Green’s the way to go…

We’re writing this as we celebrate the World Environment Day in our simple way that we have chosen to call ‘Green Day‘.

While most of the team members have turned out in green as planned, others who missed out or couldn’t spot the color in their wardrobes are going green with envy. So all in all, mission accomplished..!!  :-)

Green Office

On a more serious note—which is the real intent of a day like this—there are enough things one can do as part of his/her daily lifestyle to reduce the burden on our already bursting-at-the-seams resources. We’ll however restrict this post to some simple things workplaces and employees can practice toward doing their bit for the environment. Remember, most of these are not difficult, but just a matter of tweaking the way of life we have become used to.

  • Switch off when not needed – this is the big daddy of all tips and applies to computers, lights, fans, and air-conditioning, to name a few. Shut down your machines before leaving for the day. Turn-off your monitors when not in use for an extended time during a meeting. The suggestions can go on and on. Oh! how could we forget mentioning that trickle from the tap when you are done using the sink.
  • Set the optimal temperature – air-conditioning is often the biggest contributor to power consumption in modern offices. Need we say more? In case the office has a dedicated maintenance staff to regulate this, do not tinker with the settings.
  • Go digital – In the modern age of technology, reduce the amount of paper and restrict it to data that needs to be in hard form. Otherwise, simply rely on emails and your hard-disks (back up if you need to archive) instead of disposing printouts after your work is done and printing/storing reams of pulp in file cabinets.
  • Car/Bike pool – Pooling does not work well as a regular ad-hoc mode of transport. However, it works really well for regular commuting since your source and destination are fixed; your entry and exit times are predictable more often than not. Nothing like saving a few bucks on gas, while having someone for company wading through the traffic!
  • Spread the word – make it a part of your life and share with people you know.

Pics coming soon…stay tuned!

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Upping the ante

A rather cute analogy and an interesting moral – Read on..

An interesting analogy caught our eye this morning. We have all been brought up on a healthy dose of the ‘ant and the grasshopper’ story as kids in school. The story ends quite vividly. Winter comes, and the ants thrive on the resources they have worked hard to collect all summer. The grasshopper, for all his frolicking during that time, dies a sad death as winter intensifies and has no food to bank on. Something uncannily similar is happening in the world today, albeit with one big difference. The ending may not be so similar after all. The ants are the Germans, Chinese, and Japanese. The grasshoppers on the other hand are the Americans, British, Greeks, Irish, and Spanish.

The ants have been producing enticing goods that grasshoppers want to buy. What the ants have been getting in return for selling their wares has mostly been grasshopper debt. Promises that the grasshoppers will pay back in future their debts to the ants. But as the ants have realised, a consumption binge based on leverage can go on for a while. But not forever. The day of reckoning has now arrived. And the grasshoppers have nothing to pay the ants. So some of them print more money (Americans), and some try to convert to ants by slashing their fiscal deficits (Greeks). The former then end up paying back the ants with a currency of lower value. The latter leads to huge write offs as some grasshoppers die in the process. Either way, the ants have turned out to be the losers. The new moral of the story? Do not lend to grasshoppers!

Read the original post: http://www.equitymaster.com/5minwrapup/detail.asp?date=5/28/2010&story=2

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