Energy Management in the Workplace
June 14, 2013 | 
Author Energy efficiency is just one aspect of business management – and it can save businesses a significant amount of money if handled correctly. There are a number of ways to ensure your business is using energy as efficiently as possible, beginning with your service provider and extending through to your company’s day to day actions in the workplace.
To initiate an energy efficiency plan for your workplace, it’s first worth shopping around for an electricity and gas provider. After all, providers vary, and some might have special deals available for businesses. When obtaining quotes, be sure to enquire about contract terms, corporate responsibility policies, and information about the provider’s renewable energy resources. You might also want to research a provider’s customer service ratings before you ultimately make a decision – something that can be achieved on the web or through word of mouth.
Once you have a provider in place, there are a set of energy-saving guidelines everyone in the company can adopt. To begin, all electrical items that are not in use should be turned off. Such items can vary significantly, from the paper shredder to the coffee maker. Another way to significantly cut on energy and gas costs is to turn lights and heating off at the end of the day when everyone has gone home. Some businesses might leave the lights on all night for a cleaning crew to work in the building. However, if the building is large in size or has many rooms, it can account for a lot of unused energy – especially if the cleaning crew will only be there for a portion of the night. If you need to leave lights on for any reason, it’s best to leave only a few – and not all – the lights on, because lights can always be turned on as they’re needed.
Potential energy service providers can also share their knowledge about energy efficiency methods, helping your business cut major energy costs. Some service providers have been known to help their clients cut about £1,000 off their yearly bill – an amount that can definitely help any business weather the economic crisis.
Aside from saving on electricity and gas bills, your business can also reduce its carbon footprint through energy management – which is better for the environment. So take steps today to make your business energy more efficient, and go green while improving financial circumstance for your business.
How We Slept Through the Climate Alarm
Until the end of the 20th Century, most scientists thought they understood the nature of our climate system. As the very foundation of their science, geologists cherished the “uniformitarian principle” that held that the fundamental forces that molded the Earth’s features and climate were gradual, natural, stable processes that did not vary over time scales less than tens of thousands of years.
This idea became central to their training through a century of debate over natural catastrophes such as the biblical account of Noah’s flood. The concept of catastrophic climate change became ‘tainted by association’ with creationist zealots seeking scientific backing for fundamentalist interpretations of Bible passages. And so, such stories came to be considered as purely supernatural events, with no place within the objectivity of science.
Any evidence to the contrary…and there was, in retrospect, plenty of it… was at first readily dismissed. Sudden climate change in the Earth’s past was blurred by imperfect data and lack of refinement in early scientific methods. Where abrupt changes in the geological record were indisputable, these were written off as regional curiosities, arising from purely local impacts – such as a forest fire or the introduction of agriculture – impacts that had nothing to do with climate.
Until dating methods were perfected, chronological correlation of data collected at different locations around the globe was not possible, and even when it was possible, was not at first even pursued. Global changes in climate had different effects in different areas, further complicating the issue and obscuring the true scope of abrupt, world-wide climate shifts.
In fact, the uniformitarian climate paradigm was scarcely doubted until the 1950′s when a group of scientists set up a physical ocean system model that demonstrated that circulation could flip rapidly from one stable state to another. Scientists began to concede that change may only take thousands of years.
This view of the change-rate capacity of climate was reduced to mere hundreds of years in subsequent decades, beginning in the early 1960′s when mathematical models that incorporated climate feedback factors such as snow and ice cover (albedo effects) suggested that global climate really could change enormously in a relatively short time.
In the mid 1960′s deep sea sediment cores finally revealed that the planet had experienced several ice-age cycles of gradual glacial buildups over 90,000 year intervals, punctuated by more rapid 10,000 year de-glaciations. Because of the huge lag between global climate shifts and deep sea temperature responses, even this data belied the extreme magnitude of changes on the surface oceans, land masses and atmosphere.
However, with their old ideas now challenged by these new theories, scientists began to notice the evidence of abrupt changes in their data. Pollen records and improved carbon dating techniques in the 1970′s depicted stable climate periods interrupted by radical discontinuities that took only one or two centuries to totally change the vegetation of a region.
Since then, evidence from other studies such as cores of glacial ice and ocean sediments, has continued to accumulate as methodologies have been progressively refined. This has further built justification for heroic research, by intrepid teams braving hazardous conditions on heaving oceans or bitter, high altitude polar ice sheets, to win samples deep and distinct enough to provide an unambiguous picture of the Earth’s geological and climatic past, a picture that shows that violent, spectacular short-term shifts were common.
