Green Living – Page 2 – Anuja Sawant (Sarangdhar)

Neti pot

Neti pot is a device that you can use to irrigate your nasal passage with luke warm saline water. Something I learnt from my mother-in-law. I haven’t been unfamiliar with this concept as I have tried it before in another form prescribed by my doctor which simply was a saline spray. I tried neti pot also because I like to take things with a grain of salt, ha! But mostly because I caught allergies several times after being exposed to a new atmosphere two years back.

I haven’t caught allergies so often last year so I am assuming things are better now, perhaps my body got feistier. Nevertheless, the past few days I’ve felt nasal congestion and itchiness. I tried neti pot again today and I wish I had some eucalyptus oil to smell after. This oil was the only thing that kept me from freaking out after the Swine Flu breakout in India many years back.

We are constantly surrounded by home-made and natural remedies thanks to media. Do you listen to them all? Does it wake the skeptic in you? I always tend to try things if they make the slightest of sense, or if they come from my mom only if it has come from her mom and not from her phone. I now mostly tend to try things if it means not exposing my body to chemicals or pharmaceuticals (potato-potahto).

To not turn a deaf ear to whatever I read or hear from whoever, I always do some research. A good friend once said, “You will always find what you are looking for when you Google it.” Basically, if I’m looking for benefits of using a neti pot, I’ll find those. If I’m looking for dangers of using a neti pot, I’ll find those too.

My brother thinks neti pots can be dangerous if not used well. He is right. It can lead to infections and you may become a zombie. OK, not a zombie, but it can lead to amoeba’s eating your brain. It does sound scary but I tried anyway. I try it with utmost precaution.

Which are those remedies that have been passed on from generations that you have tried and have worked for you? Perhaps a favorite one you recall?

Green Living

Fashion Sustainability in Progress: A Series on Green Fashion Week

Fast fashion brands are adapting to the transparency and business risks by being more resourceful, ethical, and technologically advanced. But, what exactly are they doing? To answer that, with Green Fashion Week, I am bringing you a series of blog posts. We will look at the most selling brands in the fashion industry in the year 2016-17. Interbrand, a global brand consultancy, reported Best Global Brands of 2017. Ten luxury and apparel companies made their mark in the top 100. Each blog post would probe into these companies for environmental and social performance by highlighting their progress. Stay tuned for a bimonthly series looking into their sustainability efforts. You can see it here: https://www.greenfashionweek.org/blog/

Environmental Science & Technology, Green Living

How I ended up writing for Green Fashion Week

Me in a Patagonia jacket from its Worn Wear collection and a cross-body bag from ThredUp, an online second hand goods shop. Worn Wear celebrates the stories we wear, keeps your gear in action longer through repair and reuse, and recycles your garments when they’re beyond repair. Jeans is a Benetton, which has lasted for so many years that I’ve lost count.

Fashion plays a big part of my life and I love to tinker with it. At the same time, I try to make more conscious decisions when it comes to shopping. I follow Miraslova Duma and Future Tech Lab very closely. I take inspiration from a lot of sustainable fashion folks out there, I’m glad that there are so many! Below are my blogs related to sustainable fashion:

This had to lead me to Green Fashion Week, something I’ve closely followed for some time now. Green Fashion Week (GFW) is a non-profit international event supported by GD Major and FSA and patronized by the Italian Ministry for the Environment, Land and Sea in collaboration with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

It is a pleasure for me that I now blog for Green Fashion Week. My first article is up! Read ‘The Future of Secondhand Fashion Market‘. I hope you like it.

Are you into Sustainable Fashion too? Hit me a reply and let’s talk!

Biodiversity, Environmental Science & Technology, Green Living

10 reasons why we need green spaces in urban areas

The reasons why we need green spaces are various, whether they are indoors and outdoors, but with real plants and trees:

Psychology: People are happier with trees around them. Trees provide a lot of health benefits.
Refreshing: Trees purify the air we breathe. They bring down pollution and improve air quality.
Bonds people: It brings us all together. Green spaces are shared by everyone – poor, rich, black, white, brown, any caste and creed. It fosters friendship.
Safety: Green spaces makes a place more accessible to vulnerable groups such as women, senior citizens and children.
Energy: Trees conserve energy, they give us shade.
Urban heat island: Trees help reduce the creation of urban heat islands, an urban area that is significantly warmer than its surrounding areas.
Water: Trees are a natural water filter. They act as mini reservoirs for storm water runoff. They retain water that would otherwise erode the land.
Habitat: Trees provide a habitat for species in an urban area. They increase biodiversity if planted the right way.
Noise: Trees act as a noise buffer.
Business value: Green spaces are aesthetically pleasing, they add a feel good factor to cities. This increases the value for businesses as well as homes.

Environmental Science & Technology, Green Living

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Cactus: In Europe, these plants are largely produced for sale in the period before Christmas, that’s why the name. My new buddy.

Wish you all a Merry Christmas! Aren’t Christmas trees a sight? I decorated one recently with the help of recycled materials. Thanks to Friends of the Newton Grove. It was a part of their 4th Annual Christmas Carolling, a free community event. An event full of positivity and warmth!

But, what about artificial Christmas trees? It was found that a natural Christmas tree has lower impacts on the environment than an artificial tree, according to an independent Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) conducted by ellipsos inc., a firm of experts in sustainable development.

And when you are done, there are plenty of ways you can give your tree a new life:

Make mulch or compost
Create a habitat for local wildlife, be it birds, rodents, or fishes
Make DIY projects like the one in the photo above, they can be used as coasters too
Or simply give it to your local organization who can recycle it for you.

Merry Christmas!

Environmental Science & Technology, Green Living

Would you gift a plant to someone?

Plenty of occasions come with the joy of giving, or should I say joy of accepting. E-commerce has made it easy to find all kinds of things online. Websites and blogs publish ideas to make things easier. Public wish lists and registries are digital places where you can find what the recipient really needs.

I don’t like the idea of telling people what I want and expect them to give it to me. It seems inorganic and calculated. Some people don’t like surprises but I do. I also feel it is arrogant on my side to expect. The way you give boils down to the relationship the giver and the taker has with each other. For example, my husband tells me what he wants for his birthday. He believes that the best gift is the one the recipient wants.

Some families like to have a price cap when things are to be exchanged, such as the family shown in the movie Four Christmases. This year during Bhau Beez, an Indian festival celebrating the relationship between a brother and a sister, my brothers and I exchanged cash. Every time we do this, it ends up being about the amount of money, even though that’s not the intention. So, we decided to not exchange cash from this year forward. We could also put a cap if it keeps things even.

As appears in FastCoDesign, in 2014, a survey was conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center, which polled 1,500 American adults about their least favorite kinds of Christmas gifts to receive. To my disappointment and in my biased view, people didn’t really enjoy getting plants. Each to their own, everyone is different. However, we do have a choice to choose a gift, whatever it may be, to be a sustainable one – conflict free, fair trade, made of recycled materials, organic, toxic-free, and so on.

Or like Anne-Marie Bonneau says in her blog, “Make Memories, Not Waste“. She has compiled a list of experiences that some of your loved ones may appreciate.