Why Go Green?

If you look at the issues regarding climate change and environmental conservation today, it is easy to get overwhelmed.  While it helps to look at the big picture in understanding why we need to go green, it is actually simple to start making a difference today. Every little bit that you reduce, recycle or re-use has a immediate positive impact in our lives.

Why Go Green?

Let me show you some numbers I got off the internet and other print media. This will help you understand what the numbers mean.

1. 3 trillion is the number of gallons of water the USA would save if every household invested in water-saving appliances. This amounts to $18 billion US dollars saved a year.
2. 64 million tons of material was prevented from reaching the landfills by recycling and composting in 1999 in the USA alone.
3. 113,200 is the average number of aluminum cans recycled each minute of each day.
4. 137 is the number of  plants, animals or insect species lost every day due to deforestation.
5. 1.5 arces is the area of rainforest lost every second due to land development and deforestation.
6. 61 per cent is the percentage of women’s lipstick found to contain lead tested from a sample of 30 lipsticks by a campaign for safe cosmetics.
7. 60 per cent is the reduction of children with developmental problems born in China after a coal-burning powerplant was closed in 2006.
8. 40 per cent is the percentage of energy saved by recycling newsprint compared to using new materials.
9. 2.5 per cent is the percentage of carbon dioxide emissions produced by air travel, making it the largest transportation related producer of greenhouse gases.
10. 36 is the number of states in the USA anticipating local or statewide water shortage by 2013.

Just some figures to help you get started on going green. Choose to reduce, recycle and re-use rather than going for convenience. Going green is important!

Green Resorts

Many of our visitors to Sabah come to see our natural heritages, trek in our lush green jungles, unpolluted islands and beaches, dive in our clear waters, and visit the man of the jungle, the orang utans. Eco-tourism and international visitors bring in hard currency to the country, impressions plays an important role when they tell their friends and family about the adventures they have in Sabah, Borneo.

The resorts that we have here are beautiful and provide world class amenities to their guests. So what are
they doing to promote conservation in the management of their resorts? Many hotels have lush vegetation on their premises, trees, creeper plants, scrubs, hedges, and well kept grass. It is a welcomed experience to stroll through a beautifully landscaped resort.

Are they doing enough?
Are any of our resorts certified eco-friendly? Is there even such a rating, and should it be just as important
as how many stars a resort rate? How stringent are the controls the management implement?

Next time you visit a resort, you can ask them about their green initiatives. If their guests ask them often
enough, it sends the message that Going Green matters, and leads to heightened awareness. It is not just a matter of how beautiful and comfortable the resort is, it’s about sustainability.

• Solid Waste Management
• Energy-efficiency
• Water Conservation and Preservation
• Employee Education
• Sewage Treatment Plant

Eco-tourism should be promoted along with eco-friendly hotels and resorts. Not just in resorts, every lodging house and motels should have a green initiative. Reduce, Recycle & Reuse. It matters to us, consumers, tourists and businesses. When consumers and businesses lead the way, the rest of the society will stop and take a look at how much waste they are generating. The environment is our universal responsibility. It starts with us.

Save Water To Save Money

Everyone is going green, and it is good news. I’ll like to welcome you to join the green initiative, and take action to make earth a greener place. Many of the steps we can take to stop climate change is easy to do, you don’t have to make major changes to your way of living. You don’t have to spend a lot of money, and what you do spend will help your wallet and the environment in the long term.

Water conservation is the best way to make use of our water resources, which in turn helps to protect the environment.

Tips On Saving Water

1. Take a shower instead of a bath. What could be simpler? Taking a shower lowers your water and heating usage at the same time. Personally, I prefer a shower over a bath. With the many types of shower heads that delivers jets of water, while reduceing water usage.
2. Installed low-flow shower heads and aerated faucets. These do not cost a lot and can help you save up to 50% of your water usage. Consider also installing a low-flow, or dual flush toilet. This can reduce water usage by a further 30%.
3. Turn off the tap, while you are brushing your teeth or while you shave. Leaving the tap on for one minute can waste up to 7 litres of water. Wash fruits and vegetables in a half-filled sink instead of running water.
4. Check for leaks, in your taps and pipes. Imagine wasting up to 100 to 200 litres of water a month!
5. Minimal watering of plants. If you have a green thumb, consider cultivating plants in your garden that do not require as much watering. If you have to water your plants, use sprinklers. Water your plants in the morning or evening to reduce evaporation.
6. Cover up your swimming pool to prevent water loss from evaporation, or shade your pool area.
7. Install a rainwater tank. This water can be used to water your lawn and garden, or general cleaning.