As a result, scientists en masse were beginning to entertain the possibility of abrupt change, this new attitude reflected in a statement from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in a 1996 report that concluded that ‘climate surprises’ were possible. The point was not emphasized at the time, and received little press attention. Many scientists also passively rejected the facts by refusing to revise their accustomed ways of thinking about climate.
Not until 2000 did paired ice-cores, extracted by competing teams in Greenland, match to show irrevocable proof of abrupt climate shifts taking effect over mere decades (see R.B. Alley’s book ‘The Two-Mile Time Machine’). Similar cores were drilled in Antarctica and revealed the global scale of the shifts. This forced the climate community to arrive at consensus.
Now respected climate scientists concur that the potential for fast climate change evidently does exist, and could surprise humanity with a climate shock within the lifetimes of you and I. However, the new paradigm has not extended beyond geoscientists to the impacts community – economists and other specialists are slow to turn their attention to the consequences of climate change, and policy makers and the public are even more ignorant of the risks humanity faces.
Because science has been late to wake up to climate change, crucial information about the potential behavior of our climate has only very recently come to light. Relentlessly emerging climate surprises have thrown into painful relief just how inadequate our understanding of the climate system remains. Like a snowball rolling down a mountain, climate change is gathering momentum, racing ahead of even the most pessimistic predictions.
Will you be ready?
Environment professionals call for mandatory greenhouse gas reporting
Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment report says forced reporting will benefit businesses and UK economy
Forcing all companies to report on their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions would result in significant cuts to the UK’s carbon emissions while delivering significant cost savings for British firms, according to a report published today.
New research by the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (IEMA) says that the number of companies reporting on GHG emissions has grown steadily over the past ten years, with a 20 per cent rise in 2009-10 alone.
The report found that those organisations that have been monitoring emissions have made average cuts to their carbon footprint of nine per cent over the last two years with large construction and manufacturing firms delivering the largest improvements.
It also argued that carbon reporting had helped firms reduce their energy bills, improve relations with suppliers and customers, and justify investments in low carbon technologies and initiatives.
However, the report found most UK companies are still not tracking GHG emissions, prompting IEMA to argue that mandatory reporting represents the only way to force small and medium-sized enterprises to measure their carbon footprint.
Compulsory reporting should be rapidly introduced for large emittors, the report said, but other companies would benefit from a process where the speed at which they would be brought into the scheme would depend upon their GHG emission footprints.
Recent Respondents to the survey told IEMA that without legislation, GHG reporting would be lost amid competing priorities, such as other legislative requirements and boardroom demand for immediate financial returns.
Section 85 of the Climate Change Act 2008 requires the government to introduce mandatory reporting requirements through the existing Companies Act. This legislation has to be in place by 6th April 2012, or the government has to explain to parliament why it hasn’t done so. Thie IMEA report is the second call on government this year to introduce mandatory reporting of GHG Emissions, it is no longer a question of if but rather when government will announce mandatory reporting.
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What is This Carbon Footprint Everyone's Talking About?
The Department of Energy actually has a calculator to tell you how much greenhouse gases you produce on a daily basis.
WHAT IS A CARBON FOOTPRINT? The amount of greenhouse gas you generate by an activity or process. In other words, what impact you make on the environment measured in metric tons of carbon dioxide (C02). How much greenhouse gas do you produce while going through your daily activities such as driving, electricity use, and heating your home?
WHAT EXACTLY ARE GREENHOUSE GASES? Bottom line: Without Greenhouse Gases to maintain Earth’s temperature, it would be too cold for habitation. We need Greenhouse Gases but…we’re tromping heavily with our carbon footprint boots and that’s making the temperature too warm. Hence, the Greenhouse Effect mutates into Global Warming and that’s taken us from “We really should consider renewable energy” to “We MUST implement renewable energy NOW”.
CARBON DIOXIDE IS A GAS SO IT’S HARD TO WRAP MY HEAD AROUND METRIC “TONS” OF CO2…HOW MUCH IS THAT REALLY? The tonnage doesn’t really matter as much as what you can do to reduce that weight. The average homeowner who drives to work, comes home each evening to a household of four, and flies once a year on vacation has an average carbon footprint of 17 tons of C02. That’s not counting what you breathe out…that’s the just excess CO2 you’re using that, multiplied by millions, contributes to Global Warming.
