SunCorp

God give me the strength to accept the things I cannot change........
Courage to change the things I can..............
and the Wisdom to know the difference.

A seventh dam across the Chalakudy may sound the death-knell of the river.

The air is filled with birdsong. Underneath, the gurgling river tries to keep pace. A gentle breeze through the bamboo adds the rustle of crisp, spiky leaves to the medley. The resulting symphony is magical.

Some 75 km northwest of Kochi is the trading town of Chalakudy. And a short 25 km along the winding inter-state road flows the river that carries its name. Another few km and you are at the Athirampilly falls where water roars over a rocky knoll in white, effervescent waves thundering down nearly 45 metres. One November morning, the river is swollen and flows at a brisk pace, about 70 meandering miles from its twin sources — the higher reaches of the Annamalai hills in Tamil Nadu and the exquisite Parambikulam plateau in Kerala.

Then you realise that this might be the last time you may see this scene: if need for ‘progress’ overrides essential humanness; if, in utter disregard to all known facts, the proposed Chalakudy hydel project is implemented — the seventh along the 145 km journey of the already heavily dammed river. The Government of Kerala is planning this dam just upstream of the enchanting Vazhachal rapids and five km upstream of the falls. The immediate likely upshot? The 23m high dam, part of the Athirampilly Hydro Electric Project with an installed capacity of a paltry 163 MW, will drown another 140 hectares of prime forest land.

The steep gradient of the Chalakudy basin makes it technically suitable for hydroelectric dams and subsequent diversion of water to other river basins. Of the six dams already constructed on its tributaries, four were built by Tamil Nadu and two by Kerala. Of the four dams built by TN, three are located in Kerala and have the sole purpose of diverting water (nearly 16tmc.ft) from the Chalakudy to the plains of Tamil Nadu for irrigation and power generation under the Parambikulam-Aliyar Project.

This complex multi-purpose, multi-river, inter-State, inter-basin water-sharing project diverts water from the upper reaches of the three major west flowing rivers of Kerala namely the Periyar, the Chalakudy and the Bharathapuzha to the eastern state of Tamil Nadu. This treaty — based on the illusion of surplus water in Kerala rivers and political pressures — has sounded the death knell of major rivers in Kerala including the iconic Bharathapuzha or Nila.

Projects on the river

Apart from the six dams, there are other major irrigation projects of weirs, diversion canals, augmentation projects, water diversion schemes and regulator dams constructed by various gram panchayats, which have combined to disrupt the river’s natural behaviour. While some tributaries have stopped flowing completely below the dams due to the complete diversion of water; others, like the Sholayar tributary, have been transformed into a chain of reservoirs.

Since minimum flow has not been ensured, and the discharge from the six dams fluctuates heavily, there is a huge variation in the river flow in the monsoon and non-monsoon periods leading to flash floods that cause incalculable damage downstream in the form of erosion and crop damages, not to mention damage to aquatic life. And now comes the proposed scheme to build one more dam.

The Kerala government and the State electricity board seem bent on going ahead, despite resistance from scientists, NGOs, environmentalists and widespread protests by people along the riparian areas.

Damage

Consider these stark realities: the project has been refused clearance twice over, first by the Ministry of Environment and Forests and then by the Kerala high court owing to violations in assessing environmental impact.

According to environmentalists the Athirampilly project will displace endangered primitive hunter-gatherer tribes; the famed Vazhachal rapids and the Athirampilly falls will lose their glory, severely denting tourism in the region; the decreased flow for almost 20-22 hours in a day (in summer) will imperil the agricultural operations in almost 20,000 hectares of land not to mention the adverse impact on a large number of drinking water schemes ...

Repercussions on the riparian flora and fauna are grimmer. The myriad cascades and rapids along the river and its tributaries are ideal habitat for diverse species of fishes.

