One man's waste is another's Resource

A creche, second home for toddlers, is recycling haven.

Keyboards on the ceiling, bicycle pedals to play with on the door and a second hand bath tub to splash in!

Mixed & matched odd-shaped pieces of Kota, Jaisalmer, Dholpur, Granite and mosaic to create a trendy flooring! these have been picked up from construction sites declared waste...

The floor also has motifs of Sub, Moon, Flora and Fauns while a dash of local mud  mirror craft makes a wall glitter!

The ceiling is a collage of glass bottles and clay bowls stuck into concrete while door has cycle parts, wheels, axles, chains, handle and pedals set in a grid of scrap iron bars.

A colorful rooftop pavillion is made od cloth rags and torn bamboo mats sandwiched in fiber reinforced plastic.

Fly ash bricks, a waste product of thermal power plants have been used in construction. They also keep the rooms Cool...

"We've tried to bring beauty with what was available" says Yatin Padya, architect and urban planner the master mind behind the Creche for slum dwellers in Ramapir no Tekro in Juna Vadaj, Gujarat, India.

Source: Report in TOI on 22 Apr 2009

Green Ahmedabad among 90 cities in the Global Low Carbon City Index

Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation's (AMC) composite efforts to go green' in its fight against global warming might get rewarded soon. Ahmedabad has been shortlisted among 90 cities in the world to be rated on the Global Low Carbon City Index (GLCCI) later this year.

"GLCCI rating is being undertaken by International Council for Environmental Issues

(ICEI) under the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)," says municipal commissioner IP Gautam.
"A large part of dwellings in the city are in the traditional pols which are well-ventilated and control heat well," says a senior AMC officer.

With more than 60,000 autorickshaws and 600 buses running on CNG, carbon emissions

in the city are down by 20 lakh metric tonnes per annum. The ambitious BRTS will also help reduce carbon footprint by 25 per cent.

For reducing urban heat islands, AMC s policy changes have led to almost 25 per cent of newly constructed buildings having white roofs made of Chinese mosaic that reflect heat. Besides, development control regulations have made it mandatory for three to four times of the built-up area to be reserved for greening.

In terms of streetlights, about 18,000 high voltage lights have been replaced by 11 watt compact fluorescent lamps (CFL), thereby conserving energy. About 20 per cent traffic lights run on solar power, while 70 per cent of the traffic lights have 15 watt Light Emitting Diode (LED) lamps.

In terms of waste management, measures are being taken to convert 1,500 tonnes of garbage to power source, while about 500 tonnes of organic waste is being converted to compost.

Read full story here

Happy Earth Day! ~ Planting More Trees

"He that plants a tree loves others besides himself."

~Thomas Fuller

Irrational utilization of Natural resources has led to environmental concerns. Thus putting the very existence of living being into question. 


A proactive way is to support the local community on plantation drives. Planting tree has direct impact on reducing carbon presence in the air and planting shrubs and grasses help to recharge ground water in drink water aquifers.


Planting shrubs and vegetation is a key to stopping and preventing the rapid flow of storm water and helps to infiltrate water back into the drinking water aquifers that can eventually be put to good use.

Environmental Benefits Of Planting Trees 

• Trees serve as a natural habitat, which provide support to a wide variety of flora and fauna. They provide a sense of privacy and security to the wildlife, seeking shelter in the woods.
• Trees remove excess amount of carbon dioxide and air pollutants present in the atmosphere, including sulfur dioxide, ozone and nitrogen oxide.
• Planting trees is very important to improve the quality of air and reduce its pollution.
• The visual quality of a landscape is improved by planting trees, which, in turn, improves the quality of life.
• The biodiversity gets enriched by planting trees.
• Trees provide shade, thereby moderating the summer temperature.
• Trees reduce soil erosion, because they bind the soil through their roots. They also help improve the fertility of soil.
• The greenery of trees adds color to the landscape and enhances the picturesque beauty of the environment.
• According to a recent study, houses and properties on tree-lined streets are found to be attractive places to live in.
• Trees are great absorbers of noise. Noise pollution can be reduced, to a great extent, by planting more and more trees.
• Planting of trees facilitates better management of flood water. Trees also moderate flood hazards, by allowing the rainwater to percolate into the soil, instead of running off it.
•  

Attitude

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important than facts.... We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes." - Charles R. Swindoll

"Always remember that the fresh, the present has to be totally lived, and anything that hinders has to be dropped" ~ Osho

Rethinking Complaining

Image by aturkus via Flickr

We all know someone who has elevated the process of complaining to a high art. Sometimes funny, sometimes exhausting, these people have the ability to find a problem just about anywhere. In its more evolved form, complaining is simply the ability to see what's not working, in one's own life or in the external world, and it can be quite useful if followed to its natural conclusion—finding a solution and applying it. However, many of us don't get that far, and we find that complaining has become an end in itself. In small doses, this is not a big problem, but if complaining has become a huge part of our identities, it may be time to take a good look at how we are spending our energy.

Complaining is a person's way of acknowledging that they are not happy with the way things are. In a metaphorical way, when we complain or criticize, we are tearing down an undesirable structure in order to make room for something new. But if all we do is tear down, never bothering to summon the creative energy required to create something new, we are not fulfilling the process. In fact, we are at risk for becoming a stagnant and destructive force in our own lives and in the lives of the people we love. Another issue with complaining is that we sometimes tend to focus on other people, whom we can't change, as a way of deflecting attention from the one person we can change—ourselves. So transforming complaining into something useful is a twofold process that begins with turning our critical eye to look at things we can actually do something about, and then taking positive action.

When we find ourselves complaining, the last thing we need to do is get down on ourselves. Instead, we can begin by noticing that we are in the mode of wanting to make some changes. But rather than lashing out at somebody or an organization, we can look for an appropriate place to channel this energy—not our neighbor's house, but possibly parts of our own. Finally, we can ask ourselves the positive question of what we would like to create in the place of whatever it is we want to tear down. When we do this, we channel a negative habit into a creative process, thus using our energy to change the world around us in a positive way.

source: here

BE PROACTIVE ~ Personal Vision

It all starts with our self awareness that enables us to stand tall in the crowd and examine the way we 'see' ourselves. It leads us to see beyond, listen beyond and act beyond in any environment. It makes us understand that we are responsible for our lives. It denotes the most basic habits of a successful people, the habit of pro activity.

How will you develop this self awareness? One excellent way to become more proactive is to look at where we focus our time and energy. We each have a wide range of concerns - our health, our career, our children, our social condition etc. We could separate those from things in which we have no particular or mental or emotional involvement by creating a circle of concern.

As we start focus our attention at those things within our circle of concern, it becomes apparent that there are some things over which we have no real control and others that we own do something about. And as soon as we begin working on the things, we can do something about , the nature of our energy will flow in more positive way, enlarging, magnifying, causing our circle of influence to increase.

Being proactive means you should take care to put all your efforts in the circle of influence. You should nurture your energy towards fulfilling your own ability. Your proactive approach that teaches you to see things in new light helps you to break the shackle of all your problems within the circle of influence.