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Some two weeks back, Costa Rica created a flutter in environmental and energy circles. The country was reported to have been running completely on renewable energy for 75 days, and had created some sort of a record. Relying mainly on hydropower, Costa Rica was said to have not used fossil fuels to generate electricity since the beginning of 2015. The credit for this went to hydropower (with roughly 70 per cent of the power generated) and, thankfully, a season of heavy rains. The nation of barely...

We live in times when paying lip-service is a preferred pastime and indulging in gimmickry is a manic obsession. It's little wonder, then, that Earth Hour was celebrated with much fanfare and uproar across the world on Saturday last. The event has become an annual ritual wherein you can unabashedly wash all environmental sins you might have committed in the preceding 364 days. It's become a glitzy happening that every event manager wants to encash, a tool that every unsustainable industry wants...

The word "sustainability" sounds unnecessarily big, so much so that it comes across as a strategic initiative that needs to be incorporated into the scheme of things for a big company. Nothing could be further from the truth. One does not need to adopt a sustainable path only if one is big; and it does not mean that a small business does not have the right to follow a sustainable approach. Everyone can and everyone needs to be sustainable. Yet, it is not enough to be sustainable in one's one way...

It is a normal human tendency to circumvent rules – especially if the prescribed process is tedious, or if one is needed to perform it perforce (by compulsively following laws and regulations). And when you can do this circumventing, and appear fashionable at the same time, it is a folly that one can easily fall prey to. With “green” fast becoming the new “black,” this tendency to appear trendy takes the form of “ greenwashing.” Here’s a case in point, that’s stylish enough, from the fashion...

When Hurricane Sandy lashed the east coast of the United States in October-November 2012, innumerable small businesses had to close shop. Some 20,000-30,000 of such establishments went out of business practically in the blink of an eye. Disasters, especially those linked to climate change, don’t spare anyone. And small businesses are no exception. The Small Business Majority and the American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC) released a report (PDF) a year later pointing towards the dangers...

For almost two decades since the landmark Rio Summit of 1992, businesses saw red whenever ‘environment’ and ‘sustainable development’ were mentioned to them. And the catchphrase ‘it isn’t development unless it is sustainable’ was perceived to be a shibboleth of hostility on part of environmentalists towards businesses. By and large, the situation hasn’t changed much, but things are changing. Slowly, quite slowly perhaps, but the trends are quite perceptible. From ‘green businesses’ some years...