Don’t flush your money down the toilet. There are many inexpensive ways to reduce our water usage - none of which will cause us any particular hardship. If we all do our part, it equals millions of litres saved per day, per city.

Recycle And Reduce

The best way to help the earth is to finds ways in which you can reduce, recycle & reuse.

One of the great threat to the environment comes from the amount of things we throw away. The things that we throw away also causes environmental pollution by the leakage that occurs which can leak into our ground water. Many of the chemicals that makes it into our water supply isn’t easily removed, and will eventually find their way into our tap water. Crops and farm land in contaminated areas produces food that are unfit for human consumption, due to pollution in the soil, or use of polluted water.

Things such as household batteries and electronics often contain dangerous chemicals, and these chemicals can be released over time when the item is dumped into a landfill.  The pollution don’t just occur to our ground water and soil, landfills also gives off dangerous and harmful gases that causes air pollution.

The more we throw away, the more space we take up in our landfills. When a landfill is full, our tax dollars are spent to build a new one. As taxpayers, we are spending money to build a space to keep our rubbish! So the less we throw away, the longer our landfills will last.

Manufacturers have to step up and find ways to recycle the goods they produce, either the physical goods itself, or reduce the packaging used to house the goods.

Recycle & Re-use
Throwing things away is a waste of the resources used to produce the item. In today’s world, millions of cellphones and their batteries are thrown away. This is the modern lifestyle where we focus more on form rather than function. I am sure that most cellphones that are not in use are in perfect working condition. Why are we so fixated on the cool stuff or the latest gadget?

Of course, this isn’t just about cellphones. What about the clothes in your closet? I know people who can go for a month without the need to do their laundry, because of the amount of clothes they have. But the clothes are never worn. It may be that the style is out of fashion, or the color, or the brand.

For years, I have kept almost every magazine I have ever bought. Especially the magazines about photography using SLR cameras. I have not touched my SLR camera in years, and have since made the switch to digital cameras. In the end, I had to take all my magazines to a recycle center, and those magazines costs upwards of RM 30 per copy. My problem with my digital camera is this; it’s obsolete. But it is in perfect working condition, and I can still take nice photos with it. It costed me RM 1,200, and giving it away seems so …. hard to do. Besides, that would mean I have to buy a new one, and by the time I buy it, a newer and improved model will arrive in less than a year. What do I do then?

Everyone should try and re-use the things they have for as long as possible. When the time comes to throw it away, do it responsibly.

Reduce
The packaging on the things we buy, sometimes makes no sense. Buying a digital camera? The box it comes in is 5 times the size of the camera, plus the manuals that comes with it, all in different languages. My camera came with 2 tripods, and a camera bag. That means more boxes, plastic bags and paper. It was funny in a way, I went in to buy a small digital camera and came out with 2 handfuls of boxes and stuff.

Manufacturers have to reduce the amount of packaging on their goods, and use more environmentally friendly packaging. As a consumer, it is a pain to have to carry so much stuff. I appreciate the protection for the product, but it is just so much of it.

The production of the packaging uses additional energy and materials.

• The extra volume and weight adds to the transportation and shipping cost.
• The packaging will be thrown out anyway, and needs to be collected by large disposal trucks.
• The packaging takes up more space at the landfill.

Did you know:

• For every ton of paper that is recycled, 7,000 gallons of water is saved; 380 gallons of oil; and enough electricity to power an average house for six months.
• The amount of electricity that is saved by recycling one aluminum can, can run a TV for six hours.
• You save enough electricity to power a 100-watt bulb for four hours by recycling just one glass bottle.
• Throwing away things diminishes energy, water and natural resources that has to be used to produce some more the same items.

If you have watched, An Inconvenient Truth, then you will know that the exploding world population is a one of the factors that is putting such a strain on the earth. As the population grows, there will be fewer resources available, if we do nothing to change the way we consume things.

It used to be that when we first started talking about recycling materials, the cost to recycle, break down and clean up the materials, was higher than it is to produce the item from raw materials. Advancement in technologies and techniques have reduced this cost, and it is time we employed this knowledge in a wholesale and coordinated manner to recycle large portions of our waste.

Paper, plastic and metal can be recycled. Let’s make the effort today!