My father reused old tyres by converting them into plant holders for different vegetables. We harvested a lot of vegetables.
Before my course on Material, Energy and Environmental Consciousness (MEEC), if anyone asked me this question, I would have said yes. I take care of a lot of trees and plants in and around my house, I shop less and prefer buying from brands that are environmentally sustainable. I switched to becoming a vegetarian and am now trying to go vegan. I don't drive petrol vehicles, only electric vehicles. So yes, I consider myself to be an environmentally conscious person.
But after this course, I find it extremely difficult to answer this question.
The reason this course completely shattered my perspectives was two fold: the way we were taught, and the kind of projects we were given to work on.
This course would not have been possible without the guidance of our facilitator Mr. Ashis Panda. Truly grateful to have been taught by someone who practices in action, what he teaches his students. This is a rarity as not many stand by what they teach.
The first session we were told to present ways we were environmentally sustainable. This was for us to get a general idea of where we all stood as 'environmentally conscious' individuals. Some of the experiences shared included vermicomposting, beach cleanup, consuming organic food, practicing zero waste lifestyle, using renewable sources of energy at home (solar heater, electric vehicles- shared by me), recycling clothes etc. The experience of sharing what we were all doing on a personal/professional level towards environmental sustainability helped me understand the diverse sets of actions we as a cohort had taken to address the issue. I was definitely happy to see that, like me, everyone in my batch did whatever they could to support different environmental challenges.
Our first sessions was on water. In this session we focused primarily on understanding waste water management. My takeaway from this session:
1) We cannot make water. Even if you combine a bunch of chemical to make water in an artificial setting, it is not feasible to produce large quantities of water. Therefore, we have to depend on whatever water we have on this earth.
2) The effects of green revolution (introduction of fertilisers and pesticides into agriculture) can be analysed through the percentage of heavy metals present in the ground water. Even today, the presence of these heavy metals in our ground water is beyond the permissible limit in most places in our country.
3) We watched a documentary called Faecal Attraction (CSE, 2006). I would highly recommend anyone who uses a toilet to watch this documentary. If anyone asked me where the waste waste in my toilet goes, my answer would be, "I don't know". Like any ignorant city dweller, I don't know where the trash in my house goes, let alone the bathroom waste water. After watching this documentary, I did my research to answer this question for myself. Do you know where the waste water in your bathroom goes?
4) A sustainable water cycle means harvesting water and ensuring waste water generated in a household is to be treated within the household, and not released outside. Currently, all our waste water (grey water and black water) is dumped into natural water bodies like lakes and rivers, and this eventually ends up in the ocean.
For this session, the group project assigned to us was to design a rainwater harvesting system either for our house of the building we were in. We decided to do it for the Access Livelihoods (AL) building we were in.
We have all learnt about rainwater harvesting system in class 7. But do we really know how this works in practicality. Absolutely not. I did not know anything. And I learnt so much after doing this project. So how we went about this project.
1) Analyse if the building had any sort of rainwater harvesting system. If it did, suggest ways we could optimise the current system. If it didn't, design a new rainwater harvesting system.
2) Check where all the rain water goes and where all the water pipes in the building lead to.
3) Understand where rainwater goes to recharge ground water.
The AL building is a 6 storey building. We first went to the ground floor to see where the pipes lead to. We found out that the rainwater which was collected in the roof was directed through one pipe to one percolation pit. Although there was another percolation pit, it was fully dysfunctional. It was not connected to any pipes, so it served no purpose in the building. After understanding the structures below, we went to the 6th floor and worked our way down. We analysed where every pipe was, what kind of water it carried (grey/black) and where it went.
The entire process of working on this project helped me understand how modern construction failed to understand the importance of collecting rainwater. In the building, the percolation pit was constructed as it was a requirement for every building to construct one. It had no use whatsoever, rainwater that reached the pit overflowed as everything around the pit was cemented. As a result, groundwater recharge did not happen. Even in my own house, although rainwater is routed through a pipe to recharge ground water, this water was is not collected anywhere for our personal use. Rainwater is the purest form of water as it is naturally filtered through the water cycle. To have it go to waste is such a shame. We watched a beautiful TED talk about ancient ingenuity of water harvesting of the people of the Thar desert. I highly recommend you to watch this wonderful talk.
