The Go Green Project Environmental Sciences Essay

You might be surprised to hear that going green can mean just starting out with one simple step and then growing from there. Going green does not have to be hard. Don’t let the “Going Green Snobs” turn you off from doing your part to help our planet.

Did you know that more items can now be recycled than ever before?

Just reusing things and reducing use of non-biodegradable waste can be the go green thing for you.

History of the go green concept

In Europe, the Industrial Revolution gave rise to modern environmental pollution as it is generally understood today. The emergence of great factories and consumption of immense quantities of coal and other fossil fuels gave rise to unprecedented air pollution and the large volume of industrial chemical discharges added to the growing load of untreated human waste. The first large-scale, modern environmental laws came in the form of the British Alkali Acts, passed in 1863, to regulate the deleterious air pollution (gaseous hydrochloric acid) given off by the Leblanc process, used to produce soda ash. Environmentalism grew out of the amenity movement, which was a reaction to industrialization, the growth of cities, and worsening air and water pollution.

In Victorian Britain, an early “Back-to-Nature” movement that anticipated modern environmentalism was advocated by intellectuals such as John Ruskin, William Morris and Edward Carpenter, who were all against consumerism, pollution and other activities that were harmful to the natural world. Their ideas also inspired various proto-environmental groups in the UK, such as the Commons Preservation Society, the Kyrle Society, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and the Garden city movement, as well as encouraging the Socialist League and The Clarion movement to advocate measures of nature conservation.

In the United States, the beginnings of an environmental movement can be traced as far back as 1739, though it was not called environmentalism and was still considered conservation until the 1950s. Benjamin Franklin and other Philadelphia residents, citing “public rights,” petitioned the Pennsylvania Assembly to stop waste dumping and remove tanneries from Philadelphia’s commercial district. The US movement expanded in the 1800s, out of concerns for protecting the natural resources of the West, with individuals such as John Muir and Henry David Thoreau making key philosophical contributions. Thoreau was interested in peoples’ relationship with nature and studied this by living close to nature in a simple life. He published his experiences in the book Walden, which argues that people should become intimately close with nature. Muir came to believe in nature’s inherent right, especially after spending time hiking in Yosemite Valley and studying both the ecology and geology. He successfully lobbied congress to form Yosemite National Park and went on to set up the Sierra Club. The conservationist principles as well as the belief in an inherent right of nature were to become the bedrock of modern environmentalism.

In the 20th century, environmental ideas continued to grow in popularity and recognition. Efforts were starting to be made to save some wildlife, particularly the American Bison. The death of the last Passenger Pigeon as well as the endangerment of the American Bison helped to focus the minds of conservationists and popularize their concerns. In 1916 the National Park Service was founded by US President Woodrow Wilson.

In 1949, A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold was published. It explained Leopold’s belief that humankind should have moral respect for the environment and that it is unethical to harm it. The book is sometimes called the most influential book on conservation.

Throughout the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and beyond, photography was used to enhance public awareness of the need for protecting land and recruiting members to environmental organizations. David Brower, Ansel Adams and Nancy Newhall created the Sierra Club Exhibit Format Series, which helped raise public environmental awareness and brought a rapidly increasing flood of new members to the Sierra Club and to the environmental movement in general. “This Is Dinosaur” edited by Wallace Stegner with photographs by Martin Litton and Philip Hyde prevented the building of dams within Dinosaur National Monument by becoming part of a new kind of activism called environmentalism that combined the conservationist ideals of Thoreau, Leopold and Muir with hard-hitting advertising, lobbying, book distribution, letter writing campaigns, and more. The powerful use of photography in addition to the written word for conservation dated back to the creation of Yosemite National Park, when photographs convinced Abraham Lincoln to preserve the beautiful glacier carved landscape for all time. The Sierra Club Exhibit Format Series galvanized public opposition to building dams in the Grand Canyon and protected many other national treasures. The Sierra Club often led a coalition of many environmental groups including the Wilderness Society and many others. After a focus on preserving wilderness in the 1950s and 1960s, the Sierra Club and other groups broadened their focus to include such issues as air and water pollution, population control, and curbing the exploitation of natural resources.

