Water (over)dose!

Interesting fact! How many of us would care to place a brick in the toilet cistern?

#BeModernBeResponsibleBeRespectful

    Samuchit Enviro Tech.     samuchit@samuchit.com     www.samuchit.com

Planting trees - a new perspective for smart investment

A birthday is round the corner?

A celebration is on its way?

Planning on making investments?

Why not plant a tree this time, and make some really smart investment! And here's why you should take this step...

• The net cooling effect of a young, healthy tree is equivalent to ten room-size air conditioners operating 20 hours a day. Trees properly placed around buildings can reduce air conditioning needs by 30%

• If you plant a tree today on the west side of your home, in 5 years your energy bills should be 3% less. In 15 years the savings will be nearly 12%
• One acre of forest absorbs six tons of carbon dioxide and puts out four tons of oxygen. This is enough to meet the annual needs of 18 people.
• Around Pune city, we have a scope to plan atleast one lac trees! Proper planning is the key to the space.
• Healthy, mature trees add an average of 10 percent to a property’s value, and well-maintained trees and shrubs can increase property value by up to 14%
  
• The planting of trees means improved water quality, resulting in less runoff and erosion. This allows more recharging of the ground water supply. Wooded areas help prevent the transport of sediment and chemicals into streams.
• In a laboratory research in USA, it is observed that visual exposure to settings with trees has produced significant recovery from stress within five minutes, as indicated by changes in blood pressure and muscle tension.
• A mature tree removes almost 70 times more pollution than a newly planted tree.
• A single tree produces approximately 117 kilos of oxygen per year. That means two mature trees can supply enough oxygen annually to support a family of four!
• Over the course its life, a single tree can absorb one ton of carbon dioxide.
• One tree can absorb as much carbon in a year as a car produces while driving approximately 42,000 kms.

So, are you making a smart investment choice today?

sources: internet

#BeModernBeResponsibleBeRespectful

    Samuchit Enviro Tech.     samuchit@samuchit.com     www.samuchit.com

MUSINGS FROM PRIYADARSHINI KARVE: A perspective on cooking energy [Part 1]

As you know, at Samuchit Enviro Tech one of the primary activities we do is supply a number of renewable options to meet cooking energy needs. What does one want from their cooking energy source? The three most important things, from the perspective of a typical homemaker-cook are: versatility of performing all the typical operations that she wants to carry out, convenience and ease of operation, and affordability. If the homemaker is also conscious about sustainability issues, she will additionally (but not at the expense of the other features) desire the cooking energy source to be environmentally benign. 

The most popular cooking energy source of today is LPG, and it scores 10 on 10 as far as versatility and ease of operation are concerned. Its affordability however is perceived as questionable, and although it is very 'clean' in its use, as it is a fossil fuel, it cannot be considered environmentally totally benign. 

The government addresses the cost issue by providing subsidy on LPG for household use. The technologies Samuchit Enviro Tech offers try to come close to LPG on its benefits, try to address the cost issue too, AND environmentally are better options, without doubt. 

Since for us, LPG is a 'competing' technology, I have tried to do some comparative analyses, over the years, and would like to share some of my musings on this issue. 

Let's first address the issue of the perceived costliness of LPG. 

I am sure all of you have seen advertisements appealing people to forgo subsidy on household LPG cylinders. The implication here is that we are entitled to the subsidy on LPG, but we will do the poor people who cannot afford LPG a great service, by forgoing it. 

It is not however clear as to how this is supposed to help poor people. 

By forgoing the subsidy, the consumption of LPG is not going to reduce. The logic perhaps is that if people have to pay higher for LPG, they will practice economy and use it more efficiently. However, that will hold true if the higher price was imposed on the household. If I am voluntarily giving up subsidy, obviously I am able to afford the higher price, and therefore there is no motivation for me to reduce my LPG consumption! So no extra cylinders are going to be available for distribution, by people voluntarily giving up on subsidy. 

No plan has been announced to increase the subsidy (to make the gas cylinders affordable to more people) if a certain number of people voluntarily give up the present subsidy. 

So, I don't see what purpose will be served by this 'sacrifice'. 

A couple of years ago, when it was decided to limit the number of subsidised cylinders per connection to 6 cylinders per year, I felt it was a step in the right direction. It provided a positive incentive for using LPG more efficiently. However, a lot of hue and cry was raised about this measure, and the decision was relaxed to 12 cylinders per year, which is as good as the original status. 