According to the National Bureau of Fish Genetic Resources (NGFGR), a total of 104 species belonging to 34 families have been recorded here, many critically endangered or vulnerable, making the Chalakudy one of the richest in terms of fish diversity. Ironically, there is a proposal pending to declare the river a fish sanctuary. The 140 hectares of forest doomed to submergence is home to diverse animal species including the Asiatic Elephant and the Great Indian Hornbill. As for flora, the 1704 sq km catchment area is the only remaining riparian forest at this altitude in the entire Western Ghats.

Isn’t there any alternative to this stubborn assault on Nature? The proposed 160 MW accounts for a paltry three per cent of the state’s current electricity production and can be met by other measures. Power available from the existing thermal and hydel power stations are vastly underutilised, often for untenable and illogical reasons. Currently, transmission losses are a whopping 25 to 30 per cent; power theft is among the highest in the state.

There are other alternatives too: the Kerala Sahitya Parishad, after a thorough power audit, reports that Kerala uses 20 million 60W incandescent bulbs for domestic use alone. If five million are replaced with CFL lamps, power saving at the peak-load period would be around 300 MW. Even if distributed free, the total expenditure would be less than Rs. 250 crores as against the Rs. 650 crores and more needed to set up the new hydel station. A differential tariff for peak and non-peak hours will encourage energy conservation measures and reduce peak-hour demand.

Instead of going to the forests with a bulldozer, say experts, exploit sustainable energy sources like solar and wind power. A sensible and environment-conscious approach will throw up many other alternatives.

   

In 2004 there were 218 million children working illegally in the eyes of international treaties. Child labour is defined as all economic activity for children under 12 years, any work for those aged 12-14 of sufficient hours per week to undermine their health or education, and all “hazardous work” which could threaten the health of children under 18.

Almost all child labour occurs in developing countries, largely in agriculture but also including domestic service, factory production and backstreet workshops. Despite a fall of over 10% in the figure since the last assessment in 2000, over 25% of children in sub-Saharan Africa and 18% in Asia remain trapped within the cycle of poverty of which child labour is part.

126 million of these children are engaged in hazardous work, such as mining or handling chemicals, which is otherwise described as the “worst forms of child labour”. A further class within this latter description is known as the “unconditional” worst forms of child labour and refers to any form of slavery or coercion, trafficking, prostitution and military enrolment – no statistics are available for this category but the numbers are likely to be close to 10 million.

There is an additional category of “working children” not included in these statistics because the profile of age, nature of work and hours is not regarded as harmful. For example, light work of a few hours per week could be regarded as beneficial; “child labour” by contrast should be eliminated.

Supply and Demand

Poverty is the seed-bed of child labour. Poor parents send their children to work for reasons of economic expediency, the consequent denial of education setting in motion a mutually reinforcing cycle liable to pass down the generations. It is nevertheless oversimplistic to attribute the problem solely to poverty; schools are often prohibitively expensive, of poor quality or inaccessible. Cultural pressures can undermine perception of the long term value of education, especially for girl children. 

The HIV/AIDS pandemic has regenerated the supply side of the child labour equation. Households where adult members suffer prolonged periods of illness suffer dramatic cuts in income and forced sales of assets which are compensated by withdrawing children from school and sending them to work. Africa in particular has seen a dramatic rise in the new phenomenon of child-headed households, brought on by AIDS mortality. An estimated 10% of all children orphaned by HIV/AIDS in Africa are heads of households, compelled to provide for siblings. There is evidence that the global fall in child labour is being reversed in African countries most affected by HIV/AIDS. 

This supply of child labour is accommodated by the demand of employers for a cheap and flexible workforce, including small-scale enterprises whose owners exploit their own family members. It is a mistake to think of globalisation as a force for improvement in labour standards. Although large-scale manufacturing industries may not directly rely on child labour, backward linkages created through subcontracting labour-intensive segments of the product may be less compliant. For example, corporations such as Monsanto and Syngenta have been accused of bidding down cotton seed prices to the point that farmers are unable to afford adult labour.

Girl children are in demand for domestic service, the invisible nature of which adds to their vulnerability to exploitation and abuse. Absence from official statistics is even more likely for those girls kept away from school in order to work for their own families in the home or on the land.