In 1962, Silent Spring by American biologist Rachel Carson was published. The book cataloged the environmental impacts of the indiscriminate spraying of DDT in the US and questioned the logic of releasing large amounts of chemicals into the environment without fully understanding their effects on ecology or human health. The book suggested that DDT and other pesticides may cause cancer and that their agricultural use was a threat to wildlife, particularly birds. The resulting public concern led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency in 1970 which subsequently banned the agricultural use of DDT in the US in 1972. The limited use of DDT in disease vector control continues to this day in certain parts of the world and remains controversial. The book’s legacy was to produce a far greater awareness of environmental issues and interest into how people affect the environment. With this new interest in environment came interest in problems such as air pollution and petroleum spills, and environmental interest grew. New pressure groups formed, notably Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth.

In the 1970s, the Chipko movement was formed in India; influenced by Mohandas Gandhi, they set up peaceful resistance to deforestation by literally hugging trees (leading to the term “tree huggers”). Their peaceful methods of protest and slogan “ecology is permanent economy” were very influential.

By the mid-1970s, many felt that people were on the edge of environmental catastrophe. The Back-to-the-land movement started to form and ideas of environmental ethics joined with anti-Vietnam War sentiments and other political issues. These individuals lived outside normal society and started to take on some of the more radical environmental theories such as deep ecology. Around this time more mainstream environmentalism was starting to show force with the signing of the Endangered Species Act in 1973 and the formation of CITES in 1975.

In 1979, James Lovelock, a former NASA scientist, published Gaia: A new look at life on Earth, which put forth the Gaia Hypothesis; it proposes that life on Earth can be understood as a single organism. This became an important part of the Deep Green ideology. Throughout the rest of the history of environmentalism there has been debate and argument between more radical followers of this Deep Green ideology and more mainstream environmentalists.

Environmentalism has also changed to deal with new issues such as global warming and genetic engineering.

History of the Orchid Hotel

EVOLUTION OF ORCHID HOTEL

ORGANISATION STRUCTURE

Official Name The Orchid – five-star ECOTEL® hotel

Category Five-star hotel

Location Vile Parle (East), Mumbai, India

Opening Date 27 September 1997

Flagship Company Kamat Hotels (India) Limited

Rooms 245

Guests 700

Certification ECOTEL®

ISO 2001 and ISO 14001

International Awards 51

Uniqueness Asia’s first five-star ECOTEL® hotel

The Orchid Hotel, Mumbai, is a deluxe 245-room, five-star hotel. It accommodates 700 guests for receptions and banqueting, and is adjacent to Mumbai’s domestic and international airport. Having won 51 international awards, The Orchid is a pioneering eco-friendly hotel, and the ISO 14001 certification reflects its concerns for the environment. The property is part of the HRAWI Hotel Group.

The Orchid is located in the heart of Mumbai. Its facilities include spacious guest rooms, four charming restaurants, a business centre, meeting rooms, an elaborately equipped fitness club and spa, and an indoor swimming pool.

Transparency is another advantage offered by The Orchid. The express check out is enabled by the interactive television installed in each room, which lets guests check their room bills, and place orders and messages. World room Connect allows guests to use the internet by simply plugging in and starting work.

Green account

The Orchid won the ECOTEL® Award for its eco-friendly environment. Guests can earn credit points on all expenses incurred during their stay, which can be accumulated to redeem rewards such as holiday packages or gifts. The credit points can also be donated to the “green account” which supports several eco-friendly causes supported by The Orchid.

Eco-rooms

The Orchid has five types of room: the deluxe, executive, club prive room and suite, the orchid suite, and the presidential suite. Each room is eco-friendly and includes imported anti-allergy and odour-free carpets, discreet use of wood, paper and plastic, cloth shopping bags, and newspapers and laundry delivered in cane baskets. Coat hangers are made from pressed particle boards, and pens and pencils are made out of recycled cardboard, reprocessed plastic and scrap wood. Hand-crafted, rubber-soled reed slippers are available in the room, as are healthy potted plants instead of cut flowers, a recycle bin and bedside eco button to save energy. The bedside eco button helps guests to save energy and reduce the room bill, and earns the guest a certificate for participation in energy saving. Each guest can also save energy by the discreet use of the key card system.

Business enclave

Business guests are catered for by the business enclave at the lobby, and the brightly coloured boardrooms in jade, opal and amber. Built with a soundproof surrounding, each room can be used for either meeting or dining. Banqueting facilities are offered as chambers, senates and cascades suitable for seminars, training, residential conferences, product launches and cocktail evenings.