On the flip side, by taking simple steps like changing your light bulbs, driving 10% less, buying Energy Star appliances, you can cut your personal damage from 17 to 7 tons…and that’s not even counting installing solar panels on your house or business!
By taking that additional solar step, you not only zero out your own personal carbon footprint but you create a SOLAR FOOTPRINT, which lessens the damaging effects of others. Then you are not only serving as a role model for others, but you’re negating their damage until they take responsibility for their own footprint.
TRANSFORM YOUR CARBON FOOTPRINT INTO A SOLAR FOOTPRINT. If you own your own home, take advantage of the tax and other incentives available and install a Solar System on your own roof. Even if you rent, you can still be a powerful Solar Champion by urging your local businesses and schools to seriously consider taking their Renewable Energy efforts to the next level.
It can be done. It’s already begun. One footprint at a time.
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The Birthplace of CSR, New Lanark
“What ideas individuals may attach to the term “Millennium” I know not; but I know that society may be formed so as to exist without crime, without poverty, with health greatly improved, with little, if any misery, and with intelligence and happiness increased a hundredfold; and no obstacle whatsoever intervenes at this moment except ignorance to prevent such a state of society from becoming universal”.
Extract from Robert Owen’s “Address to the Inhabitants of New Lanark”
New Year’s Day, 1816
Owen made this speech when he opened the Institute for the Formation of Character, effectively a community education centre. He outlined his visionary plans for an astonishingly progressive and enlightened system of education which he believed was the key to a happier society, and universal harmony.
Under Owen’s management the cotton mills and village of New Lanark became a model community, in which the drive towards progress and prosperity through new technology of the Industrial Revolution was tempered by a caring and humane regime. New Lanark had the first Infant School, a creche for working mothers, free medical care, and comprehensive education, including evening classes. Leisure and recreation were not forgotten; there were concerts, dancing, music-making and pleasant landscaped areas for the benefit of the community. The village attracted international attention.
Even today New Lanark attracts visitors from all over the world who come to see the historic buildings and to enter the award-winning Visitor Centre (for more info see www.newlanark.org).
While at New Lanark, Robert Owen demonstrated management policies that are now widely recognised as precursors of modern theories relating to human resource management, as well as skilful and ethical business practice. His work inspired infant education, humane working practices, Co-operation, trade unionism, and garden cities. It inspires New Lanark Trust, the independent Scottish charity which is dedicated to restoring and caring for the historic village of New Lanark in Southern Scotland.
Owen’s inspirational and influential ideas are explored in a new film “The Quest for Universal Harmony” which can be shown, on request, in the New Lanark Visitor Centre’s state-of-the-art theatre. Highlighting the continuing relevance of Owen’s ideas to today’s society, the film is suitable for colleges, universities and special interest groups. Since this is not the default programme shown in the theatre, groups interested should make their request whilst booking.
Robert Owen looked forward to the new Millennium with optimism and with confidence. In 1841 he wrote the following words:
“It is therefore, the interest of all, that every one, from birth, should be well educated, physically and mentally, that society may be improved in its character, – that everyone should be beneficially employed, physically and mentally, that the greatest amount of wealth may be created, and knowledge attained, – that everyone should be placed in the midst of those external circumstances that will produce the greatest number of pleasurable sensations, through the longest life, that man may be made truly intelligent, moral and happy, and be thus prepared to enter upon the coming Millennium”.
We could all learn something today from Robert Owen’s work at New Lanark
ISO 14001 Green Business Rewards
Business have many reasons for choosing to implement an ISO 14001 green business management system and most have their eye on the benefits for their business as well as for the greater environment. ISO 14001 is an investment of time and money but done right, it brings very real benefits. Green business can be very good business and it is is about environmental sustainability including consideration of a wide variety of environmental issues not merely requiring good energy management. Increasingly it includes a focus on reducing the carbon footprint of the business involved.
Let’s start by asking what an environmental management system is? And I find that many people consider the answer to this to be very vague and varied. However, put very simply, the name is Environmental Management System. This is interesting because what is actually being done as an EMS does not always include the environment, the way the business is managed, or a system.
- This year the South Australian seafood industry gave their environment award to the Lobster Clean Green program. This is a great program with the most wonderful traceability and on vessel laminated worksheets with some mentions of waste management but it is primarily a HACCP or food safety system. It is not an EMS.