Children's Rights

child labour

In 1989, the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) within which Article 32 asserts the right that children should not be engaged in work deemed to be “hazardous or to interfere with the child's education, or to be harmful to the child's health”. Global political initiatives to strengthen these rights, together with the production of internationally recognized statistics, are coordinated by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) which has allied its mission with the cause. For example, the 1999 ILO Convention for the Elimination of the Worst Forms of Child Labour calls for the immediate elimination of all “worst forms” of work for children. The ILO aims to achieve this objective by 2016 with clear plans in place by 2008.

Countries ratifying these conventions are committed to providing laws which enforce the provisions. Similar rights to children’s education backed by laws serve to reinforce child labour legislation. Every full-time student is one less full-time child worker.

Unfortunately, 20 countries have not yet ratified the ILO convention, notably India and Nepal where child labour remains stubbornly widespread – estimates suggest there are up to 25 million Indian child labourers with many more millions unaccounted for, whilst in Nepal 42% of boys aged 10-14 are working. In 2006 India strengthened legislation by extending its definition of hazardous work to include domestic labour and catering establishments but there is deep scepticism that attitudes towards children will change.

The worst form of exploitation of girls - child prostitution - is being fought in part by extra-territorial laws that permit prosecution of citizens who sexually abuse children in another country. For example nationals from many European countries and the US can now be charged at home for engaging a child prostitute in Thailand.

Universally recognised children's rights are however insufficient means of combating child labour. Although almost every country has laws prohibiting the employment of children below a certain age, the legislation may exempt certain sectors - often the very sectors where the highest numbers of working children are found. In other countries, penalties for violating child labour laws are inadequate. And probably the most common obstacle to adequate legal protection for children is the fact that legislation is not enforced.

Development Solutions to Child Labour

Empowering child labourers

Where laws fail, pressure groups step into the breach. The concentrated use of child labour in certain highly visible industries has, in some cases, attracted intense media attention and ultimately successful public campaigns for governments to get tough on child labour. Authorities in India occasionally engineer police raids on suspect factories creating headlines that children have been “rescued”. But such actions are typically ineffective in the absence of institutional capacity to rehabilitate the children and there is increasing consensus that such targeted programs need to do more than simply remove children from work.

Similar doubts exist over Western-inspired sanctions or boycotts of specific goods which do little to address the root causes of child labour. Likewise voluntary labelling of goods invariably entails difficulty in establishing necessary credibility – indeed any cultural change imposed from the outside and which impacts family income raises difficult questions.

The integration of child labour concerns into national development strategies is therefore the preferred route to a lasting solution. Reduction of chronic poverty through broad-based economic and social development, with a strong emphasis on human resource development, will create the environment for fundamental change in cultural attitudes towards children. Tanzania and Brazil are countries which have been singled out as adopting development strategies which recognize the importance of child labour.

Millennium Development Goals and Child Labour

Child Labour

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) offer no favours to child labour campaigners. The targets and indicators within the MDG framework make no reference to the subject of child labour which is therefore less likely to feature in national Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers that shape governments’ policies. Critics argue that child labour could undermine progress towards Goals for education, HIV and gender equality. Compounding the faultlines, MDG indicators for primary education aim for a total of 5 years of education, far less than implied by child labour conventions.

Achievement of the MDG to provide universal education by 2015 would by definition eliminate child labour but this assumes a one-way relationship between the two issues. Whilst it is true that child labour flourishes in the vacuum of inadequate or non-existent education, it is also true that the availability of education alone will not be sufficient to break down the demand for child labour. The problems of education and child labour need to be recognized both for their interconnection and for their separation.

In an implied admonition of the MDG approach, a new international joint-agency group established in 2005, The Global Task Force in Child Labour and Education, explicitly aims to achieve education for all through the elimination of child labour. The principle is reinforced by a cost/benefit analysis carried out by the UN which demonstrates the value of eliminating child labour by reference to the long term economic benefit of a more educated workforce.