Our second session was on shelter. In this session, my main learning were:
1) A home must express a profound and abiding feeling for its place and its people (Querencia).
2) A sustainable housing needs to focus on reducing the use of construction material (that are non-biodegradable) and demolition waste, collectively known as C&D.
3) Any construction/site planning should take into account the use of local materials like different stones/mud/wood etc. that can be used for construction. Solar passive designs (maximise use of sun, wind, light according to that geography), actively conserving water (rainwater and groundwater) and ensuring waste generated within household is not disposed outside (grey water/blackwater treatment, solid biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste etc.) needs to happen in a sustainable house.
We watched this wonderful video how an ideal eco-home should look like and it was extremely insightful in terms of all the factors that should be taken into consideration when planning/constructing a house.
The project we were given to work was to create our own sustainable house in Kerala (every group was given a different region, we got Kerala). We were supposed to show the area of this house on google earth (that's how specific we were asked to be) This house should produce be able to take care of its own needs and all waste generated must be treated within the area of the house. We also took the help of the SVAGRIHA manual to keep in mind several other parameters a sustainable house should consider.
We had to research a lot, before even deciding on constructing the house.
1) Where do we build a house?
We decided on constructing a house in Vellanad (District-Nedumangad, City-Thiruvananthapuram, State-Kerala). We had to find an area in Vellanad where we would construct this house and for that we spend quite sometime on google earth.
2) Materials for construction
As we wanted our house to be environmental sustainable in terms of the materials we used, and reduce our C & D waste, we decided that we would build our house with mud. The foundation would depend on laterite rock (material local to TN and Kerala) and the pillars that support our courtyard design would be made from reclaimed wood. The walls would be made of rammed earth. We also had to study sustainable binding agents that we could use in place of cement. We found out the combination of lime was the best alternate. A combination of lime and mud could be also used to plaster the walls as opposed to POP.
2) Design and Direction
We settled on a Kerala courtyard style house for the design. The open space inside house commonly observed in a courtyard design is based on energy flow also known as Thantra-Samuchayam.
We needed to study the wind patterns, temperature, humidity and rainfall in different seasons. The direction of the house (and various other factors like fenestration and ventilation) depended on the these weather conditions. We were able to come up with a basic floor plan and master plan of the house after studying these conditions in detail.
Other passive structures we considered including in the house included needed to be sustainable as well. After a lot of research, these were what we thought of including.
-Bamboo windows & bamboo screens on the outer verandahs of the house
-LED lights
-5 clay pot filtration
-Clay pot fridge
-Bed made from coir fibres
-Utensils made from Terracotta
-Use of Kora Mats
-Furniture made from reclaimed wood
5 clay pot filtration system and clay pot fridge that are all natural and easy to make. (links below)
Earthen cooking utensils and Kora mats made from grass
Bamboo windows and beds made from coir fibres (coconut fibre)
3) Create a self-sustainable house
We decided to install solar tiles on the roof of the house to maximise usage of solar energy to produce electricity. Charging points will be set up in the entrance of the house to charge electric vehicles (cause obviously). Rainwater harvesting system will collect in an underground tank. The capacity of the tank is dependent on the number of people in the house, and the annual drink water consumed per litre (approximately 4500L). Installation of a biogas plant to be used to recycled black water for fuel and setting up a 3 step treatment pond used to treat grey water.
Solar tiles was something interesting I got to know after my research (research meant calling my dad :P). Installing solar panels on a roof made of tiles would be difficult as it would also act as a catchment area for rainwater. Solar titles was the best option.
The entire process of figuring out these details, made us understand how difficult it was to construct a sustainable house, and the the factors we need to be cognisant of when building one. After this project, I used the SVAGRIHA manual to evaluate my house to understand how it ranked on a scale from 1 star to 5 stars; 1 being the worse, and 5 being the ideal definition of a sustainable house. Despite everything, my house received a 1 star. This was extremely disappointing news for me, but it made me think of ways I can improve certain aspects of my house. Absolutely loved this session!