- There are various checklist or “tick and flick” approaches which are a good start to raise awareness of many of the typical issues but because every business, even within the same industry, is different, they will miss things and they create a false sense that the business owner has fulfilled all his responsibilities once he has ticked everything. The auditing of these is often less than robust and they are sometimes once off only. – One size fits all seldom does. When I worked with the finfish farmers in South Australia the National Aquaculture Council wanted me to hand over a generic environmental management plan that could be handed out to all other fish farms in the country. The problem was that every farm involved was different and had very varied environmental issues and we did not have a generic plan and if I had combined them all, and handed it out to others, would those recipients have just filed it as “Done” and never really thought about their own unique problems and risks. I also had issues about the privacy of the businesses that were involved if I simply shared their work.
- The first stage of developing an environmental management system is to write an environmental management plan based on all the aspects that have been identifies, The plan , however, lacks the system that is needed to ensure it is implemented on a ongoing basis.. – “Best management plans” are a real concern because, although many have some excellent features, the word BEST locks in a practice that may no longer be appropriate and it inhibits continual improvement. Can the best really be improved on?
So what about the benefits or “rewards”? No business is likely to do an environmental management system without some reward. Lesson 1 in marketing is to look at the WIIFM or What’s In It For Me factor. In some cases the reward is a feel good factor but most business owners want more if they are going to justify the expense. In the case of many of the early agribusiness EMS models, the reward was lots of Federal Funding under the Pathways to Industry scheme and included “feel good” and peer pressure. And because many of these attempted to reach a very wide number of participants the EMS’s over simplified and frequently omitted systems which unfortunately omitted the major rewards an EMS can bring. This has not been the case in city based management systems because of the lack of funding but many introductory environmental approaches have been run by local government and business groups by personnel without a full understanding of the benefits of systems or the fact that they can be kept simple.
The community awareness and communication sections of ISO 14001 does result in improved relationships with neighbours and regulators once they realize that you are serious about reducing your environmental impacts. The communication built into an EMS and especially ISO 14001 helps when neighbours really don’t understand what a new or different business does so they feel threatened by it and because many of their concerns are not real, the problem is reduced.
In a number of cases, a certified ISO 14001 environmental management system has been what was needed to assist businesses to win court cases where misguided or ill informed pressure groups were challenging the their right to operate their business on so called environmental grounds. I have been involved in assisting several businesses in this situation from varied industries.
Some EMS programs, especially in the Australian seafood industry have concentrated on their community interaction and had little real impact on the on-boat and even less on the on land based practices of some fishers involved so the rewards have been less even though the time input into all the community meetings has been high. Community perception is affected where not all members of the group has changed their pracivces.
The legal compliance requirements in ISO 14001 are important in providing protection to a business from accidentally breaching the law or allowing one of their employees or subcontractors to do so. Owners and directors are increasingly being fined and even jailed because of problems their staff have caused. A robust due diligence defence is a worthwhile reward.
Some of the best rewards are the real savings and increased profits as a result of less waste and greater business efficiency as the business becomes more sustainable. This comes from having a management system rather than from checklists and plans. Plans need ongoing review and feedback so they do not just remain on a shelf.
Certification may well be important for some businesses and this will increasingly be the case. Less restrictive certification designed along the lines of ISO 14001 for smaller businesses and it is important to have these certified still be qualified auditors.
My own experience of having had in-house ISO systems for many years is that the imminent arrival of the auditor at my expense is a reminder that tomorrow is coming in a few days and I cannot delay those things that we all do delay occasionally. I am a fan of external audits for bringing real business benefits.
Regulatory relief, public recognition and preferred supplier status are all important in some markets where having an ISO 14001 certification enables the business to be considered for certain government tenders and the certification can give a real credibility boost over those competitors who are claiming green without any means to justify this.
Marketing image is vital to some businesses and the clamp down on “greenwash” by Australian regulators has helped many businesses with certification to differentiate themselves. It is not legal to use terms like eco, enviro or environmentally friendly unless you can prove this is justified and use of emotive animal images in marketing is also illegal unless they have some relevance. The only internationally recognized EMS certification is ISO 14001 and when we return to the original question of “Are there real business benefits of ISO 14001″; I believe is best answered by helping people understand that to be most effective an environmental management system needs to consider as wide as possible a range of environmental impacts in their business and include a system to manage these which includes feedback and review. The best way to do this is with recognized certification.
Holiday Island Tenerife Acts On Environment
Tenerife is one of the seven Canary Islands off the coast of Africa and a favourite destination in the winter for European holidays, and the island is now looking at how it can improve it’s environmental record, in both the public and private sectors.