Child Soldiers

Children at war in DRC

The grotesque abuse of children for military purposes survives seemingly beyond the powers of development strategies or human rights law. Programmes for reintegration of child soldiers call for complex psychological therapies rather than mere schooling.

Children are vulnerable to this most extreme form of labour typically in countries suffering longstanding civil conflict, in regions of extreme poverty and a complete breakdown of central authority. The proliferation of lightweight but deadly small arms of sophisticated modern design – a child of 10 can be trained to strip down a Kalashnikov – enables a cheap, unquestioning and expendable army to be conscripted from children. Warlords will abduct or purchase child soldiers from their families with impunity.

The UN lists 12 countries in which an estimated total of 250,000 children are found in military service, amongst them Sri Lanka, Uganda, Nepal, and Philippines. There may be as many as 70,000 child soldiers engaged in government and rebel armies in Burma. These countries are now under pressure to sign the “Optional Protocol” to the CRC which would compel new laws and reintegration of child solders into normal life. The International Criminal Court already considers the recruitment of children under age 15 for military purposes to be a war crime.

 

 

 

Paper or plastic grocery bags - which are better for the environment?

You probably think you know the answer. And you're probably wrong.

Paper bags are not necessarily better for the environment than plastic - despite many consumers' long-standing assumption that paper beats out plastic hands down when it comes to eco-friendliness.

"There definitely was a period of time when the message was, 'Choose paper over plastic,' " said Jenny Powers, a spokeswoman for the Natural Resources Defense Council. "That's not the way to view it."

Powers and other environmental experts now say the best choice is neither paper nor plastic - it's reusable shopping bags made of substances like cotton, hemp, nylon or durable mesh-like plastic.

"The ideal option is bring your own bag," Powers said. "Second choice is to ask for the type of bag that you know will be reused - plastic if you'll use it for holding trash, or paper if you will recycle it."

The question of the relative merits of various kinds of grocery bags sounds simple.

But in fact, scientists spend large amounts of time trying to nail down the environmental impacts of creating, transporting and disposing of products such as grocery bags - a process known as life cycle analysis.

The final answer depends on numerous details, including:

-- Whether the bags are made from recycled or virgin materials.

-- How far the raw ingredients and finished bags must travel before reaching consumers.

-- How much energy and water are used in the manufacturing process.

-- Whether bags that are labeled "recyclable" or "compostable" actually end up being recycled and composted, or just get dumped in the trash.

The stakes are high. Ninety percent of today's grocery bags are plastic. Californians alone use 19 billion plastic bags each year - 600 bags every second - according to the California Integrated Waste Management Board.

And fewer than 5 percent of plastic bags historically have been recycled, compared with 21 percent of paper bags.

Plastic bags are a particular problem in coastal regions like the Bay Area, where they often end up in rivers and oceans - poisoning or strangling marine life. Sixty to 80 percent of ocean debris is plastic, according to the Algalita Marine Research Foundation. And while plastic may gradually shred into smaller pieces, those fragments will persist and threaten sea life for up to 1,000 years.

But paper bags have other negative effects on the environment.

"If you're comparing a paper bag made from virgin timber with a plastic bag made with natural gas, the paper bag causes more global warming pollution, more biodiversity impacts and more water impacts," said Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist with NRDC who has worked on life cycle analyses for two decades. "If the paper bag is not recycled, it will generate greater carbon emissions during incineration than plastic would, or greater methane emissions if it is landfilled."

One thing is clear in every study that has been done: Reusable bags beat both paper and plastic on virtually all environmental criteria.

For instance, a 2002 Australian study concluded that someone using plastic grocery bags for a year would go through 520 bags and generate 6.08 kilograms of greenhouse gases, which contribute to global warming. Someone using paper bags would also go through 520 bags to generate 11.8 kilograms of greenhouse gases.

But a year's worth of reusable polypropylene bags - estimated at four bags, used twice a week - would generate less than 2 kilograms of greenhouse gases.

