Comparatively benign IT sector
When I took to the defence of the IT sector in response to some of the self-righteous lot amongst the members of the greens group (Hasiru Usiru) going on a tirade against them, sometime back, a member (S) sent me a personal note as below. I responded as further below, but through the Yahoo group. In view of the continued tirades from newer quarters, I thought I’ll include this exchange in my blogs.
S’s response to my original posting:
My company [700 employees] recently did a waste audit, we generate about 125 kgs of waste [mostly paper cups, plastics [spoons, forks, bowls, stirrers], tissues etc., and all this gets wrapped up big plastic bags which is dumped in the out skirts of Bangalore and this is the case with about a close to 70 companies on our campus.
IT companies contribute to a huge amount of unmanaged waste [mostly dumped in dumping grounds outside Bangalore bought by the builders of these IT parks]. Apart from of course the 24-hour AC, lighting [all over the place, mostly not necessary].
My reply
The very fact that your company did a waste audit is a very positive indicator. Perhaps, as a member of HU, if you try to sensitise the management on the need for adopting more eco-friendly practices, I expect they will respond. There will still be some amount of solid waste, which needs to be disposed off. That problem however is common even to every household. For instance, in our apartment complex, we practice near total segregation, and consequently, the KCDC plant authorities, on Hosur road, are happy to accept our wet waste when taken there by the contractor, who aggregates similarly segregated wet waste from a few other complexes nearby. Another contractor who claims to sell it to re-cyclers collects the dry waste. Now, we are not exactly keeping a close track of what these contractors are exactly doing, and if they are instead dumping the waste on the outskirts of the city, as you allege your employers’ contractors are possibly doing, we can also be equally guilty. Now, this part is for the BMP or the local municipality to take care of. Of course, as concerned citizens, we need to bring on pressures to make them do their job. There have been talks of new compost plants, and landfill sites. But, these are happening too slowly, partly also due to the NIMBY factor.
On the question of air-conditioning and lighting, the argument in support is that it improves worker efficiency. While in Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi (during summer), it could definitely count, whether it is an unnecessary luxury in Bangalore is something that can be endlessly debated about. Another major factor in support of air-conditioning is that it helps considerably to keep dust out.
Now, all of the above, pales into insignificance when you look at the kind of polluting activities that go on all around you, about which the KSPCB does nothing at all, or rather uses to pile up ‘mamools’ (which are no longer small, as the word should imply). Planned letting out of raw sewage into Kaggadaspura lake by the numerous builders in the locality is just a small example. Something most terrible, I personally came across, in 2001, was the unconscionable pollution of the River Kali by the West Coast Paper Mills Ltd in Dandeli. I wrote to the KSPCB, and with their remaining silent, I took it up with the Lok Ayukta. Thereafter, ESG came on the scene and fought a pitched battle, and, with all that, I am told the scenario has improved marginally, if at all. Yes, there are the marauders all around, both in the private sector as well as the public sector. Eternal vigilance, education, sensitization – we all owe it to our mother Earth.
Muralidhar Rao
S’s response to my original posting:
My company [700 employees] recently did a waste audit, we generate about 125 kgs of waste [mostly paper cups, plastics [spoons, forks, bowls, stirrers], tissues etc., and all this gets wrapped up big plastic bags which is dumped in the out skirts of Bangalore and this is the case with about a close to 70 companies on our campus.
IT companies contribute to a huge amount of unmanaged waste [mostly dumped in dumping grounds outside Bangalore bought by the builders of these IT parks]. Apart from of course the 24-hour AC, lighting [all over the place, mostly not necessary].
My reply
The very fact that your company did a waste audit is a very positive indicator. Perhaps, as a member of HU, if you try to sensitise the management on the need for adopting more eco-friendly practices, I expect they will respond. There will still be some amount of solid waste, which needs to be disposed off. That problem however is common even to every household. For instance, in our apartment complex, we practice near total segregation, and consequently, the KCDC plant authorities, on Hosur road, are happy to accept our wet waste when taken there by the contractor, who aggregates similarly segregated wet waste from a few other complexes nearby. Another contractor who claims to sell it to re-cyclers collects the dry waste. Now, we are not exactly keeping a close track of what these contractors are exactly doing, and if they are instead dumping the waste on the outskirts of the city, as you allege your employers’ contractors are possibly doing, we can also be equally guilty. Now, this part is for the BMP or the local municipality to take care of. Of course, as concerned citizens, we need to bring on pressures to make them do their job. There have been talks of new compost plants, and landfill sites. But, these are happening too slowly, partly also due to the NIMBY factor.
On the question of air-conditioning and lighting, the argument in support is that it improves worker efficiency. While in Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi (during summer), it could definitely count, whether it is an unnecessary luxury in Bangalore is something that can be endlessly debated about. Another major factor in support of air-conditioning is that it helps considerably to keep dust out.
Now, all of the above, pales into insignificance when you look at the kind of polluting activities that go on all around you, about which the KSPCB does nothing at all, or rather uses to pile up ‘mamools’ (which are no longer small, as the word should imply). Planned letting out of raw sewage into Kaggadaspura lake by the numerous builders in the locality is just a small example. Something most terrible, I personally came across, in 2001, was the unconscionable pollution of the River Kali by the West Coast Paper Mills Ltd in Dandeli. I wrote to the KSPCB, and with their remaining silent, I took it up with the Lok Ayukta. Thereafter, ESG came on the scene and fought a pitched battle, and, with all that, I am told the scenario has improved marginally, if at all. Yes, there are the marauders all around, both in the private sector as well as the public sector. Eternal vigilance, education, sensitization – we all owe it to our mother Earth.
Muralidhar Rao
posted by Muralidhar Rao at
4:08 AM
1 Comments:
Another reason why IT companies hv air conditioners is cos the CPUs, monitors etc generate a lot of heat... and to keep them working in good condition, they hv to be maintained at lower temperatures to avoid overheating...
By
dee, at 10:20 AM
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