SunCorp

Tired of just reading about all the environmental damage that a modern lifestyle causes and wish you could do something about it? Here are a few simple things that even ordinary people could do to get their act together. All you need is a little smart use of technology that’s already available.

 

Information technology (IT) and the environment have not exactly been comfortable bedfellows. While the IT sector claims to be doing more than its bit for keeping the planet green (the colour was very much the theme at CEBIT 2008), environmentalists claim that all the talk about eco-friendly computers and cellphones is nothing but public relations hogwash. Whatever be the truth of that debate, the fact nevertheless remains that using a dollop of IT prudently can indeed take a load off the planet. And no, we are not asking you to enrol in online campaigns or to start writing militant ecofriendly blogs. Just a few simple steps and before you know it, you could be doing more than your bit for the environment, with minimum disruption of your everyday life.

Saying ‘no’ to snail mail!
Email is considered the ‘killer app’ of the internet. And well, using it thoroughly can not only speed up communication considerably, but also take a load off the environment. For one, you will not be using any paper at all—no envelope, no writing paper. For another, just think of all the fuel that will be saved as your letters won’t have to be transported from place to place via road, railway and aircraft. Top all that off with the fact that a lot of dangerous effluents won’t be released in the atmosphere thanks to your reliance on Messrs. Yahoo!, Google, MSN, Rediff, Indiatimes and other email providers, rather than the good old local postal service.

IM and bulletin boards, not memos
Many people consider instant messaging (IM) a major distraction in work but if used effectively, it can actually facilitate communication in the workplace. An instant messenger like Google Talk or Yahoo!Messenger can help get your message across a lot quicker without your having to engage a telephone line or sending a formal sounding memo. In fact, you can use the IM for communicating virtually anything and even for swapping files (digital ones, of course) in real time. Similarly, an online bulletin board is much more effective than a noticeboard on which bits of papers dangle perilously from pins. Just think of the amount of paper you would save, not to mention the pins (hey, every little bit counts). There are even virtual Post-It sticky notes, for God’s sake!

No disks please, we are digital!
Whether it is games, songs, software, video clips or even films, they can all be downloaded from different sites (perfectly legitimate ones too) from the internet. All you need is decent bandwidth, a credit card and some hard disk space. Not only will this save you the fuss of storing all those CDs and DVDs, but it will also have a huge impact on the environment as discarded disks are not exactly eco-friendly. And then there are the massive savings in terms of packaging—stuff that you often throw away anyway and which is seldom recycled. Yep, buying an iPod can actually benefit the environment.

Bytes rather than books
Almost everything that is in a book can
be found on the internet, whether in free or paid format. All you need to do is search a bit and if need be, loosen those purse strings from time to time. Yes, reading on a computer screen is seldom as comfortable as curling up with your favourite bestseller, but you might consider than investing in an ebook reader (like the famous Amazon Kindle) could help in saving dozens of forests, not to mention all the energy that goes into the publication process. And of course, browsing for books on the internet can be just as much fun as doing so in a bookstore.
Give your vehicle a break
If you are one of those who cannot resist hopping into your car (or whatever wheeler you possess) every time you have to do something, then just pause and see if it can be done online. A number of activities, ranging from banking to booking movie tickets to railways and airline reservations to paying bills of just about every sort can now be done online, from the comfort of your PC (and in some cases, even your cellphone). And of course, that means you will not only be saving time and wear and tear on your vehicle, but also help in keeping the hydrocarbon fuel deposits of the earth ticking over nicely.

Lock that printer
Yes, printouts are sometimes essential but there is plenty of research around to show that most people take printouts just because they can and not because they need to. If we had a dollar for every person who asks an email to be printed out so that he/she can read it, we would have been millionaires. The supremest irony is that almost everything that needs paper can be done digitally. Taking printouts just uses up energy, wastes paper, and of course, also results in empty toners and inkjet cartridges that are notoriously hard to dispose of. So do consider locking up your printer and chucking away the keys, and try to manage by reading off the screen (incidentally, have you noticed how big and clear monitors are becoming?). You will be amazed at how easily you can manage without it. And the planet will be grateful too!