"The best thing is for people to be encouraged to take reusable bags," said Hershkowitz. "That's a truism everyone can agree upon."

 

 

Hong Kong shoppers will be paying a levy on plastic bags by the year 2009 following the approval of a new bill aimed at helping the environment.

The bill, published yesterday, will impose a levy of HK$0.50 (US$0.06) on every plastic bag taken home from supermarkets, convenience stores and cosmetics shops.

The introduction of the levy follows years of debate on the issue and comes just one month after supermarket chain Park 'N' Shop abandoned a similar scheme charging HK$0.20 per bag following public uproar.

The scheme has also come under fire by plastic bag manufacturers, many of whom are based in Hong Kong but have factories in China, who argue that many of the alternatives to plastic bags are even less environmentally friendly.

According to government statistics, Hong Kong uses 23 million plastic bags -- more than three bags per person -- every day.

With the Product Eco-responsibility bill, the tax will be imposed in phases, with the first phase affecting supermarkets and larger chain stores expected to be in place by the beginning of 2009.

Secretary for the Environment Edward Yau said he expected the levy to bring in HK$100 million in its first year. However, he stressed the aim was to change public behavior and its success would be measured by less money being generated, not more.

The spectre of an earth devastated by climate change marked the Sanctuary Wildlife Awards on Friday night; the function also saw 11 individuals being honoured as Earth Heroes for their efforts in the field of conservation.

Several local heroes were also honoured for being anonymous warriors in the battle to save the environment. They included students who helped bust a ring selling tiger claws and other products; the Save Rani Baug Committee, which is seeking to stop the zoo from becoming a Rs 400-crore entertainment park; and a Sanjay Gandhi National Park forester who documented and helped shift encroachers and others.

Forest ranger Sasi Kumar has won many an accolade for tracking down the purveyors of animal products—a regular menace in the forests of Wayanad, Kerala. From chasing leopard killers to tusk smugglers, this winner of the Wildlife Service Award has displayed his sharp investigative skills on all fronts.

He co-heads a design company in Mumbai, and at 31, has traversed the length and breadth of India on self-organised survey tours and photography adventures. Sachin Rai’s photograph of a male Wards Trogon Harpactes, a rare bird found in the jungles of Arunachal Pradesh, has won him the first prize in the Sanctuary Wildlife photography awards this year.
He is a teacher by profession, but his lessons are not confined to the four walls of a classroom. Sukumar Paira of Bali, an island near the Sunderbans in West Bengal, won the Sanctuary Green Teacher Award. He has extended his work to renew the bond between children and tigers by opening 26 nature clubs.

Winner of a Lifetime Service Award, researcher and zoologist Dr Ulhas Karanth has been active in tiger conservation surveys and measures at the Nagarhole and Bhadra reserves. He has maintained a reliable record of the tiger population in India through the camera-capturerecapture method. Karanth is also director of the US-based Wildlife Conservation Society’s India programme.

The Sanctuary Wildlife Awards ceremony in Mumbai showcased prize-winning photographs shot in the jungles of India. With a humour-laced commentary interspersed with warnings on global warming, green warrior Bittu Sahgal unveiled images that vibrantly captured fauna in habitats that have to kept alive.

The scriptures clearly define the three qualities of tamas, rajas and sattva present in all of us. Tamas is inertia or resistance to transformation. Rajas is aggressiveness, restlessness or result-oriented action. Sattva is the characteristic of purity inside us.

As human beings, all of us have this wonderful quality which gives us patience, tolerance and establishes us in a state of utter tranquillity. But our sattvic nature has been pushed to the background. That is why we make no progress in spiritual practices like meditation. Total confusion, problems and worries are the fruits of tamas. Lack of peace or a disturbed mind is the fruit of rajas. Peace, happiness and contentment are the fruits of sattva.

