Earth Day special - Let's make it "days"

It's been sometime since I have written this blog. Well, folks I have a super great job that lets me help others build sustainable buildings, every frickin' day! I feel like all my sustainability preaching <wink> passion was channeled there; however, I have been itching to write again, and what better day to be back than Earth Day 2020. Whoop whoop!

I now live and work in the US, where LEED was born and it is so great to finally work with corporations that actually "implement" our recommendations, no shortcuts. I have also been working with wellness-oriented certifications, such as Fitwel (more on that later).

My goal ever since I moved here was to take charge of my lifestyle and make it even "greener". My family back in India took some awesome initiatives - we completely rid our home garden of grass (the water guzzler), my mom actively segregates our daily trash into dry and wet, composting the latter for manure which we used for our plants. Many more practices were adopted by my family for water reuse, waste recycling etc etc. I have to hand it to the Indian culture, it imbibes so many practices which we have doing and are being taught by parents to kids. These practices such as never wasting food on your plate, being cognizant of water wastage, selling recyclables to the Indian version of the hauler, air drying dishes and clothes etc. We did all this without realizing how sustainable they are, and how much impact we have been making all these years with our daily routines.

Things are different here. I am not saying which country is better or worse, each has its own way of dealing with climate change. I feel that things in India are done way more effectively at the grassroot level, by the people. Here, in contrast the local authorities having jurisdiction (AHJ), bodies like EPA and corporations lobby for policy changes and make all buildings, products, materials, practices comply with codes and standards, which is great and makes improvements at a larger scale.
But the question on this Earth Day is that do they really make the layman understand what is sustainability? I have heard people say, I am sustainable, because I try to walk more and I recycle. Let's take this Earth Day for example, we generally celebrate by turning off the lights and appliances for an hour. That's great and I am not knocking anything that we do to reduce our environmental impact. Keep walking and keep recycling, yay! The point is, how much more can WE DO, if we just THINK.

Think? Seriously, like we don't? I mean let's think about the impact on the environment before we do anything, and by anything I mean A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G. The age we live in, everything we do, from changing our central conditioning temperature by 1 deg, to simply ordering a drink at a bar or ordering food at home. Just take a moment and think...hmm...what is going to be the result of my action on the earth, whether it is more plastic, more waste in general, less water and more carbon emissions.

You'll be surprised how much impact can one small action make when done repeatedly or daily. Sustainability is not a choice anymore and with every passing day it is becoming a necessity. We cannot overturn climate change in one day or in one massive action or by one person. It has to be done by everyone, every day and for every single possible action.

Believe me, it's easy to give up and say "Hey, how much difference is my action going to make? Billions of people have to do it to make a difference blah blah". I always remember this quote from Mother Teresa.

"We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop."

Be the drop to save the Earth!

Don't just celebrate Earth Day 2020, make it "Days" and make it a habit. Care for the Earth every minute of every single day, not one day in a year.