How To Live Sustainably? Walk The Climate Talk With Earth5R’s “Home Equals Planet”
Across the globe, the average sea level increased by 3.6 mm per year between 2005 and 2015. (BBC News)
December 12, 2020 marked the fifth anniversary of the landmark treaty on climate change i.e. The Paris Agreement. It is a legally binding international treaty on climate change.
The event was hosted globally in a virtual meet – the Climate Ambition Summit 2020, aiming towards a resilient, net zero future emissions.
Climate Action Tracker (CAT)-Tracking global climate action since 2009 (Source: climateactiontraker.org)
However, the ground reality is that the humans have emitted another 200 gigatons of greenhouse gases since the signing of the agreement.
Earth5R’s HOME EQUALS PLANET Project is an initiative which focuses on 15 tangible actions to solve multiple problems on the grass-root level.
These simple actions are coherent with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in the year 2015.
The HOME EQUALS PLANET training conducted by Earth5R’s citizen volunteer Trisha Garg had participants who shared their eco-friendly lifestyle experiences and feedback after getting to know about these 15 actions.
Post the HOME EQUALS PLANET training, the trainees got encouraged and aware about their lifestyle decisions and how they can further incorporate those 15 actions in order to live a sustainable lifestyle.
Om Nair, the youngest participant shared his experience as:
“I found the 15 actions really comprehensive and interesting. This easy and flexible approach towards educating people and encouraging them to make sustainable decisions is really appreciative as it can inspire them to opt for change.
Making sustainable decisions doesn’t have to be always inconvenient as it can be achieved by simply being thoughtful in our daily routine actions.
Some of the actions that I already perform on a regular basis are avoiding fast fashion, commuting via public transport.
I upcycle old pillow covers/skirt/pants as cloth bags for grocery shopping, grow herb plants like curry leaves and upcycle of waste takeout containers as plant potters.”
Om Nair showing the cloth bags upcycled from old pillow covers,old skirts & pants (Action 12)
Growing curry plant (Sweet Neem), an aromatic herbal plant (Action 7)
Shambhavi Rathore, an environmental engineering student was delighted to know that she was already implementing some of the actions in her daily life. She shares her experience as:
“My family has always respected living with nature and we believe in responsible consumption.
I use cloth bags while purchasing groceries, reuse old glass or plastic bottles for planting pots and grow medicinal herbs like tulsi at home.
One of my takeaways from the HOME EQUALS PLANET training is to start spending more time in nature, going for bicycling or short distance walks.
Also, I along with my family members are working on our own terrace garden, so we will be segregating waste and practise composting so that the homemade organic compost can be used as a natural fertilizer in our garden. This is an eco-friendly and economical step.
I am very much affirmative that if more people are educated in this regard it will surely bring a huge positive impact.”
Shambhavi nurturing her Basil (Tulsi) plant, a traditional medicinal herb (Action 7)
Some of the other initiatives undertaken by Shambhavi such as reusing old plastic and glass bottles for plants and upcycling containers for the terrace garden (Action 12)
HOME EQUALS PLANET Action 2
Earth5R’s HOME EQUALS PLANET initiative inspires people via its 15 tangible actions to explore, enjoy, practice and promote responsible use of the Earth’s resources in order to create a circular economy.
“Building the resilience of people and livelihoods, communities and societies, economies, and ecosystems to the impacts of climate change is essential for achieving all post-2015 development agendas.” (Climate & SDGs Synergy Conference, Copenhagen, April, 2019)
The HOME EQUALS PLANET Project is an initiative in this direction. The training is designed in a way to show how common citizens can contribute in achieving these SDGs and also make other people aware about their role and responsibility towards climate change.
It envisions a paradigm shift from a ‘top-down’ approach to a ‘bottom-up’, as these actions guide the common citizens to be more conscious of their habits on the smallest level, which will contribute in the fight against global climate change, environment protection, and poor living.
These actions conducted at grassroot level, restore the quality of the natural environment that sustains us, thereby improving the health of nature and the wealth of people.
If we imagine our homes as miniscule planets and take responsibility for taking care of them in our own small ways, it will surely make a huge difference for our planet Earth because in the end, “It is our choices…that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”
The Earth5R team would also like to appeal to all the citizens to join this movement and be a part of HOME EQUALS PLANET. To know more about Earth5R, visit their website at https://earth5r.org/.
ABOUT EARTH5R
Earth5R is an environmental organization from India with its head office at Mumbai. It works with the NGO sector, Companies and helps them conduct environmental Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs across India.
Earth5R specializes in circular economy based projects. Earth5R also offers short term and long term environmental courses and fellowships.
– Community training and reporting by Trisha Garg, editing by Aishani Raghav