 Our sattvic nature is given to us in the form of energy by God Himself. It empowers us to cope with problems in a very systematic way without affecting our mental peace or depleting our humane qualities. It tunes us to Divinity and activates our Soul. Just like we preserve food using a preservative, we should preserve our minds using the energy called sattva. If we want to have unflagging inspiration, zeal, zest and dynamism, we have to soak our minds in sattva.
    

Sattva gives us the ability to remain unruffled at all times. We interact with so many people. Whatever people say, we should never allow inner peace to get destroyed. If there is a grain of sattva in us, other people’s thoughts, words and actions will bombard and kill it if we react to them. Even if somebody accuses you, keep quiet. After a while that person will realise his mistake. When we don’t react and become completely quiet inside, what comes out of us is sattva and peace. This is in the form of a vibration. We cannot see it, but we can feel and experience it. These divine vibrations are extremely powerful. They transform people and situations, as no words can.

When we don’t react, our sattva acts like a concrete wall and shields us from other people’s negative energy. If we react, all that energy will invade us in the form of vibrations. Then we will feel depressed, tired and depleted of energy. Sattva is an armour that protects us from all kinds of negative vibrations, as well as an antenna that attracts positive and divine vibrations. Physical proximity is not required for the transmission of such vibrations. They are transmitted automatically even when we think of a person. That is why, when we pray for somebody’s welfare, though that person is far away, our prayers benefit him.

We allow our sattvic qualities to drain away in so many ways — through over-reacting, indulging in negative thoughts and emotions and even through unnecessary talk and gossip. If we want to retain our equipoise, we must avoid such things. The whole point of venerating a guru or god is to increase the sattva in us. We think doing so would resolve our problems.

However, the main purpose is to increase the sattva in us. Sleep replenishes our sattva to the extent of 25 per cent. The guru rejuvenates our sattva one hundred per cent. Selfless prayer, meditation, chanting the holy names of God and spending time with evolved beings restore our sattvic qualities. We must constantly replenish this energy inside us. When we establish this quality in us, God resides in our minds. The vibrations of peace and happiness that we exude will bring contentment and serenity into the lives of all those around us.

Shenzhen, the booming mainland China area that neighbors Hong Kong, said it is considering legislation to end the free use of plastic shopping bags supplied by retailers. A ban would make Shenzhen the first mainland city to battle the rampant use of plastic shopping bags, but any curbs will face public controversy.

Shenzhen's legislative affairs office has been soliciting opinion on a revised draft of an environmental protection regulation that would end the 30-year retail practice of providing free plastic shopping bags. The draft Environmental Protection Regulation stipulates  that retailers will be fined from 5,000 yuan (US$667) to 50,000 yuan if they provide free plastic bags or fail to provide environment-friendly shopping bags or reusable baskets.

Zeng Suisheng, chief of the economic laws and regulations section of Shenzhen's legislative affairs office, said his office had posted the draft on the city's website and had written to more than 40 departments to seek opinions.

The environmental protection department has defended its proposal by listing statistics on the environmental impact of plastic bags. Retailers across Shenzhen, whose fast-growing population is estimated at anything up to 20 million, use at least 1.75 billion plastic bags each year, it said, adding that most of those bags will take more than 200 years to decompose and some never will.

"The use of plastic bags can be reduced in an efficient way with economic incentives, as consumers must bear the cost when shopping," a department statement said.

Some industry experts welcomed the proposal as a contrast to previous moves that amounted to lecturing consumers. Dong Jinshi, deputy chairman of the professional committee of plastic recycling under the China Plastic Production Industry Association, firmly supported Shenzhen's efforts.

"Shenzhen City should urgently investigate and pilot the use of plastic bag substitutes and ensure a stable supply of reliable, reasonably priced substitutes. Shenzhen could pave the way for other Chinese cities in tackling white pollution," he said, using the term increasingly used to refer to the problem of waste plastic bags and foam plastic food containers.

The free distribution of plastic bags, which was introduced in Guangdong province in the early 1980s, is taken for granted by many customers as a convenience retailers are supposed to offer. A woman surnamed Zhang, shopping at Wanfeng supermarket in Futian district, said she would be unable to carry home her groceries if the supermarket did not give free bags.

