Business Fit Magazine March 2019 Issue 1 | Page 52

Environment
Reduce reuse recycle
Think Green
Adrian Vallenilla
In collaboration with the Amazonian Project, we
bring you another of their articles on how we can
help our environment. each year to power millions of homes and
industries, helping us to eliminate the use of
non-renewable power sources.
How We Think Green Eat Green
The main objective of the Amazonia Project is
to remind people to be aware of and sensitive
to the natural environment in our daily lives
and raise awareness of environmental issues
affecting the planet's future.
"Think Green" comes "Green Act". That's how
we're turning waste into a resource and putting
sustainability at the core of our daily lives.
Committed to the environment
We care about the planet, we feel a
responsibility to leave to future generations in
better shape than we found it.
We believe that in the near future green skills will
be part of everything we do, and sustainability
principles exist in each occupation. We need to
encourage companies to take the environment
into account and given tax credits for research
and development.
Renewable Energy
Among the renewable energy sources
available are: wind, geothermal, hydroelectric,
tidal, sun, wave, the biomass and biofuels.
Together they can produce enough energy
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It is environmentally and economically friendly
to "eat green".
The decisions we make about what we eat each
day really can have some major environmental
consequences. It is easy to forget about the
energy, water, chemicals and effort used to
produce everyday foods like chocolate bars,
soft drinks or a packet of chips. Not to mention
the fuel used to transport these goods.
Some ideas for reducing that
impact.
- Eat lower on the food chain - Meat production
consumes energy, is resource intensive and
generates pollution.
- Eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, grains
and legumes is healthier and easier on the
planet. Consider exploring vegetarian options.
- Eat locally - it saves transportation costs and
also helps support the local economy!
- Take only what you can eat!
- Avoid disposable dishes, glasses, cutlery and
trays. Take your own reusable items
- Avoid foods which are packaged in plastic,
choose glass or paper packaging
The Amazonia Project advocate the 3Rs of
environmental protection, the most important
of which is to reduce.
Reduce
Think Twice
The first step in reducing your impact on the
environment, is to reduce the amount of
resources you consume and use. Think twice
before buying or using anything. Do you really
need it? By reducing consumption, you also
decrease the amount of waste you produce.
Waste
There are also many other ways to reduce your
waste. The possibilities are almost endless.
These are just some ideas.
- Think before you print or copy!
- Edit on screen, not on paper.
- Use email to minimize paper usage.
- Send and store documents like business
proposals and necessary paper electronically
instead of on paper.
- When you have to print or copy, use double-
sided.
- By choosing to use narrow margins for your
Word documents paper usage can be reduced
by almost five percent.
Power consumption
There are so many ways to optimise energy
consumption
- Turn off unused or unnecessary lights
- Use natural lighting instead of electric lighting
whenever possible.
- If you have a desk lamp, make sure you use
fluorescent bulbs
- Select cold water to wash clothes
- Keep windows and doors closed in areas with
heating and air conditioning.
- Turn off computers when not in use.
- Turn off printers, especially laser printers,
unless printing.
- When buying computers and peripherals,
buy low power equipment
- Minimize use of screen savers and instead
enable power management features
- Buy only energy-efficient products
- Move your refrigerator to leave space
between the appliance and the wall to increase
airflow around the condenser coils, allowing
the refrigerator to operate more efficiently.
Re-Use
Use plastic containers to store food, paper
can become wrapping paper. The ways to
reuse things are limitless. All you need is to
be creative. If being creative is not your thing,
here are some other ideas:
- Reuse envelopes by placing a new label on
the old address.
- Designate a box of scrap paper and use it to
print all drafts or official documents.
- Reuse plastic bags or even better get reusable
bags.
Recycle
- Use gift bags instead of wrapping paper, they
can be used over and over again.
- The production of recycled paper uses only
half of the water and 3/4 power of the new
paper
- Each ton of recycled paper saves almost 400
gallons of oil, three cubic yards of land and
seventeen trees.
- The recycling of beverage cans uses 95
percent less energy than the production of
new cans
- A TV can operate for about three hours from
the energy saved by recycling one aluminium
can
Thinking green leads to acting green - taking
appropriate action to make environmental
responsibility a reality.
Green Technologies
Intelligent Lighting
Compact fluorescent lights (CFLs) are the
future. CFLs cost more but are much cheaper
in the long run due to their longer lifespan.
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