The recent pandemic has led to humans spending their time indoors. This has decreased industrial work and construction; the lack of movement has also reduced greenhouse emissions. Is it safe to say that a pandemic has saved us all from climate change? Not exactly. Even though the emissions have drastically reduced, we are still far from saving our planet. Current practices may have given us a fighting chance, but these efforts are still insufficient. So why are scientists and experts creating better eco-friendly methods?
Since the beginning of the 1950s, we have seen a considerable shift towards urbanization and growth; on a global scale. This rapid expansion has led to the mass utilization of resources worldwide. The use of chemicals, the rise in greenhouse gases, and high energy consumption have led to an unseen resource utilization rate. In those days, mortality rates were high due to the rise in pollution and low sanitation and healthcare standards. Things are different today, the mortality rates are much lower, but the rate at which harmful gases enter our ecosystem is much higher. Man's pursuit of growth has always been like a saddled horse, always moving forward and not seeing how it goes.
Increased emissions in the last 150 years have drastically impacted our ecosystem. Gases such as methane and chlorofluorocarbons (CFC) have also contributed to rising temperatures and caused various health issues for humans across the globe. It's not just individuals but companies showing no signs of reducing their carbon footprint. Beverage, Energy, Steel, Coal, and Cosmetics — are some of the most notorious industries contributing to the worsening environment. Today, every sector is allowing the ecosystem to remain crippled. Mass amounts of deforestation for lumber, paper, and space for construction have slowed down the exchange of gases-- this has led to the abundance of harmful gases in our environment.
An iconic example is Central Park in New York —surrounding the concrete jungle is a green patch of greenery. That's what it has reduced to? There might also come a day when we see the amazon forest in that condition. Are we ready for such a sight?
Four billion trees are cut down each year to make paper; out of that, 16% of solid-waste landfill is paper. On average, 30% of printed copies in companies remain in the printer itself, and 70% of the office waste consists of paper— the worst part is that half of these papers are printed and thrown on the same day.
Today, due to technological advancements, green initiatives are being taken, companies are becoming more mindful of their resource usage, and almost everyone is trying to make an effort to educate citizens and help the environment. Cloud computing is an innovation that helps offices convert 70% of paper waste to zero. Tech companies in recent times are coding endlessly to create seamless web-based management software to set up a virtual platform for all our paper needs.
Take Yovza; this company allows construction stakeholders to process all their approvals, designs, and other relevant documents on a cloud-based server. This ensures fast approvals and easy tracking abilities, preventing data loss, as everything is stored on the cloud. This means a day will come for the construction sector when documents aren't used at all.
