Anagha Speaks

In April 2009, the American Institute of Architects (AIA) had their annual convention in San Francisco. Under the umbrella of this event and in partnership with various orgnizations, a small exhibition was organized titled as '10 x 10 cities - Green Facts Challenges Futures. The exhibits were organized as datascapes showing the current challenges facing the 10 major North American cities, including San Francisco. The interesting part of the exhibition was the responses to these challenges by architects in terms of their green designs and planning of energy efficient buildings. The exhibition also showcased San Francisco's Environmental Action Plan aiming towards its Climate Change goals. The interesting and perhaps unique point about this exhibit was the effective use of visual language used in communicating green facts about cities. The 10 cities were compared on a 10 point Sustainability Scale, which included parameters such as garbage production, water consumption, air quali...

San Fransisco, a leader in sustainable city development, commissioned a Solar Energy Project five years ago. The idea simply was a public-private partnership (PPP), where the private player (Recurrent Energy) would finance, construct, own, operate and maintain a solar PV plant on rooftops of public buildings. The public entity (SF City) would buy the energy generated, thereby producing a pool of green energy units available to the consumers. After 7 years or at 15 years, the City would buy the project at fair market value or $33 million, whichever is greater. The solar PV installations are designed to generate 5MW power, enough to power 1500 homes. The PPP initiative is amongst the various targets the city of SF has set for itself, which is to generate 50MW of Renewable Energy in the city by 2012. Currently, 7.24 MW of Solar Energy is being generated in SF, with city owned installations amounting to 2MW. The city generates 150MW hydro power, which is, of course, not a part of the renew...

The day I opened the newspaper when Inlanded in California, this week, the headlines that greeted me were heart warming. The headline announced that California's Air Resources Board approved a first-in-the-world regulation to minimize the amount of Carbon in fuel...putting CA as the first region to promote alternative fuels in a bid to combat global warming. Its intereting to note that the regulation is applicable to automotive fuel manufacturers and they are liable to a stringent penalty if the carbon content in their fuels do not match the presribed standards. The idea is to reduce the Carbon content by 10% by 2020...lowering the amount of GHGs (Green house gases) released for every unitof energy produced. This is amongst the first of such targets being sent in the US towards reducing GHGs and thus initiating action against global warming. The regulation is framed not only to combat global warming, but to initiate innovation in fuel manufacturing, perhaps marking a shift towards ...

22nd April is celebrated as Earth Day - Vasundhara Divas! What will be our committment towards Mother Earth this year? As I started writing this blog, I started thinking about possibilities of my commmittment. What can I promise to Mother Earth that will cause her a little less pain and a little less pollution from my activities. In other words, how will I lighten my ecological footprint in this year? Last year, I had committed to stop asking for plastic shopping bags for groceries. To be fair, I would rate myself a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10. I avoided the plastic bag use wherever I could, but I should have tried a little more. So this year, I will continue on this committment. For this year, I will commit to make my home ZERO garbage! I will be composting my biodegradables and ensure recycling of my non biodegradables! One of my uncles, having spent the last year striving (and acheiving) to become a ZERO garbage home, has committed to be an environmentally Conscious and a Responsible Co...

The week before, Puneites woke up to find the city's garbage bins overflowing with three days garbage. The stink was evident when a waft of breeze flowed through Pune in those 3-4 days. having 'endured' this ordeal, Puneites saw the garbage collection resume its normal routine since yesteray and smiles appeared on our faces. The garbage was 'rightfully' being collected and taken away...away from our backyards! Today I had a chance to speak to a young leader from Devachi Urali. He started talking with an apology. He apologized to us Puneites for having inconvenienced us for the past week. after all it was the agitation led by him and his collegues that was stopping the garbage trucks from dumping the 1200 tonnes of solidwaste that Pune generates everyday. He then went on to explain how he and his entire village is putting up with Pune's garbage for the past 18 years! He told me a story of his neighbor, a middle aged woman that works as a daily labourer on a farm...