Work from home, sweet home
For some people, bringing work home ranks high in the list of domestic sacrileges. Well, the fact is that it actually ain’t too bad if you do most of your work from home. Just consider the fact that you will be saving lots of fuel that you would normally have spent while travelling to and from office. Your working from home will also result in one less vehicle on the roads, and reduce the chance of gas-sapping jams and snarl-ups. And of course, your office will have to invest in one lesser PC, desk and chair, which in itself will do the environment a good turn.
    And this is just the tip of the iceberg. There’s lots more you can do. But even if you manage this much, it will make a huge dent in pollution levels. A word of caution: all this is a lot easier said than done. It will need a fair bit of co-operation from your family and colleagues to get your tech-ecological act together. That said, the effort would be well worth it. After all, to borrow a famous brand’s line, this is our planet!

 

1. Replacing three light bulbs with energy-efficient compact fluorescent bulbs could save $60 per year.

2. Using a clean air filter can improve your vehicle's gas mileage by as much as 10 percent.

3. Keeping the car tires properly inflated could save another $840 per year. Check the pressure monthly.

4. Running your dishwasher only with a full load could save $40 per year.

5. Setting the thermostat 2 degrees cooler in the winter and 2 degrees warmer in the summer could save $98 per year.

6. Washing and rinsing clothes in cold water only could save about $100 each year.

7. Buying loose cereal in bulk (as opposed to prepackaged boxes) once a week could save as much as $110 a year.

8. Going solar could mean up to $2,000 in savings from Uncle Sam. Tax credits for certain solar water heating and photovoltaic systems are available for systems put in place between Jan. 1, 2006, and the end of this year.

9. Taking shorter showers could save $99 per year. A low-flow showerhead could yield another $150 in savings.

10. And for those who can stand it — and you know you can stand it — lowering the water heater temperature to 120 degrees, from 140 degrees, can cut heating costs by 6 to 10 percent.

Sources: thedailygreen.com, stopglobalwarming.org, thegreenguide.com, energystar.gov

 Solar power, the holy grail of renewable energy, has always faced the problem of how to store the energy captured from the sun’s rays so that demand for electricity can be met at night or whenever the sun is not shining.
    The difficulty is that electricity is hard to store. Batteries are not up to efficiently storing energy on a large scale. A different approach being tried by the solar power industry could eliminate the problem.
    The idea is to capture the sun’s heat. Heat, unlike electric current, is something that industry knows how to store cost-effectively. For example, a coffee thermos and a laptop computer’s battery store about the same amount of energy, said John O’Donnell, executive vice-president of a company in the solar thermal business, Ausra. The thermos costs about $5 and the laptop battery $150, he said, and “that’s why solar thermal is going to be the dominant form.”
    Solar thermal systems are built to gather heat from the sun, boil water into steam, spin a turbine and make power, as existing solar thermal power plants do — but not immediately. The heat would be stored for hours or even days, like water behind a dam.
    A plant that could store its output could pick the time to sell the production based on expected price, as wheat farmers and cattle ranchers do. Ausra, of Palo Alto, California, is making components for plants to which thermal storage could be added, if the cost were justified by higher prices after sunset or for production that could be realistically promised even if the weather forecast was iffy. Ausra uses Fresnel lenses, which have a short focal length but focus light intensely, to heat miles of blackpainted pipe with a fluid inside.
    A competitor a step behind in signing contracts, but with major corporate backing, plans a slightly different technique in which adding storage seems almost trivial. It is a “power tower”, a little bit like a water tank on stilts surrounded by hundreds of mirrors that tilt on two axes, one to follow the sun across the sky in the course of the day and the other in the course of the year. In the tower and in a tank below are tens of thousands of gallons of molten salt that can be heated to very high temperatures and not reach high pressure.
    “You take the energy the sun is putting into the earth that day, store it and capture it, put it into the reservoir, and use it on demand,” said Terry Murphy, president and chief executive of Solar-Reserve, a company backed in part by United Technologies, the Hartford conglomerate.
    Power plants are typically designed with a heat production system matched to their electric generators. Murphy sees no reason why his should. His design is for a power tower that can supply 540 megawatts of heat. At the high temperatures it could achieve, that would produce 250 megawatts of electricity, enough to run a fair-size city. It might make more sense to produce a smaller quantity and run well into the evening or around the clock or for several days when it is cloudy.

