Online shopping is a reality of our lives and in many cases, it can even lower the carbon footprint of a shopping experience, especially when we buy from local stores and ask for minimal packaging.If 1000 people in a region travel to the stores individually and return home with their holiday packages, they spend a…
One of the most frequently asked questions about cloth pads is whether they can be used during travel (especially on public transport) and about managing changes while working outside the home for most of the day. So, here’s the definitive guide to being a cloth pad user (and also simultaneously being a normal woman. Whattawin!)…
“Our homes are a lived experience,” says Chitra Vishwanath, of Biome Solutions, a design firm specialising in sustainable architecture. It is easy to see her point, when I look at the collage of beautiful buildings that are an equal mix of green and brown, plants and mud blocks, earthy shades that are appropriate for a…
One of my mother’s favourite childhood stories was about visiting a house where the family had a deep belief in co-existing with nature. While it seemed like an excellent idea at first (especially since my grandparents did host a variety of living things in their home and garden), she was taken aback when she saw…
A couple of weeks ago, I decided that I wasn’t going to buy any more products that had synthetic detergent surfactants. Which meant everything my local grocer stocked for cleaning clothes, vessels, or floors was out. No more quick trips to the local shop to buy washing powder for clothes, no more 2 litre cans…
Deepavali means different things to different people. For many people, it means early morning oil baths, questions about ‘Ganga snanam aacha?”, fireworks, lamps, deepavali legiyam (a digestive paste to help you blast your way through the goodies), and rich, delicious food shared with friends and family. But for many of us, Deepavali is also the time for…
When I first started composting, I became intimately aware of the waste that was being generated at home. I began to notice the dump trucks with two men standing next to rotting, stinking garbage. I noticed cooked food being thrown away into large open bins and attracting flies and strays. I noticed garbage collectors struggling…
On the first day of Navaratri My true love sent to me A cloth bag full of green veggies On the second day of Navaratri My true love sent to me Two betel leaves, and A cloth bag full of green veggies On the third day of Navaratri My true love sent to me Three gundu…
Imagine that you are going away for the weekend. Like the conscientious energy auditor that you are, you check the reading on your electricity metre before you go. You come back to find out that someone has swallowed 50 units of power when there was no one at home. Who is the culprit? (If you…
A lot of our recent blog posts have focused on consumer goods – food, groceries, cleaning and personal hygiene products. A couple of weeks ago, however, I got into a very pleasant conversation with an energy conservation and renewable energy evangelist. He is likely to tell you that his name is Das, Saswat Das. But…