Reducing my carbon footprint Part II

It has happened to me and I am liking it. Last year, I mainly worked on upcoming coal based energy plants (a really huge plant actually). So it was indirectly causing a lot of carbon footprints to be left behind on the environment and lot of guilt in my head for being a part in causing that.

Things have changed starting this year. I have been on hydro energy* till this quarter. I feel I am leaving less footprints through my work and also have the chance to wash away my past year's unclean energy's 'sins'. I may get to work on Wind energy next; meaning more opportunities to do cleaner work and totally free myself from the 'sins' accumulated last year :)


*Although not all hydro energy is renewable in nature. Big hydro plants (especially the ones which build huge dams - eg. Sardar Sarovar Dam) cause irreparable damage to environment around their dam/reservoir, since they submerge huge amount of hand- in turn submerging lot of vegitation and also people's houses. The vegitation that gets submerged emits loads of greenhouse hydrocarbon gases)

Reducing my carbon footprint

People nowadays have started asking this question " What's your carbon footprint"?. Essentially meaning that in whatever energy consuming activity you perform (for that matter, every activity we do is energy consuming, barring perhaps sleep!) how much carbon emissions did I leave in the atmosphere. So, when I went to Sikkim last Wednesday, I caused emissions to come from: Cab from home to airport, Delhi airport to Bagdogra airport (planes have a much severe impact), cab from Bagdogra airport to Gangtok. That's quite a bit of carbon footprint!

Well the question is, could this footprint have been minimised? Well yes, if my clients were willing to have that 2 hours presentation on web confrencing via say, a Reliance Webworld. That would have saved loads of money and emissions as well. Well, it's another point that the trip was a package work+leisure trip, hence I liked it.

I think we should considering the latest means of interaction - internet (and its children - VOIP, Video conferencing etc), as not only money saving but also an important way to save environment.