Ding, another resident, described the city's move was aimed merely at attracting attention. "Shenzhen is a city with a fast-moving lifestyle. Who do you think will carry a basket for shopping? It will be unimaginable to go to work by metro while bringing a basket along," he said.

Mainland Chinese are increasingly concerned about rising prices, with higher cost of food stuffs helping inflation rise this year to 4.4% through October, when cooking oil was costing at least a third more than a year earlier. One shopper, who gave his name as Zhong, questioned why the city authorities were insisting on doing something that would further add to costs. "Why not let the business operators offer degradable bags?" he asked.

One posting on Tencent.com, a leading Internet portal, said the government should not just impose fines but should spend more to encourage the public to use fewer plastic bags or shift to environment-friendly substitutes.

Even so, in a survey of 1,786 people jointly carried out last week by the Social Surveys Center of China Youth Daily and the press center of popular Internet portal Sina.com, 74% of the respondents supported Shenzhen's plan and favored the paid use of plastic bags in their localities. About 93% said they were willing to shoulder inconveniences to protect the environment, while 51% recommended incentives to get people to switch, instead of imposing fines.

Some retailers in Shenzhen have started to prepare for the charges. Chen Songmei, manager of the cashiers' section with the Caifu shop of Xinyijia General Merchandise Chainstore, said charging for shopping bags would improve environmental protection awareness. He was confident Xinyijia's sales would not be affected by charging for shopping bags, as the law would apply to the entire retail sector. "Consumers will not stop shopping just because they will have to pay extra for carrier bags," he said.

Yu Qiuhua, publicity manager of Tianhong chain store, said the group's stores had been giving away free degradable plastic bags since 1994 and had distributed about 100,000 cloth bags free of charge each year. The chain had no immediate plan to charge for the degradable bags, which are more expensive than the plastic ones given out by most stores.

Zeng Suisheng, chief of the economic laws and regulations section of the legislative affairs office of Shenzhen City, said he was surprised by the strong public response to the proposal. Most of the e-mails and letters his office had received supported the bag plan, he said.

"The white pollution caused by excessive use of plastic bags will be solved permanently only if society can reach a consensus, and the government, business operators and consumers must make concerted efforts," said Zeng.

He said that no other details - such as the proposed cost of each bag, or how the costs would be shared among the government, businesses and the public - were available at the moment.

"We will work closely with other government departments and adjust the draft after considering public opinions and suggestions," he said. "The government should bear greater responsibility, but Shenzhen people should also abandon unhealthy habits, such as using plastic bags."

CHOOSE RECYCLED PAPER. Choosing paper with high "postconsumer" recycled content - at least 30 percent for copier paper - means less virgin pulp is used and more waste is diverted from landfills. (Products marked with "post-industrial recycled content" are less beneficial, since the term refers to waste generated in production that never reached consumers and that manufacturers already reuse in order to save money.) For every 40 standard boxes of copier paper made from 100 percent post-consumer material, an office can save 24 trees, 7,000 gallons of water, 4,100 kilowatt hours of electricity, and 60 pounds of air pollution, according to the National Resources Defense Council.

TURN OFF THE LIGHTS. At 30 percent of total energy consumption, according to the US Department of Energy, lighting is a big chunk of energy use in a typical office building. Rejiggering a building's overall lighting design to include more natural daylight, more efficient lamps, timers, and occupancy sensors are a few of the big-ticket ways companies can help decrease their use. But simply turning lights off at night could go a long way, too, toward changing both behavior and energy bills. It worked at Breakstone, White & Gluck, a law firm in Boston where motion detectors and energy-efficient bulbs were installed, and where lawyers and other staff, as well as the late-night cleaning crew, are encouraged to turn off lights. The result? A 10 percent drop in energy use, reflected on the monthly utility bill. "Most of these changes can be done for pennies," says David W. White Jr., a partner in the firm and president of the Massachusetts Bar Association, who is also launching the Lawyers Eco-Challenge in January, a statewide competition to see which firm can operate the most eco-friendly office.