Tenerife and Tourism
The island of Tenerife is almost completely dependent on tourism, and is a particular favourite for British tourists.
Known among many in the UK as ‘Paradise Island’ Tenerife is sunny year-round, which makes it the perfect destination for relaxing in the sun any time of the year. And they want to keep the tourists coming back.
Going green and protecting the environment is one way that Tenerife can protect its status as a hot holiday spot that won’t have her reputation damaged as being environmentally unfriendly.
The island is vulnerable because it is so dependent on tourism. Changing climates could easily put them out of business and entirely change the nature of the island. Rising temperature alone could make relaxing on the beach an unbearable past-time, so acting to stop global warming makes a lot of the sense for Tenerife.
Travelling to and around Tenerife
Travel is a major cause of environmental concerns and a ferry is available to take holidaymakers to the island of Tenerife from the Spanish mainland. The ferry goes to either Santa Cruz de Tenerife or Los Cristanos. Nearly half a million visitors come to the island of Tenerife via cruise ships.
The main method of transportation on the island of Tenerife is buses. An elaborate fleet of newer buses which have less of a carbon footprint provide transportation for one location to another on the island. There are also plans for a light rail network to connect the capital with the south side of the island. The idea is to reduce the amount of carbon emissions in the air caused by ground travel.
Tenerife Goes Green
Tenerife is doing a lot to protect its beautiful and natural environment. The island has made a commitment to individuals and companies to go beyond the basics and protect the environment of the island with aggressive tactics.
Some of the things they are currently doing include:
* To use water purification and its natural reserves from underground.
* To promote recycling as a means to cut back on using natural resources.
* To use desalination for non drinking water.
* Cutting back on carbon emissions.
* An elaborate bus network to minimize traffic on the island.
* To protect the habitat of tropical pilot whales, which is a huge attraction for holiday-makers.
* Zoning half of the islandas either a national park or nature reserves.
* Promoting more renewable energy.
In addition to protecting the island’s natural surroundings, Tenerife is dedicated to preserving its heritage and culture.
Tenerife as a Role Model for Protecting the Environment
While we all have seen some of the effects of global warming, Tenerife has taken action to protect the environment and retain the beauty and reputation of the island. The steps they’ve taken to reduce emissions and balance carbon in the air are ongoing and under regular review.
TRANSITION to a RENEWABLE ENERGY FUTURE
Dr. Donald Aitken ( www.donaldaitkenassociates.com ), physicist, solar architect and former lead scientist at the Union of Concerned of Concerned Scientists, talks about his certainty that we have all the tools and knowhow to make the shift to renewable energy sources right now.
Global warming effect, and is it affecting our climate?
The 7 islands of the past Mumbai is now one small narrowing island, 25 miles long by 2 to 7 miles long, as seen in the settlement photo, linked to the mainland in the north-west, separated by an estuary. A part of this area is a water reservoir catchment (Borivili National Park) with two small lakes (Vihar, Powai) and its long snaking estuary, the Mithi river which also carries the cities waste water and industrial effects through 5 main outfalls (Borivali, Goregaon-Malad, Versova, BKC and Love-Grove - Worli) on the west and few on the east side (Mulund, Vikhroli, Trombay, Sewri-Wadala). In spite of this, there were “floods” and overkill rain is not the only reason.
Global warming
Keeping in mind one of the major environmentalists anxiety – lack of public awareness on Global warming; let us assess its impact. Also where wills the recent Bali Conference on climate change leads us. There were deep argues at Bali and 190 countries chalked out the Bali roadmap. But the thought battle was for developing countries like India and China. Today global warming is no longer just a panicky idea chiefly for India. The ripples of the climate conference in Bali spread to Mumbai. A day after the consultation ended thousands of Mumbaikars unplugged their electrical devices for one hour to save Keeping in mind one of the major environmentalists concern – lack of public awareness energy.
The IPCC report on climate change says India’s coastlines are the most helpless and so are its glaciers in the Himalayas where the meltdown has been alarming in recent years. Mumbai faces danger, as a large part of it is on broken land and the mangroves of the Sundarbans in West Begnal are losing chunks of landmass to the sea. Locals in Sundarban are planting Mango saplings, in an effort to ease the effects of climate change, to protect the islands against the hungry tide. India negotiated head on at Bali to be heard by developed nations. But more significant than reports and big numbers are people’s plan for conservation begins at home. So far work done related to global warming is mainly confined to research, conferences, seminars and workshops. But in India, the general population has very little knowledge about the burning subject of global warming. Efforts must be taken as early as possible to make awareness about it.