EVOLUTION FROM KAMATH BRAND

It all started when Late Mr. Venkatesh Krishna Kamat opened a small restaurant at Mazgaon followed by Krishna Bhawan in Mumbai’s Null Bazaar and from then onwards, there was no looking back for him, adding various landmarks in the city consistently.

Kamat Hotels (India), a public listed company, signed a contract with the management of Plaza Hotels Private for a period of 30 years. This facilitated Kamat Hotels to run and upgrade the Kamat Plaza, a four-star hotel near the Santacruz Airport, with effect from 1 April 1994.

Kamat Hotels hired the services of architect DM Upasni and hotel interior designer Lynn Wilson. The Kamat Plaza, famed for meeting the needs of international business travellers, and came to be known as The Orchid. It opened to the public on the eve of World Tourism Day, on 27 September 1997.

In Asia, The Orchid Hotel – Ecotel, Mumbai, was the first to receive the Ecotel certification. Both The Orchid – An Ecotel Hotel and VITS have consistent past performance in terms of being in the top three hotels in the city of Mumbai in the respective category in terms of average revenue per room. The flagship hotel The Orchid – An Ecotel Hotel has consistently been in the top 5 hotels in all categories in Mumbai in terms of Rev PAR (Revenue per available room).

The Orchid was awarded the prestigious ECOTEL® certification by HVS Eco Services, USA. It also won the Green Globe Award from World Travel Mart in London in 1998, the Green Globe Achievement Award in 2000, the Dr MS Swaminathan Award for environmental protection, the Environment Policy Award 2000 in London, and International Certification from HVS ECO Services of 5 Globe ECOTEL® status in May 1997 and December 2000. The Orchid received its ISO 14001 Certification on 24 May 2001.

VISION & MISSION:-

To make Kamat Hotels (India) Ltd one of the top three listed hotel companies by earnings by 2015 in India

Plan to achieve this?

Expansion of brands through self-owned and Management/Franchisee routes Grow in virgin territories where the level of competition is low and market is not tapped to its potential. Merge with smaller hotel chains and grow through acquisition.

The man behind the vision:

From a humble beginning as a small time restaurant owner to a Chairman and Managing Director, Vithal Kamat’s journey has definitely been long and arduous. When thirty-five years back, a young lad barely in his teens joined the family restaurant business, not many would have predicted the phenomenal rise of this easy-going man. His rustic charm along with his street-smart acumen and a drive to succeed has made him achieve what he has set out to and is a guiding force.

Mr. Vithal V. Kamat

He is a visiting faculty of various catering colleges and management institutes like NMIMS, Symbiosis etc.

He was felicitated as the best CEO and received a special Indian Express Editors Choice Award for promoting eco-tourism and supporting the healthy cause of environment.

Future Plans

Having pioneered the Ecotel revolution in the country, Mr. Vithal V. Kamat is all set to transform the hospitality industry in the country with his future projects and is eyeing international markets.

PROJECTS UNDER IMPLEMENTATION:-

Expansion Projects:

Long Term Agreements with OTDC

The Company has signed two lease agreements with Orissa Tourism Development Corporation (OTDC) during the year, on completion of successful bidding process and took possession of Mahodadhi Niwas at Puri and Eco Resort at Ramchandi, near Sun Temple at Konark. The project work is in progress and likely to be completed soon.

Lease Agreement for Palace at Parikud, Orissa

The Company has also acquired, on long term lease basis, Parikud Palace in Orissa for eco- tourism and environmental study for Chilika Lake.

MANAGEMENT CONTRACTS

The Company has entered into management contracts and arrangements for providing technical consultancy. The new contracts includesKonark. The project work is in progress and likely to be completed soon.

NIRMALAYA COMPOSTING PROJECT

The Orchid, in association with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation conducted a vermicomposting project of these floral offerings, commonly known as Nirmalaya. This involved collection of floral offerings made during the festive season, composting and creating organic manure. This was then distributed to interested ALMs. Dr. Sangole and Mrs. Sangole of the Pestom Sagar ALM association guided us through the initial process. All-in-all, about 200 tonnes of Nirmalaya was collected and consequently placed in vermiculture pits in a space at the Gorai landfill site provided by the BMC. The Orchid also distributed pamphlets to all the Ganesh Utsav Mandals (stalls) and on the beaches during the immersions extolling all to segregate waste and place the same in the Nirmalaya Kalash.

