The time is NOW, the colour is GREEN and the question is: “What are you doing to save our Planet?” Eco living is on everybody’s lips and if it isn’t, it should be! Recycling, conservation and renewable energy have been around for many years.
Fossils fuels are polluting our environment and alternative energy sources are here! Many establishments are already saving the planet 1 kilowatt hour at a time by using various energy saving ranges, which are becoming increasingly affordable and available in South Africa and the world over.
Do we really need to consider making changes to our comfortable lives? Is it really our responsibility? If not ours, then whose?
Do we realize the vast effect the human population has had on biodiversity since the start of the industrial revolution? It’s time to reverse these effects and do whatever we can to create a sustainable future.
Surely these extreme measures must be for all those hippies that chain themselves to trees in protest against whatever cause they read about in the latest “flower power” magazine? I will admit that chaining yourself to a tree is pretty extreme, but it’s time we all started caring for our environment and did something to ensure our future!
Here are just a few things that will make a difference:
- Switch lights off when you are not in the room
- Use energy saving lamps for your light fittings
- Only fill the kettle with the amount of water you intend to use
- Use water saving devices such as low flow shower heads
- Incorporate water harvesting in your home (grey water systems and/or rain water collecting tanks)
- Convert to solar hot water
- Recycle your glass, paper and metals
- Carpool or use public transport when possible, or better yet, ride a bicycle if not travelling far (good for your health too)
- Don’t use products with volatile organic compounds in them
- Source local produce, with a lower carbon footprint, along with offering seasonal menus to reduce high bills needed to keep produce fresh out of season
- Start a compost heap
- A worm farm for organic waste
- Plant an indigenous garden
- See “green” establishments around South Africa that have already incorporated some of these practices and get inspired.
While not all of these options may be right for you, incorporating just one or two of them into your daily life, will make a difference. For example, converting just 1 conventional 200 litre geyser to solar, causes a reduction of 2.9 tons of carbon dioxide per year.
In South Africa we have an abundance of sunlight which directly translates into free energy, that is ready for harnessing and re-use.
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