Government authorities and NGOs must take the plan in this matter. India, whose economy has grown by 8-9 per cent a year in recent years, is one of the world’s top polluters, contributing around 4 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions as its consumption of relic fuels gathers pace. But as a developing nation, India is not required to cut emissions — said to be rising by between 2 and 3 per cent a year — under the Kyoto Protocol, although mounting pressure from environmental groups and industrialized nations. As far as steps being taken, the government is doing its bit at least in fractions but this needs a grass root level planning including every individual. The urban crowd sure knows what it means but the rural kind hasn’t even heard the term in large. Let me ask a few questions and at the end we’ll know whether we have done enough to prevent global warming
1. Have we stopped using our vehicles even to the near by grocery store? We instead even use it to reach the beach where we take a walk.
2. Have we tested our vehicles for emission check?
3. Do we switch off lights when it’s not in use? We instead switch it on even in broad day light. Some even fit in dozens of lights to make the place glow and create a good ambience.
4. Have we once thought of what happens to the garbage we throw out every day? All we know is the municipality workers remove it from our front doors each morning and keep our streets clean.
5. Have we stopped to burn those dry dead leaves in our garden?
6. Do we stop to think before using logs to burn fire to keep us warm?
7. We all have a good amt of cloth bags stacked at home yet for fashion sense don’t we all use plastic bags? From the flimsy ones we get in local stores to the large colorful ones in huge malls and brands?
8. Don’t we buy those plastic containers while we have our traditional vessels and containers made of mud or other usable metals?
9. Even while using plastic containers, do we look for bio degradable variety?
10. Do we stop to think before cutting down trees for logs or wood to use for various purposes?
11. Do we use natural waste for our plants or choose chemical pesticides?
12. Do we unplug appliances after its use?
13. Have we tried to at least think of solar energy in any way, leave alone switching to it?
14. Have we understood or at least try to understand the terms: Recyclable or Biodegradable?
15. Don’t we all waste water even in times when two states in India are fighting their right towards a river?
16. Finally, have any of us planted a tree?
The answer to most of this or even all of this is a Big NO. Then, now, you know where India and its citizens stand in preventing global warming .If each of us follow at least half of what is asked above at least once in a while, am sure we’ll be in a better earth.
Plant a tree once in your lifetime and enjoy the way u feels inside. Get used to ecological goods and recycling your waste. Those broken glass jars or crushed plastic containers can always be recycled. Use your raw kitchen waste for your plants. They would look healthier than with the chemicals.
Kindly use public transport once in a while or better walk to your near by places as and when possible. It’s good to walk besides saving earth!
There are several distinct reasons for the many contributing causes of Mumbai’s floods, and we have to address each in turn:
Why did the Mithi River flood?
1. Because its mouth had been constricted to a third of its original width by unnecessary reclamation of land to construct rails, roads – mainly the Bandra?Worli sea?link and at the Love Grove, Worli Outfall. The proliferation of slums along the coastline, mudflats and the Mithi River has also been a contributor. The reclamation of 400 acres of dense mangroves at Goregaon?Malad Link road and 100 acres at Lokhandwala for commercial and residential complexes are few of the other reasons which add to the blatant violation of CRZ rules by the builder lobby in connivance with the bureaucracy and politicians.
2. Large scale reclamation and destruction of mangroves for the construction of the once Kalina low lying area by the State Government for Airport expansion and Runway extension being built at Mumbai Airport, right across Mithi River (left, below), and the Bandra?Kurla Complex by MMRDA contributed too. The Satellite picture shows one runway actually bridging the river, and another with the river diverted around one end.
Also, the Mithi River does not have any “floodbanks” to speak of anymore, due to uncontrolled construction on sides, defying common sense & environmental precaution. The salt?pans of Bhandup and Mulund and the mangroves at Vikhroli and Ghatkopar have been damaged and reclaimed by MHADA and slum lords
What about Mumbaikar?
It has become increasingly plain that the government along with BMC, the Collectorate, and Pollution Control Board has aligned their interests with those of the construction industry and slum lords, and regrettably against the interest of the people of Mumbai. The outrage against these agencies is gaining voice and the situation is akin to the emergency situation in some of our neighboring countries, only that there are many dictators. The utter neglect about the welfare of its citizens is an insult to injury to the Mumbaikars who contributes Rs.58,000 Cores to the national exchequer every year.