Energy conservation is mostly common sense, yes, but sometimes we can all use a few reminders.
What does Accounting and Climate Change have in common? A lot in fact. If you ask Sanjay
Kumar what the link is, the most likely answer he would give is everything. Most stories on
Climate Change describe the science behind this natural phenomenon but hardly talk about the
actual costs of climate change.
Sanjay is the Finance and Administration Manager for the WWF South Pacific. Naturally, being an
accountant has taught him to be frugal; not only with money but also in his family’s consumption
of electricity and water. What makes this accountant such a greenie? It’s a mixture of simply
wanting to save money and the influence of spending more than a decade in service to WWF South
Pacific. For Sanjay the only ‘natural way to go’ was to go green.
Sanjay’s enthusiasm to go green is literally turning energy and water efficiency into hard cash and
he is starting from home. In doing so, he has also made the stark connection to the national level.
As a part of the 2011 Earth Hour campaign, the slogan for Fiji is to make the “switch”. Sanjay is
putting his unique twist on it by making the most out of rain water.
“We know that water from the taps is not as clean as we think, it costs money and is unreliable as
the supply to most communities shuts down frequently,” Sanjay says.
“I used piped water for almost everything in and around the house. I would use it to clean the
driveway and the footpath, use it for the washroom, water my vegetable garden, the laundry,
cleaning dishes and for taking showers.”
Utility bills are skyrocketing and to make some savings I had to first assess how much water I was
actually using every day.
“Upon analysing my water bill I noticed that I used 101 units in 3 months and one unit of water is
equivalent to 1000 liters. Most of the cost came from expenses that I could have easily avoided.
Knowing more now about alternative energy saving methods from work I decided to invest in a
more environmentally friendly way of saving money.”
Here queues the drum rolls. The water tank! It is simply a system that collects and stores
rainwater from the roof that would otherwise be lost to runoff and diverted to drains.
Rainwater by nature is a soft water, void of harsh chemicals or pollutants, usually hitting the soil in
its purest form. It is the most precious source of freshwater on earth, and the most readily
available.
“As we know it is raining most of the time in the greater Suva area, or if it has not rained for a
while, when it finally does rain it pours. And the amount of rain easily fills up any water tank.”
“Collecting rainwater is so easy everyone should do it. The area of your rooftop helps to gather
large quantities of water. You can consolidate this and collect gallons of water, and it's all free.”
“I have simply connected the water tank to the guttering. In doing so I have been able to offset
most of our water usage by using the water collected for the toilets, to water my backyard
vegetable garden, wash the drive way, cleaning dishes and to clean the car [which I do once a
month]. This way I save a lot on my water bill.”
“At the government and business level making the switch to using rain water would mean a
reduction in capital cost of water pipes etc, fuel cost of transportation and running water plants,
labour cost, cost of importing chlorine and an overall reduction in carbon dioxide emissions which
would allow Fiji to meet its global pledge to cut down on CO2 emissions.”
Therefore it makes eco-sense and dollar cents to conserve water (and remember, the less hot
water you use, the less energy you pay for as well).
Finally, if you're in the process of building a new home or adding an extension, it's worth
considering what options you have to make it more environmentally friendly.
In recognition of the importance of energy saving, don’t forget on March 26 at 8.30 PM switch off
your lights for Earth Hour and make the long term switch for your pockets and for the
environment.
Earth Hour has created history as the largest voluntary action ever witnessed with participation
across 128 countries and every continents, including the world’s most recognised man0made
marvels and natural wonders in a landmark environmental action.
Join Sanjay and millions of people across the world in this campaign, be part of the green
movement and make the switch.