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Hello 20K !!





We are not new to this and have practiced all our childhood. Why not now?



If 20K lights are switched off for 1 hr every 1 evening of the week.
If 20K saplings are planted on every 2nd Sunday of the month.
If 20K plastic bags are replaced by Jute bags every 6 months.

YES, IT WILL BRING ABOUT A HUGE GREEN IMPACT ON THE SUSTAINABILITY OF OUR MOTHER NATURE.

 || And so can be done today at no cost, by none but us. ||

Cheers and a big thank you to all the 20K members for supporting the causes throughout and hereby request you to take a pledge to get involved with a simple task of about less than 10 minutes every month.

How to Sustain Sustainability ...the greatness in starting small

Before you begin, consider this: scientists differ on how long the earth will be able to support human life as it is today. However, most agree that our current resources should last at least for about another fifty years* - i.e. possibly enough for our lifetimes. Does this mean that we won't bring about change, when we can?

Year: 2010. No British cyclist had ever won the Tour de France since its inception in 1903. Dave Brailsford - the new General Manager and Performance Director for Great Britain's professional cycling team (Team Sky) - was looking to do just that. 

Brailford's approach was simple. He believed in a concept that he referred to as the aggregation of marginal gains. Put simply, it is the 1 percent margin for improvement in everything we do. His belief was that if you improved every area related to cycling by just 1 percent, then those small gains would add up to remarkable improvement. Brailsford thought that if they could successfully execute this strategy, then Team Sky would be in a position to win the Tour de France in five years time. They won it within three.

In 2012, Team Sky rider Sir Bradley Wiggins became the first British cyclist to win the Tour de France. That same year, Brailsford coached the British cycling team at the 2012 Olympic Games and dominated the competition by winning 70 percent of the gold medals available. In 2013, Team Sky repeated their feat by winning the Tour de France again, this time with rider Chris Froome.

David Brailsford's approach teaches the value of making better decisions on a daily basis. Almost all of our everyday habits is the result of many small decisions over time. Yet, we tend to overlook this when we want to make a change. We often persuade ourselves that change is only meaningful if there is some immediate visible outcome associated with it. Improving by just 1 percent in our efforts to be sustainable isn't notable or noticeable, but it's just as important in the long run.

Most people envisage earth-shattering results and game-changing outcomes as a single decisive moment in time. The truth is, most of the significant things in life aren't stand-alone events, but rather the sum of all the moments when we chose to do things 1 percent better (or 1 percent worse).

Aggregating these marginal gains makes a difference. As time goes on, these small improvements or declines compound and you suddenly find a very big gap between where you are and where you used to be. You could get to know more about how you can bring about that 1% difference in your life from our article on sustainable practices here http://goo.gl/d075cP. 

Being sustainable is a way of life. It has to be nurtured and cultivated over time. The results may not be immediately visible, neither will there be far reaching consequences of your first few actions. But aggregated bit by bit over the next fifty years, it can spawn an entire lifetime for the next generation. Are we not willing to give tomorrow just 1% of our today?

 

* http://goo.gl/pgTbRq  

** adapted from an article by James Clear

 

Sustainability 101 from India's Artisan Community

"Talking isn't doing. It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds."-William Shakespeare

Sustainability. Strange how we always miss the cross-over from print to action when it comes to this 'seemingly important' aspect of our lives. Perhaps it is because the world media discusses so much about it, that we discuss so much about it, that we fail to finally exhort ourselves into action. I mean, discussion is good right...we are at least thinking in the right direction and surely that's a start! And hey, we are pro-urban in a developing economy - this naturally means we should first develop; and to be sure, keep discussing about sustainability on the way. Sustainable development? Someone must have got the order wrong, right?

Wrong. Almost 200 million people living in India today follow traditional knowledge shored up with scientific ingenuity to make sustainability a part of their daily lives - the artisan community. While they battle against a socio-economic scenario that threatens their livelihoods with relentless chugging of factory made consumerables that recklessly pollute and pay little heed to any environmental norm (written or moral), Indian artisans have evolved a system of symbiotic harmony that allows them to create a negative carbon foot-print in each of their everyday endeavours. Something we should be extremely thankful for, given our voracious appetite for non-biodegradable products.



Picture: Silk saree being prepared by an Assamese women.

And so, in rural homes that draw electricity from solar panels the Indian artisan practices mastery of his craft. The Indian artisan conserves water, for it is a precious resource to her - often the nearest river or canal is miles from his village. She works on natural fibers like jute, cotton, khadi or even silk, on mud-and-clay pottery and ceramics, and on stone and metal. The process is labour intensive, the designs are hand-woven or hand crafted, the colors themselves being non-synthetic organic dyes. The process is green and environment friendly, producing the most stunningly beautiful artifacts with little more than hand operated looms and such other tools. The Indian artisan is little wasteful, she realizes the value of good planning. If the fiber is unsuitable for fine work, she makes it into sturdy bags or weaves clothes for herself and her family. Above all, the Indian artisan respects nature, she worships nature as her Mother. She cares for and  conserves nature - the giver of all things.

That we are more educated than most of these people is perhaps a poor reflection on our education system, and a poorer reflection on ourselves as responsible citizens. It is our necessary obligation that we take a lesson from these people, and start implementing what we learned. As a people, it is inexcusable if we fail to follow at least these four steps of sustainable living:

 

* Stop using disposable plastics and other synthetic materials

 

* Conserve water and electricity - switch to solar if possible

 

* Use bio-degradable natural fibers and recyclable products

 

* Reduce waste, and practice waste segregation for recycling

 

It is perhaps the plague of our age that we never really try to change things when they are within a reasonable degree of our individual control, and yet we never fail to regret the outcome - which is regrettable, more often than not -  when things go beyond our collective control. Individually, we take heart in the failure of the collective - like it is okay to fail, since everyone else will (or has) fail(ed). Long time now we finally snapped out of it and got our act together. Sustainability in our daily lives is a simple concept - give back as much as you have taken. Or soon, there will be nothing left to take.

#talkingisntdoing

We are turning 5 this year, with the support and engagement of over 18,000 people at various levels. Thank you !

 

As part of our continuous evolution, we are moving on to greener things that need to be done. For ‪#‎talkingisntdoing‬. It is a kind of good deed to say well; and yet words are not deeds. We hope you will come along with us on our future endeavours, as you have till today.