The outcry about reducing the subsidy on LPG as well as the current appeal to 'voluntarily' give up LPG subsidy are both based on the same assumption - that people are entitled to get cooking gas at a subsidised price, because cooking with LPG is expensive. 

Let's look at some numbers to understand how much do we actually spend on cooking energy, with or without subsidy, and what would be the cost if we were to use some non-LPG fuels. 

Let's assume that a family uses 1 LPG cylinder per month. The weight of gas in a domestic LPG cylinder is 14.2 kg and its cost is INR 460 (in Pune), with subsidy. Thus, daily expense of cooking energy for this family would be INR 15. If they decided to forgo the subsidy, the cylinder will cost them INR 640, and their daily cooking energy expenditure would be marginally higher - INR 21. 

Actually even the so-called unsubsidised price for household LPG is in itself subsidised compared to the commercial price. If the family was to shift to LPG purchased at commercial rate, which is about INR 65 per kg at this point, they would spend about INR 30 per day on cooking energy. 

A number of people argue that the pricing of LPG is in itself flawed, and it should be available in the market at a much cheaper cost anyway. But for the present analysis, I am using the prices that are currently prevalent in the market, irrespective of the justification of the pricing. 

Let's compare the above costs with the cooking energy expenditure incurred by a family that does not use LPG. 

If the same amount of cooking was to be done on kerosene, 1 litre kerosene would be required every day. In the open market, cost of kerosene is INR 70 per litre! If the family is below poverty line, they are supposed to get subsidised kerosene through PDS system, but we all know how well that works! 

If the same amount of cooking is to be done on wood, about 3-5 kg of firewood would be required daily. If this is purchased, the cost will be about INR 30-50 per day. If it is to be collected, it may take at least half a day, so the cost would be the wage for half a day's work. Based on the daily wage rates prevalent in Maharashtra today, this cost amounts to as high as INR 100! Of course people can and do use a lot of agricultural residue from their own farms, etc., but there are other hidden costs in this approach, which we will not go into at this point. 

What does this mean? This means that those who cannot afford to shell out the lump sum cost of the LPG cylinder, are actually spending much more for their daily cooking energy need! Even the unsubsidised LPG user ends up spending less on a daily basis, compared to people not using LPG for cooking. On top of that, the LPG user, even when using the most basic LPG stove, faces much less safety and health hazards, and enjoys far greater user friendliness in the cooking operation, compared to the kerosene users or firewood users, using the traditional cooking technologies. 

So, if every citizen is entitled to clean and safe cooking energy, who is entitled to subsidies or any other government support, LPG users, or non-LPG users?

(to be continued...)

Priyadarshini Karve

Director

Samuchit Enviro Tech

#BeModernBeResponsibleBeRespectful

    Samuchit Enviro Tech.     samuchit@samuchit.com     www.samuchit.com

Monday Quiz is here!

Monday Quiz is here...

Q: Which is the most common non-commercial biological fuel in a large number of developing countries?

a) Animal dung
b) Crop residue
c) Coal
d) Fuelwood

We await correct answers!

Last week's question was about which waste products are helpful to compost

The correct answer is : Egg shells, tea bags, sawdust

- Dairy products, meat lard, fish bones and pet waste are not safe to compost, as per statistics by US Environmental Protection Agency

#BeModernBeResponsibleBeRespectful

    Samuchit Enviro Tech.     samuchit@samuchit.com     www.samuchit.com

Samuchit Sarai System - Jumbo - ideal for community cooking

Samuchit Sarai is now available in a Jumbo avatar!

• Jumbo Sarai is a steam cooker which can cook about 2 kg of rice, dal, etc. at one time, using only about 500g of charcoal/char briquettes.
• The three pot stand gives flexibility to cook three different items like rice and rice based items, pulses, vegetables, potatoes, corn, meat and meat based items, eggs, idli, dhokla, cake, modak or dumplings,  etc. simultaneously.
• No attention required once set up; resulting in effective time saving.
• Useful for bulk cooking for a small eatery or food processing business or for a group of children in a village crèche or a small school.

*Samuchit Sarai System is also available in smaller sizes, to cook meals for as less as a family of one!


#BeModernBeResponsibleBeRespectful

    Samuchit Enviro Tech.     samuchit@samuchit.com     www.samuchit.com

Making hay while the sun shines

India sees it all. Rains, no rains. Floods, draughts. 
So here's literally applying the proverb in the title of the article in our lives - storing rain water and using it wisely. How? Read on...

