to take more proactive steps in conserving rainwater. 

5. Stop Using RO water: RO or reverse osmosis is an energy-guzzling and water-wasting process of filtering water. RO is generally used to filter rather; soften the hard water. RO process does not eliminate any bacteriological contamination in the water. 

Wasting water is criminal and RO does exactly that. RO does not just consume excess energy to waste precious water, it also eliminates some of the useful minerals in the water that are very must essential for the human body. 

Before getting into the alternatives for RO, let us first see if we need a RO in the first place at all. If the source of drinking water is river water or shallow aquifer water or tap water through the municipality, it will have hardness much below permissible limits and does not require RO filtration. One can use a simple UV filter (Water passes through the ultraviolet light that destroys micro-organisms) and be done with so-called Filtration.  If one is not sure about the source of water, one can get the water tested (Or buy a TDS meter Which costs about 400 rupees) for hardness and then decide on filtration. {It is important not to be carried away by marketing gimmicks of water purifier companies.} 

RO must be used for filtering water above a TDS (Total dissolved solids) of  800 PPM. For lesser than 800, UF or Ultrafiltration is good enough to treat the TDS. UF does not use electricity or waste any water to treat TDS. (The video here gives some information on different water filtering technologies)

Recently, something called AWG or atmospheric water generators have come into the market. These use the humidity in the atmosphere, condense it to make it into potable water. These are good options in coastal areas. 

6. Switch to Solar water heaters:  Solar water heaters are the best alternative to energy-consuming water heaters. Particularly for a tropical country like India, it makes a lot of environmental and economical sense to use a solar water heater than an electrically powered geyser. 

7. Demand Action: Apart from making changes in one's lifestyle and taking actions at the individual level, one must start by demanding action from political and "religious" leaders on environmental matters. 

As a start, one can start by meeting the local politicians on the issue of tree cover, on the issue of rainwater wastage from streets, on the issue of waste management. Problems solved as locally as possible are good for the government as well as the environment. 

I shall conclude this second part of the toolkit by reiterating again that the most important and most powerful proactive action that one can take is to simply consume less. 

In the next and final part of the toolkit, I shall dwell on the next set of actions that involve some serious lifestyle compromises, a bit of time and financial investment, and a little more commitment towards the environment.