GO ENERGY STAR. The Energy Star rating is best known in the context of home appliances like dishwashers and refrigerators. Yet, approved office equipment uses up to 60 percent less electricity than standard copiers and the like, automatically switches into power-conserving mode when not in use, and can save bundles on energy bills. Go to energystar.gov for lists and rankings of computers, printers, and even water coolers.

MAKE MACHINES LAST. Eking out one more year from existing equipment will cut back tremendously on hazardous e-waste, save money, and can significantly reduce energy consumption. Other solutions, such as switching from individual desktop computers to machines that run off of central servers, can also help businesses cut back. (Laptops also use less power, but are more expensive to buy and have shorter life spans.) "If your office can't save one-quarter of the energy it's using, you're not trying," says Cambridge-based consultant Mark Ontkush, founder of New View Data Solutions in Belmont, which specializes in green computing and energy efficiency.

KNOW - AND USE - YOUR BENEFITS. Some companies offer incentives for going green on the job and at home. Household and personal-care products manufacturer Seventh Generation of Burlington, Vermont, for example, offers employees $5,000 toward purchasing a hybrid car, another $5,000 for energy-efficient home improvements, and $500 for installing upgraded appliances. Environmentalism is in the company's DNA, but it's also good for business, says spokeswoman Chrystie Heimert - employee turnover is extraordinarily low. Whether your employer's best offer is telecommuting or a T pass, take advantage of it.

STOP USING STYROFOAM. Expanded polystyrene, commonly known as styrofoam, developed a bad reputation in the 1980s when it was made using chemicals that damaged the atmosphere's ozone layer. Safer options have since been substituted, but styrofoam is still made from petroleum, is rarely recycled, takes hundreds of year to degrade, and can endanger wildlife. If your company has a cafeteria, talk with managers and enlist your colleagues to get styrofoam cups, plates, and containers taken out of the inventory or, at least, added to recycling programs. Your next crusade for the caf: insisting upon reusable plates, cups, and utensils.

BREATHE BETTER. The air inside buildings is typically at least two to five times more polluted than that outside and can cause headaches, fatigue, nausea, asthma, and other irritations, according to the EPA. The culprit? Furniture, carpeting, paints, and cleaning products - especially when coupled with poor ventilation - that give off harmful gases. Considering that people spend about 90 percent of their time indoors (another EPA figure), better building design and maintenance can positively affect our health. "Proper indoor air quality can improve worker health and productivity," says Douglas Kot, an architect and consultant with the Green Building Roundtable, a nonprofit consultancy in Boston. "And that's good for business."

FIND A GREENER GIG. You don't have to switch careers entirely to have an impact - just think creatively. "If you want to be a green professional, learn about marketing, finance, biology, or whatever, then apply your environmental passions to that arena," advises Joel Makower, executive editor of GreenBiz.com, a Berkeley, California-based news website, and author of several books on sustainable business. "If you approach it that way, the opportunities are endless."

Show them the money. Since ecological rewards don't always motivate higher-ups but cost-cutting measures do, frame your suggestions for saving the planet around saving money by using fewer resources. Drink at the sink. According to the Container Recycling Institute, Americans used nearly 30 billion single-use plastic water bottles in 2005, and, despite being recyclable, the majority wound up in the trash - at a rate of about 845 bottles each second. Shut down at night. It's a myth that leaving a computer on overnight is more efficient than rebooting in the morning. Use EPEAT, the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (epeat.net). It's an online guide to greener computers and can help purchasers evaluate, compare, and select machines based on environmental attributes. BYO. Bringing your lunch from home helps cut down on waste related to disposables and packaging, and not driving your car to a restaurant saves carbon emissions, too. Get matching donations. Does your company offer to match your charitable contributions? Find out if the environmental organization of your choice could benefit.