Rain water harvesting (RWH) : Rain water harvesting is collection and storage of rain water that runs off from roof tops, parks, roads, open grounds, etc. This water run off can be either stored or recharged into the ground water. A rainwater harvesting systems consists of the following components:

• catchment from where water is captured and stored or recharged
• conveyance system that carries the water harvested from the catchment to the storage/recharge zone
• first flush that is used to flush out the first spell of rain
• filter used to remove pollutants
• storage tanks and/or various recharge structures.

Why do RWH?

Rain may soon be the only source of clean water. Rainwater harvesting systems use the principle of conserving rainwater where it falls and have the following benefits:

• Helps meet ever increasing demand of water
• Improves quality and quantity of groundwater
• Reduces flooding

  Where?

• Individual homes
• Colonies 
• Apartments 
• Institutions
• Schools/colleges/universities
• Clubs
• Hospitals
• Industries
• Slums
• Everywhere

How?
Setting up a rainwater harvesting is not difficult but requires some sort of understanding of hydrology and architecture and as a result most people find it too complicated to do it themselves. In order to make it simple and convenient for everyone to set up a rainwater harvesting system suitable for their needs, a set of ready guidelines is available on this link.

Source: http://cseindia.org/node/1272#why

BeModernBeResponsibleBeRespectful

    Samuchit Enviro Tech.     samuchit@samuchit.com     www.samuchit.com

The dilemma of 'Take a bus' OR 'Book a car'

Between headlines of the Ranthambore tiger, farmer-crop crisis, scanty rainfalls and excess floods, food contamination, etc, one news which is sinking our hearts is about the high air pollution levels in India. Statistics and facts showing that 15 of the world's 20 most polluted cities are in India, and our rajdhaani topping the list, one can only witness the pollution raised to highly toxic levels. With 9 out of these 15 Indian cities being large cities or metros, the option of moving out or relocating is shunned for most of us. 

Although India is now aware of the problem of air pollution, we haven't really equipped ourselves with mechanism to fight the demon. Around a decade ago, the Government introduced stringent vehicular emission standards; and another light sigh of relief was the introduction of CNG. Although both of these were supposed to be a measure to curb rising pollution level, India experienced another problem as an offshoot of these measures - the registrations of vehicles in Delhi alone were increased by over 100%! Most of these being personal vehicles, although now cleaner due to strict emission policies - this sharp rise in the number of automobiles kept the net effect on pollution the same!

The lifestyle upgrades in the upper class society of India has found a temporary fix to the problem - spray your house with air purifiers and fresheners. We fail to understand that this is not even a fix to the problem - infact a bigger problem in itself. Purifying your own private air will not imply that you are not affected by pollution. The irony of the situation is that, we roll up the windows of the car so as to not breathe the polluted air, and prefer the cool breezes pumped by the temperature controllers of our cars, failing to realise that we are actually consuming more fuel by using AC, leading to more emissions and rise of pollutants in the local air and carbon emissions globally.

So we know the major culprit - air pollution. We know from where the cancer arrives in 8 out of 10 cases. We know the health hazards, and we all know the desperate changes we need to make in our own lifestyles. And still, why do I see people booking cars without thinking of public transport as an option. I asked the reason for this to a few friends, and the answer I received was - because the public transport in the city is not always that efficient or convenient or both. Although this point is debatable in non-metro cities, I will still buy the argument. Which forces me to think that, while people can join the change movement for gay rights in the country, and write tens of hundreds of emails to pressurise telcos to subvert net neutrality, why are the same people not even thinking of taking an action to force the Government to improve public transport in their own cities? 

Bus, local trains, bicycles and walking power India's mobility. Can Delhi and other cities reinvent the dream of mobility to get out of this urban nightmare? Inventive thinking, actions and confidence to break into new ideas and trash the conservative approaches, is the crying need of the hour. 

I think the efforts will bear fruits when, before deciding to walk into a showroom to book an automobile, each individual is webbed into a dilemma of 'taking a bus' or 'booking a car'...

