World Population is about 6 billion and growing. Our consumption patterns are not sustainable. Each one of us can make our share of difference by adopting better consumption patterns and acting sustainably.

Following is a list of important practical steps which you can take, to make your contribution at an Individual level. Organizations can take this further by not only implementing these steps across the organization, but also by encouraging team members to follow these individual green sheets.

Each one of us has the power to make a difference, start today, and just do your bit!

General:

1. Try and follow the 3 R’s in your consumption patterns:

Reduce
Reuse
Recycle
Recover
Residual management

2. Try to educate and motivate your peers, friends and community to be involved in environment initiatives.
3. Become more involved with environmental concerns and gain knowledge about solutions.

Energy & E-Waste:

1. Replace Normal Bulbs with CFL (Compact Fluorescent Light) or LED Bulbs.
2. Take the initiative and Switch off lights, fans, ACs, TVs and other electronic items in your home & office when not required.
4. Get automatic switches in place like bathroom & supply areas so that they can turn on & off whenever someone enters or leaves
5. Do not keep your appliances at stand by as they still consume electricity when on stand by.
6. Hibernate laptops instead of leaving them at stand by.
7. Prefer not to have any screen-savers.
8. Shut the monitor off, if the computer is not in use for some time.
9. By using 2 inch smaller monitor you can reduce your monitor’s consumption by 30%
10. Use Rechargeable batteries as they last longer.
11. Don’t overcharge Batteries of your cell phones, laptops, cameras etc. as it not only consumes more energy but also reduces the battery life. 12. Use alternative materials like flyash bricks or foamed bricks during construction of buildings/houses as they absorb less heat and bring down the air-conditioning cost considerably.

CFL Bulbs are 70% more efficient, last 10 times longer, come with a 1 year guarantee and 1 bulb replaced will save 150 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.

Home appliances account for 30% of energy usage in industrial countries and 12% of greenhouse gases.

83.9% energy in India comes from burning of fossil fuels, which is a cause of a large amount of carbon emissions.

Only 11% energy is generated from water and the rest from solar, nuclear etc.

Dumping E-waste in landfills, leaks mercury & other harmful substances in the ground and reach the water table and make it toxic.

There are only 2 E-Waste recycling units in India; in Chennai and in Tamil Nadu.

Paper:

1. Avoid taking print out and Photostats if you can do with the electronic version of the documents.
2. Use both sides of the paper for print outs.
3. Use emails to stay in touch.
4. Say NO to ATM receipts, unnecessary magazine or newspaper subscription in print.
5. Use post consumer waste recycled paper.
6. Use Jute bags for shopping instead of paper bags.

Throughout our student lives, we consume loads of paper. But by replacing a tonne of paper with paper made from recycled fibers instead of virgin fibers we could save:

17-31 trees

31780 litres of water

4000KWh of electricity

60 pound of air pollutants

1 ton of uncoated virgin (non-recycled) printing and office paper uses 24 trees
1 ton of 100% virgin (non-recycled) newsprint uses 12 trees
1 ton of coated, higher-end virgin magazine paper more than 15 trees
1 ton of coated, lower-end virgin magazine paper uses nearly 8 trees

According to Market Watch, if everyone in the US would select the no-receipt option at the ATM, it would save a roll of paper more than two billion feet long, or enough to circle the equator 15 times!

Paper manufacturing is the 3rd largest consumer of fossil fuels.

Transportation:

1. Keep the tyres of your vehicles properly inflated.
2. Turn off the engines of your vehicles at traffic lights (more than 100 seconds).
3. Do not exceed speed of 88km/hr as it results in more carbon emissions and decreases the fuel efficiency. 4. Organize car pool program for common destinations.
5. Prefer walking & biking if distance and weather permits.
6. Prefer using video conferencing/ phones/IMs/Conference calls/emails instead of physical meetings.

Turning off the engine of the vehicle at traffic lights can increase fuel efficiency by 3%.

It can also bring down your fuel bills by 12%

Each gallon of gasoline saved keeps 30 pounds of carbon emissions out of atmosphere!

The global passenger car fleet now exceeds 530 million vehicles and is growing by as many as 9 million vehicles annually.

You will save one pound of carbon dioxide per mile you don’t drive!

Plastics:

1. Avoid purchasing bottled water as much as possible or at least reuse the bottles. 2. Reduce usage of plastic bags for buying groceries, use jute bags instead.

Making one million tons of plastic bottles from virgin materials generates 732,000 tons of greenhouse gases.

10 billion bags are produced in a year and each one takes more than 1000 years to decompose.

Go Green:

1. Plant Trees.

A single tree can absorb 1 ton of carbon dioxide in its life time.

Water:

1. Save water by installing low flow shower heads.
2. Don’t keep the water running while brushing your teeth.

One drip per second amounts to 200 gallons of water per month.

If you leave the tap running while brushing you end up wasting about 7 litres of water, daily.

2915 Showerheads Replaced:
2,438,305 gallons of water are saved
731,665 pounds of CO2 is prevented

Air:

1. Say No To Crackers.

Crackers cause rise in SPM levels.

There are numerous health hazards associated with crackers due to the kind of chemicals present in crackers. (Click Here to know more)

1,00,000 children (between 8 to 15 years) work in cracker manufacturing factories each year and fall prey to many health disorders. On an average 10000-20000 kids die or fall prey to serious injuries in these factories.