We live on a planet which lives with us. It is growing older with us, breathing with us and pretty much doing everything. These days it has been seen that people are aware of their health so much, more and more people are hitting gym, exercising, doing yoga and stuff like that. The reason is that they want to live a longer and healthy life and prevent themselves from being diseased. Why is that we not think of our planet and our environment the same way? Our daily practices affect the climate so much. The excessive use of cars, trucks, urbanization etc. all this leads to increase in temperatures around us also known as global warming.
The global warming issue motivates us to go green. Going green is the only way to preserve the nature and bring back its health to it. We don’t need big movements or campaigns to start this initiative. We can start with our homes and place of work for starters that will make a huge difference. But there are certain Myths associated with going green. Let’s go through them one by one.
1. My efforts wouldn’t make a difference. Every single step counts, every effort you put will take us a step forward and also going different and doing something unique is what catches people’s eyes. If you take steps to go green you will have an upper hand in the market and your competitors will follow you thus making you a leader in your industry and also make a difference in the community.
2. It’s too much work to live Green, where to start. This is no longer an excuse; we live in an age of internet where everything is just a click away. Just Search “ways to go green” or visit this City of Vancouver website where they provide you with tons of living green ideas and how to make your business and home more environmentally friendly.
3. Environmental sustainability is for big business. Though big businesses have more resources and money to invest in newer energy efficient projects, as said earlier every step counts. The market is dominated by more number of smaller businesses than larger firms. Through implementing green practices in your everyday routine you will gain recognition in your market as the responsible business that is taking the effort to do your part.
4. Changing to greener methods will put me out of business. It’s a common myth that going green is going to cost more; you need to spend those extra dollars. But if we look at it in a different way, by going green you are attracting people be it investors or customers therefore increasing your profits. You get to engage the stakeholders in the initiative as well. For example, in hotel industry, some of them have told their customers that they are cutting down on their laundry usage to be environmental friendly, therefore they improve their image in the market and in the eyes of the customers and make the stakeholders participate in the initiative, thus it’s a win-win situation.
5. You need to live beyond your means to adapt green living lifestyle, not true; here are few ideas which are actually going to save money:
a) Switch to energy-efficient lighting. What a better way to reduce your carbon footprint and also reduce your electricity bill at the same time.
b) Buy used furniture or items. You would be amazed at what you can find in a used furniture store or thrift store, someone’s trash can be your new found treasure.
c) Produce a Living Wall. Enhance your surround air quality with a wall surface full of interior plants placed under air-conditioning vents.
d) At work, you can reuse your shopping bags for garbage bags and send invoices via email as an option for your customers.
e) Turn it off. For some people it’s common practice to leave the lights, computers and electronic devices on when not in use, for example when we leave work or during the evening when we retire for the night. Take a few minutes to turn them off when not in use is going to save energy and money.
f) Stock green. Check all the material used by your firm and look at its ingredients especially those who have non-renewable resources in it. Try replacing them with something with ingredients derived from more natural source
So, here we see all the advantages of going green and how we help the environment by being environmentally sustainable through the choices we make each day. Let’s take care of ourselves and each other along with the community and place with which we live… the living earth.