Towards a Sustainable Living! (A practical guide to sustainable living)

Today the rapidly increasing energy prices are hitting the headlines. Crude oil, which was quoting $ 30 a barrel in July 2000, is quoting over USD 75 in July 2006: a rise of 150% in just six years! The main reason for this meteoric price rise is demand outstripping the supply (although there are political reasons also). The demand is increasing since the standard of living in densely populated China and India and also other developing nations is rising. The supply is not keeping pace with rising demand. The oil exploration and refining costs are rising as the depth of oil wells is increasing and the quality of crude is decreasing. One day (and that day may not be far away!) there will be no oil left, which can be economically extracted! The other fallout of this oil-based living is pollution leading to social issues like deteriorating public health and global warming leading to natural disasters. Hence the only way forward is to fulfill our energy needs using renewable or sustainable energy sources.

A renewable or sustainable energy source is one that is virtually inexhaustible! The sun is a sustainable energy source. Wind is an example of a renewable energy source that is originated on the earth and is a byproduct of the heat provided by the sun. Biogas is also a renewable energy source. Energy obtained from such sustainable or renewable energy sources is clean or does not add greenhouse gases to earth’s atmosphere.

Let us discuss some practical ways of using sustainable energy sources. The purpose of this article is to discuss various ways of living a ‘nature-friendly’ life practically without compromising the ‘quality’ of life. E.g. we cannot start using a bicycle for commuting to our workplace if it is say, ten kilometers away from our house just to live a nature-friendly life!

Let us start by identifying various forms of energy that we consume everyday to make our life comfortable:
In the morning, most of us start our day by having a cup of tea or coffee. The tea or coffee is prepared using LPG. The LPG or Liquefied Petroleum Gas is a perishable energy source.
Then most of us take a nice hot water bath! Most of us use either an electric geyser (instant water heater) or a storage water heater or a gas (LPG / CNG) geyser to heat water. In India, most of the electricity is generated using either coal (~60%) or gas/diesel (~10%). All are perishable energy sources and add tons of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide to the environment causing pollution and global warming. It is really unfortunate to use coal (indirectly), which takes millions of years to form for a bath that takes around ten minutes!
Then we have our breakfast or lunch, which is prepared using LPG or electricity (or kerosene or wood in economically backward urban or rural areas). We then wear ironed clothes. Ironing is done using coals or electricity.
Everyday we commute to and fro our workplace using our own two or four wheeler or by company bus or by public transport. All these vehicles run on petroleum products or electricity in case of metro trains.
In the night we light our houses using electricity. In summer, we use fans or air water coolers or air conditioners; whereas in winter we use heaters.
Apart from these, we use several ‘white goods’ like refrigerators, TVs, microwave ovens, mixer-grinders, washing machines etc. to improve our quality of life. All these equipments operate using electricity.

To summarize, we use electricity (indirectly coal, in India), petroleum products like petrol, diesel, LPG or CNG for “improving” quality of our life. In turn, we pollute our environment with greenhouse gases that cause global warming and that, in turn, cause public health issues and natural disasters worsening our quality of life!

Let us go back to our question: How do we practically live a nature-friendly life without compromising on the quality of our life?

The answer to the above question lies in using sustainable or renewable energy sources to meet our daily requirements “smartly”.

Let’s see how!

The LPG used for cooking can be replaced by biogas (Methane). One may raise a valid query that biogas generation requires a big plant that mainly uses cow dunk and other biodegradable farm remains. So using biogas in cities and particularly in apartments may not be feasible. However, recently Arti (Appropriate Rural Technology Institute) demonstrated that a mini biogas plant using household biodegradable waste such as remains of vegetables etc. is feasible even in apartments. Arti has won the prestigious Ashden award (a.k.a. Green Oscar) for this invention. A good part of our daily cooking and all of the reheating of the cooked food can be done using biogas instead of LPG.

Water heating requirements for bathing can be taken care by solar water heater if one lives in a bungalow or row house or even in a building having a small number of apartments. People living in high rises can use biogas or LPG (gas geyser) instead of electricity. Water heating by gas is much more efficient than using electricity (Apart from being economical) so in that sense one can save the perishable energy source. The performance of solar water heaters is poor during monsoon. So in monsoon, a gas or electrical backup can be fitted to get hot water. Even on no-sunshine days, the water temperature in the solar water heater is higher than the normal water and so gas or electricity is saved to that extent. Further, a thermostat can be used at a preset cutoff temperature of around 50-55 deg. C.

For commuting, one can use various strategies practically: Use of public transport to the extent possible, using fuel-efficient vehicles, properly maintaining the vehicles, following good driving practices etc. All of these can help save fuel and also money.

For lighting, one can use CFLs (Compact Fluorescent Lamps) instead of incandescent bulbs or even tube lights. CFLs save around 70% of electricity as compared to incandescent bulbs because of their efficiency. Their life is also much longer as compared to incandescent bulbs and hence they are economical even though their initial cost is higher. Now days, CFLs are available in yellow and “daylight” shades also apart from white and so they can be used in decorative or spot lighting instead of incandescent bulbs or halogen lamps.

Although the focus of this article is on sustainable living at an individual level, it is worthwhile to mention that on a larger scale the governments of several countries are encouraging use of renewable sources for generating electricity itself. A lot of research is underway to improve efficiencies of photovoltaic (PV) cells that generate electricity directly from sunlight. A host of wind turbine farms are being built to generate electricity from wind. The details could be the subject of another article…
For now, as the article points out: it is practically possible to start implementing above strategies immediately or in a very short span of time. In today’s world this is one of the best ways of achieving “Swartha” (lesser utility bills!) through “Paramartha” (lesser pollution). What say!