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“The most sustainable way is to not make
things. The second most sustainable way is to make something very useful, to
solve a problem that hasn’t been solved.” – Thomas Sigsgaard
“Sustainability is no longer
about doing less harm. It’s about doing more good.” -Jochen Zeitz
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's
needs, but not every man's greed.”— Mahatma Gandhi
Architect from the Royal Danish Academy of
Fine Arts from 1995. Jochen Zeitz is a businessman best known for his work as
CEO of Harley-Davidson, Inc., and chairman of LiveWire Inc. Previously Zeitz
served as the chairman and CEO of Puma for a long time. And the third name
needs no introduction & beauty of that person’s quote is what these two
gentlemen from the so-called developed world, have said today about
sustainability, Mahatma Gandhi has realized it & said nearly eight decades
back years back. And not only Gandhiji has just said or shown concern about
sustainability but he started living by it, unlike his western world
counterparts, that’s why he is great! Unfortunate fact is, we have the legacy
of thinkers like Gandhiji about the environment & nature at large yet we
hardly do or have done anything about it rather we are pushing the whole
sustainability concept in reverse direction! This is not my subject of sharing,
sorry for going off-track (as usual) but the reason about sudden my emotional
burst is a call which I received from a friend who works with Environment
Ministry & he asked Sanjay, can you tell me what is “Sustainable
Development’ & his second question was, what is the term “sustainable
materials’’ meant? I was super happy for two things, first getting called
for such question from such a friend, shows I am still an engineer who is more
known for academic than just as a builder (this is my self-derived outcome)
& second, those questions triggered the thinking mechanism on positive roll
which is rare thing now a days, especially in real estate!
I have asked him , how much time you have got
for listening answer, as he is a busy person just the way most people in the
govt are (no sarcasm, I am referring to people who really work there) & he
did truthfully said not much, so in short I tried to explain him sustainable
development is like blind men judging an elephant by touching it (plz google
for this story) & unfortunately, I too am part of that blind men’s team
though I know this much, what I have touched is not a complete elephant & I
keep exploring it to understand the elephant in the right way! And I did
explain to him what my views are (which is the subject of this sharing) &
the second question about Sustainable materials, is like a byproduct of the
first question, is also I told him. Sustainable material is, use of what is
available in natural form & using it with minimum or no processing! For
e.g. making a home with Janbhya Dadgad (Red Stone) in Konkan & covering the
roof of it with Naralachya Jhavalya (coconut tree’s branches) & using clay
flooring for this home. In all this process you still have to chisel or shape
up the stone block, but that’s the minimum, so you can call such home made by
sustainable material yet you can’t call it as sustainable development always!
He was confused & I smiled as that’s the gugli (bowling term not the person
who kept googling all the time; forgive PJ) because I explained, even to use
red Stone, you have to dig up earth, an act against nature. At the same time, if
the home is not in Konkan region where red-stone is found but somewhere in Central
India then also its not sustainable as to carry that stone there is use of
petrol or diesel, again anti-environment action. As well, if everybody starts
building their respective home in red stone then soon there will be no red
stone left in Konkan or anywhere which again is not good for nature, this is
the catch!
Hopefully he was satisfied & we said bye,
yet the questions kept lingering in my mind as how we can achieve sustainable
development of which sustainable material use is just one aspect, & first I
thought shrugging that thought as such thoughts, however positive they appears
yet ends up with frustrations (read as more frustration) is my experience &
yet I know if we don’t act & collectively then its already too late for
nature at large, so I started this sharing which is only way I have in my
control! First & foremost, I have some very clear (and ruthless)
confession, there is nothing like Eco-friendly in this world, especially in
civil engg (read as real estate) as often the term used as sustainable
development is in reference of nature or say its conservation but it’s just the
way a doctor gives you a capsule coated with sweet covering under which bitter
medicine is there. And, the sad fact is, here under the sweetness of a name
like sustainable we are hiding the bitter reality of damaging nature! As
sustainable when used in terms of only nature then anything which is not
produced in nature & not being used in the same way is not sustainable for
nature! If you are confused then, here is a simple example; a monkey living on
tree, eating fruits, drinking water from natural waterbodies or a tiger living
in natural cave, eating deer in raw form (no butter chicken or mutton
rogan-josh) & drinking water from river or stream, is sustainable living
& anything other than this is not sustainable, at least for nature! And
till the humans were living by this way of nature we can say it was sustainable
living but we are so called most intelligent species & we started evolving
(in our term development) by using other means to make our life comfortable or
easy & here is where the balance of nature also started changing on wrong
side & now nothing we do is Eco Friendly or can be called as sustainable on
the front of nature, lets accept this first, is my subject of sharing!
