Save Energy, Secure Future

The other night we went over to a friend's place for dinner where I met a young lad studying in La Martiniere for Boys here in Kolkata. Extremely well behaved and reserved, Rohin stayed away from the raucous laughter we were generating and instead kept himself busy reading a book. After gorging unabashedly at the dinner table I went to wash my hands. After I was done I shut the light of the loo and walked out. Just then Rohin looked up from his book and thanked me for shutting the lights. Curious, I asked him why and he said it would help save energy. I cannot tell you how that gladdened my heart. I was finally reassured that the next gen was indeed becoming conscious about the need to conserve energy.

This incident assumes significance because I have been doing some freelance writing work for the Bureau of Energy Efficiency. Though the agency was set up way back in 2002, it is now in the limelight for all the right reasons. BEE is making every effort to promote energy efficiency in the country through different programs -- standards and labelling for common household electrical appliances and the Bachat Lamp Yojana (where CFLs will be exchanged for incandescent bulbs at a price of Rs 15. BEE has energy efficiency plans for industry (under the recently approved NMEEE), agriculture (Agri DSM) and real estate (green building codes). In fact, the BLY is the biggest CDM project in the world to get the UNFCCC nod. These many initiatives, if implemented in good earnest, will possibly go a long way in establishing India's energy security.

Each of us has to be conscious about saving energy. I realize that while a lot of us know about these green initiatives, there is precious little we actually do to make the change. Teaching children how to do things right is perhaps the right approach. Today Rohin is conscious, tomorrow my girls will be too. And that is the goal -- to make this world a better place so that our future generations stand to benefit. After all we don't inherit this world from our parents, we borrow it from our children.