Green insights

They say “God can’t be everywhere, so he created mothers” and I say “mothers can’t be everywhere, so he created nature.”

The tranquility gained in the lap of Mother Nature is an experience beyond description. The lush green grass under your feet, the sound of flowing water pampering your heartbeats, the tickling cold breeze caressing your cheeks, hues of vibgyor in sky widening your imagination…Is there a substitute for any of these?

When we talk of co-existence, the good old principle of live and let live strikes our conscience. Isn’t it?

If we dive deep into its meaning we might learn that applying the principle of co-existence to our lives can answer most of our questions related to sustainability.

A friend, a mentor and a core colleague called me this evening. He had read a report in the morning’s papers of a researcher rediscovering and mapping some of the species in the land that Henry David Thoreau inhabited in those immortal times he wrote Of Walden Pond and those other works that have since then become guiding lights for a century of thinking on the environment.

When we hear what Archimedes claimed, given a lever and a place to stand he could even move the earth, we sit back and smile. There is no possible place to stand, we smirk.

The right footing also seems to be the problem today when the world is asked to pull herself up by the bootstraps. How can we get to addressing these big changes we need to make in our very own lifestyles if we want that figurative lever to work?

When I look at a leaf, I wonder about its anatomy and its structure that enables it to trap CO2, one of the culprits of global warming, and liberate oxygen as its byproduct.

So what’s the big picture at BCIL? Why does BCIL do what it does?

We had pulled up off the highway for a well-earned coffee break on our return from a visit to a small town in the hills of the Western Ghats where we sought to implement a system for greater efficiency in water supply, with the consent of the Urban Local Body. A new-found colleague turned around and asked, “So what is the connection at BCIL between an urban water supply development programme that we do in a small town in Coorg or Goa, and all the Green Residential Developments that we offer in cities?”

Article in Civic Society Sept-Oct 2008

Architects are altering the lexicon of construction world wide. Eco Cells and Natural Air-Conditioning are no longer science fiction. India’s current building boom will have a huge impact on the environment unless more sustainable practices are made the norm.
CHANDRA SEKHAR HARIHARAN.

Sometimes it is difficult to explain some cruel ironies of life.

Late last evening an oldtimer, serious journalist called me out of the blue, to ask if I knew of the demise of HSK. This morning's papers had a terse set of 3 paras on Prof H S Krishnaswamy's death. He was an economist, writer, journalist, among other things. He was part of another generation. A person who couldn't suffer stupidity; a 'Nehruvian Indian' who knew less of his own interest, as of the larger interest of the world and his country.

BCIL signed in August 2008, the CII Code for Sustainability as part of a roadshow organised by CII and the India Green Business Council. BCIL is one of 150 such signatories in the Indian corporate sector who have been invited to make this commitment to Ten Commandments for reducing natural resource use.

P Chidambaram recently released a compilation of his writings of the last few years on many facets of India. He writes and reflects, among many things, upon his vision of a new India which will move into becoming environmentally sustainable. While he speaks with firmness and clarity on many issues ranging from finance to politics, there are some contours he foresees that will be deeply disturbing to any thinking professional or kisan.