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Green residential socities

In today’s world, it is not enough for any country to solely focus on economic and industrial development and ignore the interests of the environment in the procedure. If the environment is not protected, very soon there will be no life on Earth and all development will be futile. In India, the sustainable model of development is being adopted so as to ensure the protection of the environment along with economic and industrial development. It must be borne in mind that it is not enough for only big companies and industries to follow this model of development. Even the residential housing societies and communities need to adopt this mode of development in order to make sure that such societies are independent self-sufficient and eco-friendly at the same time.

Let us take a look at the remarkable efforts made by some housing societies to achieve sustainable development in India:

Matoshree Pearl in Mahim, Mumbai:

This housing society is one of the many high-rises in the same area. With around sixty-five flats, the waste produced in managed in such an efficient manner that it can be later used to grow its own organic fruits and vegetables. It boasts of a self-sustaining waste-management procedure that recycles kitchen waste into organic compost. Moreover, in 2016, this society replaced all tube-lights and CFLs with LED lamps thereby conserving energy and thereby saving almost 40,000/- per month on electricity bills.

Greenland-2 Society, Pune:

Greenland-2 society is located in the Vimannagar area of Pune. The fifty-seven flats of this society dealt with the problem of water-scarcity by installing a rainwater harvesting system in 2003. Before 2003, the scarcity of water would cost the society around 25,000/- per month on the tanks. After the installation of the rainwater harvesting system in their own society, the residents of Greenland-2 have not faced water –scarcity issues while most of the other flats face water scarcity. This arrangement has helped to save almost 24,000 liters of water per day. Moreover, the quality of water has also improved significantly.

Twin Star Cooperative Housing Society, Kurla, Mumbai:

This housing society located in the Kurla region of Mumbai has managed to cut off eighty-three percent of electricity charges by investing in a solar power generation system. The power generation system consists of sixty panels that generate almost 76 kilowatt-hours (kWh) electricity per day and 28,000 kWh electricity annually. This plant generates almost ninety percent of the energy that is required to light up the common spaces, parking spaces and also operate the water pumps and the lifts. According to the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, such a solar power generation system can prevent more than 615 tons of carbon emissions over a period of ten years.