In the famous movie Jungle Book (Disney who
else), written by Rudyard Kipling which is a story about humans & animals,
interestingly on the background of Central India’s forest, where human boy
Mowgli getting trained by Ballu (sloth bear) & Bagira (black leopard),
Mowgli helps Ballu to get honey by using ropes to climb at height & burning
torch to shoo away honey-bees. Bagira objects to this way of getting food
(honey) & warns Ballu, about disturbing the balance of forest. He says,
this is not the way sloth bears’ are supposed to get their honey as if
everybody starts extracting such excess honey from the beehives then there will
be no honey left for bees & other animals which will definitely be a bad
omen for the entire forest, this is unsustainability & this is how humans
by their so-called innovations have damaged nature’s balance on every front
which we have touched & high time for us to understand it before we define
or design our so called sustainable development, is my subject of sharing! So,
sustainable development is something, by which every stake holder’s life
related with that development is going to get a shade better than what it is at
present! Once we understand this concept (and agrees to it) then only we
can plan sustainable development which can be any man-made thing, right from a
bridge to dam to resort to airport to railway line to a mine or an industry,
the list is unending, but as I deal with real estate, so let’s focus on making
our homes from sustainability angle! So, confession no.2, there is nothing like an
eco-friendly building in real estate; all we can say is, less eco-damaging or
more eco-damaging! And do mind, nature is not the only stake
holder of real estate so when we call it sustainable then its residents (flat
buyers), the city, the environment(nature), government (how can we exclude it),
& yes, the developer also! Many people will frown with last two factors
& question, how can sustainability accommodate these two in development but
this is what we must understand as any development if it’s not going to be
sustainable for the government then how it can work for longer period & if
it’s not sustainable for the developer then how & why he will complete it
in the first place!
If you are confused then read today's
(10-7-25) newspaper & you will find a whole page full of photos of traffic
jams in the city due to rains & you will say 'what's big deal' in it! Well,
that’s one sign that the development happening in & around the city it’s
not sustainable for the city & it’s not just traffic front but right from
water to air quality everything is under pressure & that’s job of the
government to make it sustainable but somehow, we are repeatedly failing on
that front, means the development is making things difficult for the
government, & then can you call it as sustainable, is my question!
Speaking about the developer, you can build a Taj Mahal but if it's unsalable
or not viable commercially for the builder, why he will complete it & then
no incomplete development is sustainable for any segment, is simple logic! In
nut-shell, the development must be sustainable for the maker financially also,
when you make sustainable development, this aspect we forget. And for that we
must have ease of doing business which is missing totally in real estate right
now, but that's a separate subject of sharing!
At the same time any development must add
comfort for its residents & the citizens of the city also which means the
project must be affordable for the flat buyers & its periodical maintenance
costs also must be making them comfortable & not burn holes in their
pockets such as expenses for basic things like water supply. And any hole to
the pocket means stress to our mind means uncomforting means not sustainable,
right? This means whatever you built must be useful to the user (home buyer in
case of real estate) from two angles, one is capital investment (cost of home)
& second is monthly maintenance cost which includes property tax,
electricity bills & housekeeping for the home or else it will keep on
making the occupier discomforting means not sustainable & the same is true
for the neighbouring residents of the city at large! Bengaluru is classic
example of this as few decades back it was one of the best cities for the
residents but the development has made life miserable for the existing citizens
on the front of traffic jams, water logging during rains & inadequate water
supply, this means unsustainable development at large even if some project can
be a sustainable project if we restrict the concept only from one or more
stakeholders' perspective, is my subject of sharing! This doesn’t mean we stop
development or everything is wrong as I am no judge for it all I am saying is
it's high time for us to define sustainable development in the right way as
then only we can balance all the stakeholders interest instead of making some
lives comfortable & others miserable!
And then comes the last aspect, its
sustainable lifestyle which Gandhiji was referring to, as agreed we can’t live
in natural cave & eat fruits but at the same time, we as user (read as
beneficiary) of any development must learn to live in tune with nature which is
not happening & then we blame to every other stakeholder for making our
life uncomfortable! Right from trying to use public transport or consuming electricity
at our will to unnecessary shopping to avoiding simple things such as plucking
flowers from flowering trees, so many things we can do to make our life
sustainable which we don’t! At the entrance of my building, I have planted many
flowering trees such as Champa, Tagar, Jaswand, as flowers of all such trees
are very important for honeybees & butterflies, or else in this concrete
jungle where they will get food, right? Planting such flowering trees is
part of sustainable development too, but every day, the morning-walkers & society’s
residents pluck every single flower from these trees leaving nothing for butterflies
or honey-bees & this is unsustainable lifestyle, defeating the very purpose
of sustainable development, about which nobody thinks or speaks, is my subject
of sharing! And only after we understand all such aspects of sustainability
then we can not only identify the sustainable materials but can also quantify
the use of the same in the sustainable developments! I think, right from making development plans to sanctioning processes to
infrastructure making to forming urban development policies to planning of a
single project, everything must be looked at with this wider vision about
sustainability as then only we can achieve some of it!
Friends, like Bagira the leopard of Jungle
Book warned Ballu the Bear, if we mess with nature then destruction is the only
way with which nature responds back; if a leopard & sloth-bear can
understand sustainability then we, the so called most intelligent species can
understand it too, provided we are really intelligent & not vice-versa,
adios with this “waidhanik ishara”!
-
Sanjay Deshpande
Sanjeevani Dev.
Please view my sharing about finding a Right Home/ Office in Pune, at
YouTube link below & share if liked...
https://youtu.be/27j3I3rwGPQ?si=-ODYBxVI2Dl_C345
Please do visit my blog links below to read
about real estate & home buying!
https://visonoflife.blogspot.com/2024/12/right-home-buying-in-2025.html
https://jivnachadrushtikon.blogspot.com/2024/12/2025.html
Creating Togetherness; team Sanjeevani Way (Click link below)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/65629150@N06/albums/72157627904681345
For any of your complaints about city, log in at link below
www.punecorporation.org
Think Green, Think Life
www.sanjeevanideve.com
/ https://junglebelles.in/
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