Our third session was on food. This session really hit me to my core. Food. We eat food every day. We directly and/or indirectly affect the way our food is produced. The learnings I gained from this course has made understand issues of sustainability that I otherwise thought I knew, or convinced myself that I was aware about.
1) Agroecology is the confluence of our ecology and biodiversity.
2) Shift to an agroecology practice of farming include:
-Polyculture/ Peasant diversified farming system
-Multi tier cropping
-Insectary Strips
-Crop Rotation
-Crop Border
-Buffer Strips
-Riparian Corridors
-Resilient Agrolandscape
-Integration of biodiversity
We watched a short film on Timbaktu to understand the concept of agroecology. Timbaktu is a farmer producer-owned and managed organic farmers' enterprise located in rural Andhra Pradesh. If you want to learn more about their inspiring story do watch this short film. It is a national award winning short film and I highly recommend you to watch this if you haven't.
3) I also understood the monopoly of seeds and how seed. banks were an important part of agriculture. We watched a video of Mr Natabar Sarangi. Natabar continues to find, save and share his indigenous rice seed with local farmers. To date he has managed to re-introduce over 350 varieties of seeds back into agriculture.
4) Due to particular government subsidies, the main crops grown in India are reduced to rice, wheat, cotton and sugarcane. Farmers need to be encouraged to grow different types of crops that are local to the geography, rely on indigenous seed varieties that are non GMO and shift to organic farming.
The project my group was given for this session was to design a biodiverse, multi-tier, organic, nutrition garden in a roof top of an area of 2000 sft. Although this seemed easy at first, we had certain criteria to follow. This included:
Include perennials (age of 3 to 7 yrs) and annuals (age < 1 yr)
Prepare a list of what you will plant in all the 3 seasons (Kharif, Rabi, Zayad)
Must give enough food for a family of 5 throughout the year
Garden produce must have fruits, vegetables and other edibles of at least
20 varieties at a time
Create spaces for pollinators, predators and parasitoids and other biodiversity that will provide ecological services to your garden
Prepare a conceptual 2D layout of how you will organise the garden
These criteria made the task a bit more difficult.
We decided that every plant pit will be multitiered with multiple crops.
It will look something like this.
After this we had to research the kind of vegetables we will grow and categorise them based on the seasons (Kharig, Rabi, Zayed), perennial/annual crops and the type of tier they belong to.
After this, we had to figure the design of the rooftop garden. We had to study the light, wind and direction of sun (shade) to figure out where to place different place crops. After several disagreement, design sketches and discussions, we finally figured out the design of the garden.
To give a better idea of how it will look, here is a picture below.
Other organic practices we decided to adopt in our garden include:
Good quality Soil- Using peat Moss, coco coir peat, worm castings/vermicompost, bone meal, oil cakes etc. to improve the quality of soil
Watering them with compost tea
Material of plant pits: earthen pots, clay, reused buckets, barrels
Insectary strips to promote pollination
Bird baths and coir fibre/coconut nests for birds
Ponds for fish and other insects
From left to right: Bird bath, recycling plastic buckets as pots, insectary strips
From up to down: Artificial nests made from coconut and coir fibres, small pond made from recycled bucket
My main learning from doing this project was that I didn't know the ecological footprint of my food. I don't know where my food is grown, what is used to grow my food and how it reaches me.
When we grow our own produce, we are actively involved in the process of understanding our food systems; soil profile, type of seeds, seasonal crops, mixed pollinators, harvesting etc. Through this we understand in greater detail how biodiversity around us and our ecology are all inter-connected. Growing our own organic produce is equivalent to building a mini-ecosystem in our house.
If this course has taught me one thing, it is that my definition of "environmental consciousness" will keep expanding based on the effort I take to learn about environmental problems around me. I can learn only if I ask questions, so I will keep asking more questions and I will take the time to find the answers to these questions. It is through this process that my perception changes and so does my worldview.
References:
2) Eco friendly house in Kerala - clay pot fridge
4) Kora Mats
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