They say all good ideas come to you when you are in the bathroom. Some of my brightest ideas have definitely been born there. If you think your bathroom is uninspiring, here’s an olive branch to make it green.

Start with bathroom floors and walls. Avoid using vitrified tiles or ceramic tiles for your walls and floor. Vitrified tiles have nearly five to six times more embodied energy than natural stones. Are you wondering, 'What the heck is ‘embodied energy’'?

According to Wikipedia, Embodied energy is defined as the available energy that was used in the work of making a product. Embodied energy is an accounting methodology which aims to find the sum total of the energy necessary for an entire product lifecycle. This lifecycle includes raw material extraction, transport, manufacture, assembly, installation, disassembly, deconstruction and/or decomposition.

Vitrified ceramic tiles are fired from dry pressed clay, often mixed with ground white clay. The product is then fired until vitrified and can be glazed. Both firing and glazing are energy-intensive processes.

Being a coal centric country, every unit of power consumed releases a high percentage of carbon emissions to our essentially trapped global environment. When you use less ceramic tiles, you contribute less to global warming.

• Try to use locally available stones.
• Do not use polished granites for bathroom floors. Use roughened natural stones.
• Install aerators on taps - aerators reduce the water flow without making you feel you are using less water. Your plumber should be able to help install one.
• Lowflow shower heads
• Use dual flush for your cisterns. You don’t need so much water to flush down urine.
• To reduce heat loss, always insulate your pipes for hot water lines.
• Keep some plants, particularly commonly known 'money plants' that absorb volatile organic compounds in the air.
• Bring in natural light into the room.
• Ventilate. You could use a solar ventilator fan to maintain fresh air change.
• Change the bulbs to CFLs.

When you step into your bathroom tomorrow morning, who knows, perhaps you may have your Eureka moment. Here’s wishing you a greener life and a cleaner, healthier environment. Let you have an emerald awakening.

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I Am New,
Krish Murali Eswar.
Picture Courtesy: Lorena & David