Anti plastic bag campaign

Plastic bags of 20 microns and less were creating a serious environmental hazard in the city of Mumbai. It was found that these plastic bags, which were ubiquitous in Mumbai, were choking the drains all over the city. This led to serious flooding problems during the monsoons, and major parts of this city would remain submerged for days on end due to this. Hence the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai decided to tackle this problem on a war footing.

The Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai had from 15th August 2000 banned the use of plastic bags less than 20 microns. It had been publicized by the MCGM that the manufacture, recycling, possession and use of such prohibited bags are a serious offence. Under Section 390 and 394 of Municipal Corporation Act the Traders, Distributors and users can be fined upto Rs. 2000/- for each offence. Also the Shop/Trade Licenses can be cancelled. The manufacturers of these prohibited plastic bags can be fined upto Rs. One lakh and/or imprisoned upto 5 years.

The Orchid – An Ecotel Hotel, supporting the noble cause of the Municipal Corporation’s ban on plastic bag had launched an inter-school competition wherein the schools would collect the old plastic bags from their homes and neighborhoods in return of which we would give them a cloth bag. The school collecting the highest average number of bags per child was to be invited to The Orchid for a felicitation followed by Dinner.

We sent the concept to 250 schools in Mumbai. We received an overwhelming response from schools who welcomed this initiative of ours with open arms. For this purpose, to coincide with Teacher’s Day, which falls on 5th September 2000, we also released advertisements in various leading newspapers of Mumbai. The students took the campaign out to their homes and neighborhoods and as a result the awareness about the effects of plastic was spread by word of mouth to 7.8 million citizens of Mumbai. As the campaign made news headlines and was also actively carried by the television news channels the effect of the reach cannot be imagined! Thus a small effort on our part actually made big strides for the environment.

The resultâ€¦?

43 schools covering 80,000 students,

Collected 750 kgs of used plastic bags

(Approximately 3000 plastic bags of 20 microns and below make 1 kg)

Today, Mumbai has 4.5 million square feet less of thin plastic to worry about!

VISSION & MISSION:-

To make Kamat Hotels (India) Ltd one of the top three listed hotel companies by earnings by 2015 in India

Plan to achieve this?

The man behind the vision:

Mr. Vithal V. Kamat

He is a visiting faculty of various catering colleges and management institutes like NMIMS, Symbiosis etc.

He was felicitated as the best CEO and received a special Indian Express Editors Choice Award for promoting eco-tourism and supporting the healthy cause of environment.

Future Plans

PROJECTS UNDER IMPLEMENTATION:-

Expansion Projects:

Long Term Agreements with OTDC

Lease Agreement for Palace at Parikud, Orissa

The Company has also acquired, on long term lease basis, Parikud Palace in Orissa for eco- tourism and environmental study for Chilika Lake.

MANAGEMENT CONTRACTS

VISSION & MISSION:-

NIRMALAYA COMPOSTING PROJECT

Every year Mumbai celebrates Ganesh Utsav – a festival honouring the deity Ganpati with great fervour. At the end of the ten-day festival, the idols are usually immersed in the lakes, creeks or the ocean. Along with the idol, are immersed various offerings, which include flowers, garlands and the décor. The Orchid took the initiative of helping to minimise the damage to our water sources by conducting a project whereby these offerings can be converted into organic manure instead of being dumped directly into the sea. The Orchid, in association with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation conducted a vermicomposting project of these floral offerings, commonly known as Nirmalaya. This involved collection of floral offerings made during the festive season, composting and creating organic manure. This was then distributed to interested ALMs. Dr. Sangole and Mrs. Sangole of the Pestom Sagar ALM association guided us through the initial process. All-in-all, about 200 tonnes of Nirmalaya was collected and consequently placed in vermiculture pits in a space at the Gorai landfill site provided by the BMC. The Orchid also distributed pamphlets to all the Ganesh Utsav Mandals (stalls) and on the beaches during the immersions extolling all to segregate waste and place the same in the Nirmalaya Kalash.

Anti plastic bag campaign

The resultâ€¦?

43 schools covering 80,000 students,

Collected 750 kgs of used plastic bags

(Approximately 3000 plastic bags of 20 microns and below make 1 kg)

Today, Mumbai has 4.5 million square feet less of thin plastic to worry about!

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