Save Our Environment

Wish you a very Happy New Year friends. You all would have welcomed this new year with zeal, enthusiasm and have taken the resolutions to make it a wonderful and successful year ahead. I too celebrated and welcomed this new year.

There is a saying in my home that as you start your new year same will continue full year. So a good thing about this year is that is started with Monday. So I started my routine from the very first day of the year. I wake up early in the morning, called my near and dear ones, I completed my exercises, visited the office etc etc….

Like previous years, my dear company Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. has given me diary, a new year calendar and a pen. You guys will be thinking what is so special about this, other companies also give the same to their employees. But my dear friend this calendar and pen is not an ordinary thing. It is a resolution to protect our environment.

Let me first share with you the specialty of the pen. This pen is eco-friendly, made up of old newspaper. It is informed to us that this pen has got seeds inside it. Once the ink of the pen is finished, we have to bury the same in the soil, which can be in a garden or in a flower pot. After sometime the seeds placed inside the pen will germinate and we have a new friend.

About the calendar, its first page starts with a message of our prime minister Sri Narendra Modi – “We must look for changes in our lifestyle that would make us less dependent on energy and more sustainable in our consumption.”

This calendar which is made up of recycled paper, gives us solutions about how we could save our environment. These solutions are not something which are not know to us. But when the same are kept in-front on our table, the same will keep on reminding us daily to follow the same. Let’s begin with the solutions that this calendar reminds us:

1. Our daily use items i.e. bottles, cans, mugs etc. gets scrapped regularly. What we are doing, either throwing into the dustbin and selling it to the scrape buyer and hence increasing the load of their final disposal. If we can decorate the same a little as per our creativity and do plantation, we could help in saving of our environment.
2. We can avoid using car for short distances. Either we should go by walk or enjoy a cycle ride. It not only improve our health but will definitely adds to our mission of environment protection.
3. If we are travelling in a car or a bike, we can definitely switch off the engine if the signal is red.
4. The waste which we are generating in our homes can be segregated to “Wet Waste” and “Dry Waste” These days government is increasing awareness over the same and advising the use of two different dustbins. Green dustbin for Wet Waste and Blue dustbin for Dry Waste. Wet wastes are considered as organic waste and could be converted into compost which can then be used as manure, reducing the burden of waste disposal and helping to keep the environment clean.
5. Water is very precious. Any leak detected in our homes or offices should be immediately attended so that the wastage of this life giving elixir could be avoided. We should have the habit of keeping the taps closed when not in use during shaving or brushing. Using bucket and mug for bathing saves lot of water.
6. When we are going for shopping we should carry jute or cloth bags so that we do not have to ask for the plastic bags for holding our purchased items. Plastic takes year to degrade so plastic bags should be avoided if we love our environment.
7. Waste material should be thrown in the dustbins only. It should not be thrown here and there.
8. Car pooling is a good option to reduce the carbon foot prints. If our colleagues or friends have to go to a common place, we can go together in a single vehicle.
9. Number of trees are to be cut for the manufacturing of paper and this is known to each one of us. So why not to use mobiles, desktops, laptops, tablets to note down the important information. This information will remain with us for long duration and will save the papers also.
10. If you are not in a room, there never remains the requirement of light, fan, ACs, computer screen to run. If everyone of us develop the habit of switching off these items we save electricity to the tune of Giga Watts. This simple action of ours can increase the quantity of oxygen in our environment.
11. These days our homes and offices are full of gadgets which are improving the quality of our life. Using power saver devices or modes can further improve our environment.

So dear friends, I am feeling proud to use these wonderful new year gifts given by my company IOCL. These will serve my purpose and will also keep on reminding me to protect my environment.

Thank you and Jai Hind.