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.

   

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.

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.

 

GET INVOLVED IN SCHOOL DECISION MAKING. Join your school's PTA and start pressing for change - from easy, inexpensive improvements, like switching to nontoxic cleaning supplies, to major changes, like building energy-efficient new schools from sustainable, healthy materials. Schools certified by the US Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design program, known as LEED, cost an average of $3 more per square foot to build, though these facilities typically see payback within a few years due to reduced energy, water, and health-related costs. A 125,000-square-foot school, for example, can expect to see savings of about $100,000 annually. "Building green is a money saver; that's how you get the bonds passed and taxpayer approval," says Rachel Gutter, the council's school sector manager, based in Washington, D.C. "But healthy kids and reduced costs? It's a no-brainer." The Massachusetts Technology Collaborative's Renewable Energy Trust, which helps fund clean-energy projects and green-building design, planning, and construction, has $15 million in grant money set aside for schools; the Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School, for example, was recently awarded $340,000 for rooftop solar panels. (Schools are also eligible for grant money from the Massachusetts School Building Authority.) To connect with a green-schools advocate in your area, also consider contacting the Massachusetts Farm-to-School Project , which helps connect school food programs with local growers; the practice reduces the carbon costs and packaging associated with shipping.

SIGN A PETITION. Going door-to-door is so 1970s. Today, signatures are collected and "demonstrators" gather online. "In the old days, if you marched out on the streets, it would get 30 seconds of coverage on the evening news," says An Inconvenient Truth producer Laurie David. So she launched StopGlobalWarming.org, where citizens can join John McCain and Arnold Schwarzenegger in what David calls a "virtual march" that's on public display all day, every day. Over at the League of Conservation Voters (lcv.org), you can urge presidential candidates to take a stand on global warming and ask Congress to act on clean energy.

MINGLE. Going out for martinis may not seem like a community-oriented task, but local branches of the international social network Green Drinks (greendrinks.org) can help you connect to neighbors with similar interests, whether your mission is fighting LNG terminals or finding a vegan date. The Boston group (founded with help from environmentalist and 2006 Miss Rhode Island Allison Rogers) has been around since 2005. Other groups have been established in Cambridge-Somerville, Great Barrington, Lowell, Northampton, and Pittsfield, as well as Newport and Providence, Rhode Island.

PRAY FOR CHANGE. Many religious traditions consider environmental stewardship to be a moral imperative. Massachusetts Interfaith Power & Light (mipandl.org) helps congregations with energy audits, utility rebate programs, the purchase of renewable energy credits, and other green measures. MIPAL co-founder Tom Nutt-Powell, a member of All Saints Parish Episcopal in Brookline, helped his church save $17,000 by upgrading to a high-efficiency boiler. "Once you see this as an act of faith, you want to do it everywhere," says Nutt-Powell.

Vote for eco-friendly policies and candidates. Contribute money to a "green" nonprofit. Don't know how much to give? A good guideline is to pick an organization whose mission you like and then donate the cost of the last pair of shoes you bought. Vote with your wallet by buying goods and services from companies that support a healthy planet and use organic ingredients and eco-friendly packaging.

AT WORK

WATCH THE THERMOSTAT. According to the US Department of Energy, heating and cooling are the number one source of energy use in office buildings. Ideally, individuals could control the climate of their personal work spaces, but if that's not an option, suggest that your employer keep temperatures set to an energy-efficient 70 degrees in winter, 75 degrees in summer. Programming thermostats to automatically reset temperatures at appropriate times - after the workday ends, for example - can also help increase efficiency. At Artists for Humanity, a Boston nonprofit that employs teens in the arts, such devices help keep heating costs down. The group built a new green facility two years ago that uses about 70 percent less energy than a comparable conventional building would. Still, conscientious behavior also plays a role. "We keep it comfortable," says outreach and marketing associate Shane O'Garro, "but we pay attention to indoor temperatures all the time."