~Saili

PS: Share your thoughts on this article by commenting in the window below, or write at saili@samuchit.com

#BeModernBeResponsibleBeRespectful

    Samuchit Enviro Tech.     samuchit@samuchit.com     www.samuchit.com

MUSINGS FROM PRIYADARSHINI KARVE: Toll tax and Sustainability

Yesterday, I was on the road, and benefited from the new decision of the Government of Maharashtra state to exempt light motor vehicles from the toll tax on several roads. Today's musings is about looking at the whole toll tax issue through the lens of sustainability. 

Road infrastructure is an important component of development. In the last few decades, road infrastructure has been created through what is called as the pubic-private partnership. In this case, the tasks of mapping the road, and acquiring the land etc is done by the government, the actual road construction is carried out by a private party, which is then allowed to collect toll from the road users to defray their expenses and make profit on their investment. The calculation of the toll tax (amount and duration of staying in force) is dependent on the actual investment of the private party, and an estimation of how many and what type of vehicles will be using the road, and how those numbers will change over the years. 

I am sure almost everyone reading this blog has passed through some toll plaza somewhere. Have you ever noticed the toll tax amounts for different kinds of vehicles? The light motor vehicles or cars have the least tax. As the passenger carrying capacity increases, the tax increases. The goods transport vehicles pay even more, and again as the vehicles get heavier the tax increases. 

When a government decides to exempt a certain class of vehicles from the toll tax, what exactly does that mean? The private party who has build the road and collecting the toll, is certainly not going to agree to collecting less than what they are promised in the original contract with the government. So, by exempting a certain class of vehicles, whatever is the shortfall will have to be given to the private party by the government. I feel that this decision is unjust on several levels. 

Firstly, a portion of the money that I pay as tax is going to be used for paying toll on roads that I may never use. By the way, please understand that EVERY citizen of this country is a tax payer. We have a tendency of thinking only about income tax when we talk about 'tax payers' but everyone pays sales tax and service tax on all goods and services purchased, everyone also pays various local body taxes, etc. The various arms of the government use all the tax money from all these various taxes to run the government. Therefore if a portion of this money is to be used for 'subsidising' people who use a particular mode of transport on toll roads, every citizen is involved, whether paying income tax or not. And who is it that is getting subsidised in this case? It is the people who can buy cars worth hundreds of thousands of rupees if not millions, or those who can afford to hire taxis for traveling around. How fair is it that a lower middle class non-car owner's hard earned money should be used for subsiding these people?

Secondly, this decision is also unjust from environmental perspective. It does make sense that the toll tax should be higher for vehicles with more people or vehicles with heavier loads, etc. However, if the government does want to exempt some people from the toll tax (for whatever reasons) it makes more sense to lighten the toll tax burden on public transport vehicles. A vehicle that is carrying more passengers occupies less space on the road, and results into less carbon emissions per person than say air conditioned cars with just one person in each car. A pro-sustainable development government should use the opportunity of giving any sops like this to also gently nudge people towards environmentally responsible behaviour. Of course this alone will not make people keep their cars home and travel by buses, but every little bit directed to that aim will add up and eventually create a situation where it would make more sense to travel by a bus than by a car. 

Those were my thoughts as we passed through each toll plaza without having to pay any tax... What do you think?  

Priyadarshini Karve

Director 

Samuchit Enviro Tech

#BeModernBeResponsibleBeRespectful

    Samuchit Enviro Tech.     samuchit@samuchit.com     www.samuchit.com

Monday Quiz is here!

Monday Quiz is here...

Q: Which three of the below waste products are safe and helpful to compost? 

1. Dairy products
2. Egg shells 
3. Sawdust
4. Lard (of meat)
5. Fish bones 
6. Tea-bags 
7. Pet waste

We await correct answers!

Last week's question was about the most common type of waste that litters the oceans with the options (Bags, plastic beverage bottles, cigarettes, food packaging)

The correct answer is : Cigarettes.

- Statistics showed that volunteers from International Coastal Cleanup removed almost 2 million cigarette and cigarette filters in their most recent efforts to clean litter from the all oceans around the world.

Winners for last week: Mr. Dayaghan Rane and Ojas Mirikar

#BeModernBeResponsibleBeRespectful

    Samuchit Enviro Tech.     samuchit@samuchit.com     www.samuchit.com

Friday Feed : Climate change departure coming our way!

Pictorial representation of when climatic changes would affect respective cities around the globe!

source: http://achangingclimate.org/

#BeModernBeResponsibleBeRespectful

    Samuchit Enviro Tech.     samuchit@samuchit.com     www.samuchit.com