START (OR JOIN) A GREEN TASK FORCE. Sustainability groups can help implement change throughout an entire organization. Starting with simple things - like buying recycling bins and posting signs that remind co-workers to use them - can lead to influencing corporate decisions on issues such as purchases, renovations, power, and employee programs like telecommuting. That's what happened at Boston architecture firm Payette Associates, where a grass-roots in-house group formed about eight years ago. Eventually, the corporate culture changed to encourage recycling, resource efficiency, and even composting of coffee grounds. "It's occurring at a fundamental level," says Arlen Li, associate principal and a catalyst of the change. "People have really latched onto it."

CONDUCT A WASTE AUDIT. Individuals, departments, or entire companies can identify wasted resources by taking stock of everything that goes into the trash and recycling over a certain period of time, usually a week or a month. Knowing what materials are thrown away provides insight into ways a company can cut back or reuse, which can help keep both ecological and waste-removal costs down. The environmental information website Earth 911 has a "Business Resources" section (earth911.org) that explains the process well.

USE LESS PAPER. The virgin pulp and paper industry is the largest industrial polluter of water worldwide and one of the top emitters of global-warming pollution, according to the National Resources Defense Council. The typical US office worker goes through 10,000 sheets of copier paper each year, according to the council - and less than half of it gets recycled. So think twice about what you print out, make double-sided copies, send internal memos via e-mail, use scrap paper to take notes or print drafts, send faxes digitally, and so on. Recycling the paper you do use means saving forests and water, reducing toxic pollution, and keeping waste out of landfills.

 

 

 

IN THE COMMUNITY

PUT YOURSELF IN THE PUBLIC EYE. Got an environmental platform or plan? Run for town council, state senate, or a position in a civic organization. In 2006, Allison Rogers, who had graduated from Harvard two years before, decided to spread the word by competing for the title of Miss Rhode Island. She surprised the pageant circuit with her unusual cause - the environment - and won the crown. She spent her yearlong reign making presentations about global warming to students, businesses, and other groups; she even marched in parades instead of waving at crowds from a car. "You hear that the environmental movement is preaching to the choir," says Rogers, who now works for the Green the Capitol Office of the US House of Representatives in Washington, D.C. "I wanted to reach out to a new audience."

JOIN AN ADVOCACY GROUP. Organizations like the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Environmental Working Group lobby and run awareness campaigns for a broad range of causes. Other national nonprofits, such as Surfrider Foundation, focus on single issues, such as ocean protection; that group's regional chapters hold beach cleanups. Strictly local organizations - like the Massachusetts Audubon Society, which works to preserve the region's natural heritage, and the Alliance for a Healthy Tomorrow, which advocates in Massachusetts for the regulation of environmental health hazards - tackle issues close to home.

SHAKE UP YOUR TOWN. Taking action locally can be more rewarding - and more immediate - than trying to foster change higher up the chain. Attend town or city meetings to bring up pressing environmental issues that aren't already on the agenda, or speak out on those that are. Many town and city council or board of selectmen meetings have dedicated time for citizen communications; if yours doesn't, contact your representative or a member of the energy, recycling, solid waste, or other municipal commissions to request that your cause be placed on the docket. Kate Abend, climate change outreach coordinator at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a national scientific research and advocacy group with headquarters in Cambridge, suggests sending a handwritten note or calling local politicians to add a personal touch. "Be as specific as possible: Is there a global warming reduction target you want to achieve? Did a problem affect your child? Tell the story of why you care, because that's what's appealing.

REACH OUT TO YOUR NEIGHBORS. Know something that other people in your community don't? Trying to get a local ordinance passed? Set up panels, lectures, or start a community task force to spread education and awareness. Cambridgeport resident Steve Morr-Wineman, who works for a human services nonprofit, cofounded the GreenPort neighborhood group a year ago. Today, the group educates and empowers the local community to make changes concerning transportation, home energy, and food choices by bringing in speakers, handing out CFL bulbs donated by NSTAR, and sending representatives to local government hearings where decisions about environmental causes are being made. "The common thread among everything we do is community building," says Morr-Wineman.